Mapping the Alt-Right Pipeline

The alt-right pipeline has been increasingly recognized as a mechanism of recruitment to the alt-right, in which persons, websites, and communities on the internet direct viewers to each other in the direction of increasingly extreme content. However, this pipeline‘s is poorly understood, with little research examining connections between alt-right figures and sites, and the strategies employed to convince viewers to take increasingly extreme positions. To improve my understanding of the online alt-right, I started by reading an online alt-right magazine, Taki‘s Magazine, which is written and edited by many prominent figures of the alt-right. Its writing exemplifies the the alt-right‘s use of humor to dodge discussion of the gravity of their beliefs. Significantly, this site, despite being further along the pipeline, used this humor often, which I initially thought might be a tactic constrained to earlier. While I was ultimately unable to make very much progress, this clarified that the use of to make the alt-right messaging seem less malicious extends all along the pipeline, rather than only an introductory lure. In addition, several articles contained fabrications, showing that website is a deeper rather than introductory part of the pipeline; the writer trusts that the reader will not critically assess or fact-check their claims. This showed that the importance of treating alt-right influencers as untrustworthy sources is paramount, and more importantly, that this critical lens must heighten, rather than relax, when faced with alt-right humor.

Hello, this is the project “Mapping the Alt-Right Pipeline”. I did not get very far due to time difficulties, but I hope to soon resume my work. I will now tell you about the alt-right pipeline, and what I‘ve learned in this semester.

I became interested in this because the alt-right pipeline is one of the most effective new propaganda strategies in the United States of America. I first learned of it in around 2018, the time when some of the first people to be suckered into the new extreme alt-right had finally gotten out, and described their experiences to the world. And they gave it the name: the alt-right pipeline.

It is comprised of the explicit and tacit partnerships between various parts of the online alt-right, so that Viewers who consume even seemingly-innocuous content are directed to increasingly extreme content, sites, and influencers.

Now, the definition of the alt-right has long defied classification, but I think I got it.
So, the alt-right is always anti-equality, anti-diversity, sexist, racist, illiberal, and espousing or accepting of violent solutions. It is frequently reactionary and/or contrarian. This is still inappropriate, because it is missing what Eco defines as irrationalism.

One, the alt-right pipeline conditions the viewer to abandon critical thinking. It is not just the denigration of research, though that is important. It the abolishment of reason, in which the very idea of thought is abhorrent and ridiculous. One alt-right magazine I started reading through, a writer defends his words, not by logic, but by ridiculing the idea that, and I quote, “words have meaning”. This is a rejection of reality. The alt-right mocks thought itself, because it has something better”“ it has Eco‘s irrationalism.
Two, the follow-up, is that, not always, but often, viewers go between alt-right influences that hold seemingly contradictory views. The Viewer may start with one influencer who says that Racial or Religious Category A is the only one that is good, and then go directly to another that says, actually, Category B that is the only good category. This is not contradictory at all! First, it is not a particular type of anti-equality that the Viewer has bought into, but the very concept of anti-equality itself. Second, the Viewer has been trained to need no reason to believe their influences. So, there is no contradiction, because there is no reasoning. Fundamentally, that quote I mentioned is true to the eyes of alt-right Viewers.

The quote‘s article was written in 2011, which was five years before that writer, Gavin McInnes, would go on to start the Proud Boys.

That is the other purpose of this quote. Laughter is the tool of the alt-right, upon which all else is built. Laughing at thought, laughing at “¦ demographic of choice”“ here, frequently, it is women and minorities, because it targets white men. When the alt-right is joking, it is at its most serious, and that is the other main lesson. It is the reason why the alt-right pipeline is so good at its job. It is the substitute for reason, laughter is the substitute for reason, just like in that article. And that‘s important, I think.

Anyways, my goal was to examine the connections between alt-right influences, and create, as I said, a “map” of sorts. As you know, I didn‘t get very far. But, I’m going to try to get farther. Thank you.