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Originally Posted by Original Position
I appreciate the honesty, but what confuses me is that you keep asserting this claim even so.
So smart people like you can refute it.
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My view is that the alt-right if anything hurt Trump's chances during the general election, but probably had no effect. During the primary, I don't know, we don't really understand primaries very well, especially this one, so I don't know how meaningful alt-right support was.
FWIW, I think you fundamentally misunderstand the dynamic here between the alt-right and SJWs. The alt-right refers to a group of thinkers/ideas that have been around for a couple decades at least - well before gamergate or anyone had come up with "SJW." It is a real (although still small) political movement, not just a social phenomenon. It has organizations, websites, books, political and intellectual leaders, and so on (although it is not centrally organizaed). It also has real power, with a sympathizer in Bannon being very close to the President.
This sounds like something worth looking into. I think the alt-right made a positive difference for Trump, although how significant I'm not sure.
Maybe we are understanding the alt-right differently. You are focusing on defining it by it's white nationalist base, and I'm looking at who appears make up the bulk of it: conservatives and conservative leaning independents, mostly youngish internet age, many still forming their political identities. I believe strongly they were attracted to it because they were sick of smug aholes telling them how to think, no demanding it using 1-4.
I think if you spend time watching Milo videos or any of the other alt-right, alt-light whatever characters like Gavin Mckinnes and Shapiro, and read the comments sections, this will become apparent. The most common theme is along the lines of, "I may not agree with everything they say, but **** the SJWs and their BS." It's a counter cultural movement.
When Hillary et al start giving them major press coverage and the caricature you mentioned, ie, simply calling them white supremacist deplorables, rioting and shutting down their speeches, they get more attention.
This is obvioys and provable. I think we have to look at independent voters to figure out how this benefits Trump. A lot of independents look at these guys and determine they aren't exactly the "deplorables" they are portrayed as, certainly not white supremacists, again just look at the comments and thumbs up. We know independents swung for Trump too.
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I've also been thinking about your claim that SJWs caused the alt-right to become prominent and I have a different hypothesis for you to consider. Why do so many alt-right people focus on SJWs? Consider the complaint. They say that SJWs infest the progressive movement and the Democratic party. They say that SJWs claim that everyone is racist or sexist for silly reasons. Thus, they say, when Democrats or progressives claim someone is racist or sexist, you shouldn't believe them.
Why is this claim so useful for people on the alt-right? Think about the history of the conservative movement. One of the founding myths of the conservative movement is that it was able to gain mainstream credibility in part by William F. Buckley casting the extreme racist groups like the John Birch society out of the movement. Up until the last year or so, that was also true of the alt-right. However, if the alt-right can convince other conservatives that progressives shouldn't be believed about whether someone is racist, then they will no longer have much reason to keep the alt-right outcasts. If they convince other conservatives that progressives always claim all conservatives are racists, then why should ordinary conservatives continue blocking the alt-right from joining the party?
Now, this doesn't mean that some progressives aren't in fact doing exactly this. But, when you see such a strong incentive for a political movement (the alt-right) to exaggerate the size and power of an opposing political phenomena (SJWs), and the evidence for this claim is mostly anecdote rather than data and susceptible to confirmation bias - you should be suspicious of that claim.
Perhaps the crappiness of the "SJWs" is exaggerated by the leaders of the alt-right, but I doubt it. Maybe their size, sure. I've never been called worse things in my life than the crap and lies on this forum practically every day, and I'm generally sympathetic to social justice causes, cheering them on and sometimes protesting for them. I'm middle aged, but I doubt a 18-30 year old me wouldn't have been driven away. Anecdotal sure, but it makes sense and I think we're seeing it in action. You have to look though. One of you smarties should do a study and write a paper.