Alt-left

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Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Alt-left is a political neologism, used as a name for a radical left-wing political movement that gained currency in the wake of the 45th and then-President of the United States, Donald Trump′s remarks on the controversy around the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that he made on August 15, 2017.[1][2][3] Left-wing analysts, like Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League, deny that the “alt-left” even exists, and say that it is a derogatory term made up to create a false equivalence between what they consider risible far right figures, and progressive activists and politicians on the left whom they sympathize with.[4][5][6] However, alt-right opponents consider their own movement a justified response to what they see as the increasing threat of the informal but coherently organized alt-left.

Background

Mainstream scholars deny that there is an equivalence between the alt-right, and the hard left and far-left.[7][8][9]

Unlike the term "alt-right" (which was coined by those on the right who comprise the movement), as noted by Washington Post writer Aaron Blake, "alt-left" was "coined by its opponents and doesn't actually have any subscribers".[10] According to George Hawley, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama, no such label has been adopted by any members of the progressive left.[11] While acknowledging that anti-fascism activists engage in physical confrontation against far-right members, Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, concurred that no equivalence exists, implying that these left-wing activists are organized only to defend society from their right-wing opponents.[11][12][13]

The term eventually circulated within conservative online media, and was popularized through its use by Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity to suggest the existence of a similar ideological fringe movement on the political left. On the November 14, 2016 edition of his eponymous Fox News program, Hannity used the term to excoriate "alt-left media" together with "mainstream" and "radical" media for being "biased against President-elect Trump".[10][14][15] According to The New Republic, the term was popularized after it was "picked up" by Fox News as a way to "frame the Democratic wing led by [Bernie] Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as extreme".[9] In an early use of the term, Gary Bauer stated on CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper, "It's not alt-right, it's not alt-left; it's alt-delete. It's get the bums out," as a way of equating right- and left-wing populism.[10]

Both the term itself and the concept of an "alt-left" as a sort of opposite-but-equal mirror of the alt-right have been severely criticized by left-wing opponents for likening what they see as the justified socialist critics of neo-Nazism to the risible "neo-Nazis" (or anyone too far to the right) they oppose.[9][16][17] And the term has been criticized as a label that, unlike alt-right, was not coined by the group it purports to describe, but, rather, was created by opponents as a political smear implying a false equivalence.[16][10]

Usage

Outside of being an allegedly derogatory term, the label could be seen as a political "grab bag" for progressive and far left segments of the liberalist ideology that do not identify by any other particular collective.[18] Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League complained that the term was made up by extremist groups to create a "false equivalence" between the far right and “anything vaguely left-seeming that they didn't like.”[19] According to journalist Peter Beinart, "What Trump calls “the alt left”... is actually antifa."[20]

Unrelated to Donald Trump's use of the word, Buzzfeed UK published an article about "alt-left media" in the United Kingdom in May 2016.[21] The article refers to "alt-left" news websites such as Another Angry Voice, The Canary, Evolve Politics and Skwawkbox, which are "hyperpartisan" supporters of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Michael D. Shear & Maggie Haberman, A Combative Trump Criticizes 'Alt-Left' Groups in Charlottesville, Washington Post (August 15, 2017)
  2. ↑ Meghan Keneally, Trump lashes out at 'alt-left' in Charlottesville, says 'fine people on both sides', ABC News (August 15, 2017)
  3. ↑ Andrew Rafferty, Trump Says 'Alt-Left' Shares Blame for Charlottesville Rally Violence, NBC News (August 15, 2017).
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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