Do you ever turn a word over and over again in your head until it loses all meaning?
For me, my brain has been playing with the term alt-right.
On a conceptual level, I get what it means: the alt-right are hateful people. They are white supremacists, often Islamophobic, and/or anti-Semitic. The term has gained significant traction since Trump, and the news coming out of that era leaves no doubt about how that hatefulness plays out.
But it was only when I read an article about officials tracking New Zealand's alt-right that the term started to sit a little uneasily. How are officials defining alt-right? I know a lot of New Zealand right-wingers of various persuasions. Were any of them alt-right?
I have no trouble believing there are white supremacists in New Zealand. And Islamophobes. And anti-Semites. But seeing the term alt-right in a New Zealand context felt...strange. It felt a little too close to 'right-wing'. And say what you will about the state of New Zealand politics, I do not believe that right wing politics in New Zealand is the home for such views.
If we take smaller government, freedom of choice, and upholding individual rights and dignity as starting points, racism and religion-based hatred is by no means the natural end. Some, including me, would argue alt-right views are the antithesis of traditional right wing principles.
So I did a little research. What does alt-right even mean and where did it come from? Most importantly, what is its relationship with the mainstream right?
Most sources seem to place the origin of the term around the 2010s in the United States. And Trump gets mentioned a lot. Not only is alt-right a relatively new term, but it's clear that I'm not the only one unhappy with its use.
The NPR has a good and convincing summary of how white supremacists have adopted the term to appear more legitimate:
If you said I'm white supremacist, you weren't going to get talked to. So they rebranded to white nationalism in an attempt to still be in the conversation about politics in the United States. So it went from white supremacy to white nationalism and now from white nationalism to the alt-right or the alternative right.
So let's be clear: white supremacists want to be identified by this term. I had a conspiracy in my head that left wingers deliberately use this term to delegitimise the right. But this is worse.
The term is used to legitimise white supremacy.
An article in the Columbia Journalism Review calls for journalists to stop using the term:
In the Associated Press’ Stylebook, the term “alt-right” is defined as “a name currently embraced by some white supremacists and white nationalists“... Somehow, they were allowed to rework their public personas with a term that makes them sound a little edgy, like an alt-weekly or alt-rock.... Journalists should ask: Does our continued use of the phrase “alt-right” amount to allowing ourselves to be spun by bigots? Can’t we just call a racist a racist?
There are two additional reasons why I think the term needs to go.
First, because the term alt-right is used synonymously with conspiracy theorists, including QAnon. In New Zealand at least, I think that misses a beat. The conspiracy theorists here weren't just targeting a bunch angry, lonely white guys. They were gaining traction with some of New Zealand's most vulnerable: the poor, the less educated and those who did not trust mainstream politics to see them and address their needs. That's not a left/right thing. And if we're serious about addressing conspiracy theorists and their followers, looking exclusively at right wingers won't get you there.
Second, because it's all too easy to conflate the right wing and alt-right. Like the terms far-right and right wing extremism, it makes it sounds like these groups hold all the traditional right values... they just go a little further.
It's not paranoia, either. Remember when Newsroom exposed that the chief editor for the libertarian think tank the New Zealand Initiative ran a far-right blog? Watching the reactions unfold, it was clear that some people were a little too eager to announce that they weren't at all surprised that the think tank would harbour a secret racist.
As if every fiscal conservative is simply a few Jordan Peterson videos away from slipping over the margin to far-right/alt-right/right-wing extremist.
These distinctions matter now more than ever as the country heads into a conversation about hate speech laws. Right-of-centre individuals and organisations who publicly voice their views risk being lumped in as alt-right or allies of the alt-right. And it incentivises some of the more reasonable. less die-on-this-hill types to sit back.
White supremacists do not have a home, and should not be given a home, in New Zealand's right wing landscape.