Normalization comes in a variety of forms, from the mainstreaming of white nationalist narratives about race to the demonization of Muslims. The term Alt Right is well-coded white nationalism, and a term that has become so well-known on Internet message boards that Hillary Clinton even used it as a sledge-hammer (unsuccessfully) against Donald Trump. Now that the Alt Right, and the term’s founder Richard Spencer, have become household names, it is fitting that they have headed into a dictionary of record.

Dictionary.com, the largest and most used online Dictionary, has now added Alt Right as unique term.

noun 1. a political movement originating on social media and online forums, composed of a segment of conservatives who support extreme right-wing ideologies, including white nationalism and anti-Semitism (often used attributively): the face of the alt-right; an alt-right candidate. Origin of alt-right Expand Coined in 2010 by Richard Spencer; shortening of alt(ernative) + right (inthe sense “political conservatives”)

While the definition used here is not terrible, it does miss the weight and extent of the Alt Right. The Alt Right is a fascist ideology that is birthed from a mixture of French New Right meta-politics, the political history of paleoconservatism, the Ethnostate ideas of American white nationalism, and the snarky anger of the Manosophere. Together they make up the perfect modern example of generic fascism , repackaging traditional fascist tropes on race, Jews, women, sex, and identity. To say that it is a “segment of conservatives” is to miss the point that this is not a branch of conservatism as such, but a revolutionary rightist ideology.