The “alt-right” movement is strongly misandrist, deeply resenting the way that feminism appears to be blaming men for almost everything wrong in the world. “Alt-right” groups like a ‘Voice for Men’ claim they aim to "provide education and encouragement to men and boys; to lift them above the din of misandry, to reject the unhealthy demands of gynocentrism in all its forms, and to promote their mental, physical and financial well-being without compromise or apology."[33] This is not dissimilar from the mission of a similar group, "Return of Kings," which aims "to usher the return of the masculine man in a world where masculinity is being increasingly punished and shamed in favor of creating an androgynous and politically-correct society that allows women to assert superiority and control over men. Sadly, yesterday’s masculinity is today’s misogyny. The site intends to be a safe space on the web for those men who don’t agree with the direction that Western culture is headed."[34] The ideas and beliefs of the red-pilled “alt-right” are based on neo-masculinity. "Return of Kings" lists a few of its principal tenets[35]:

1. Men and women are genetically different, both physically and mentally. Sex roles evolved in all mammals. Humans are not exempt.

2. Men will opt out of monogamy and reproduction if there are no incentives to engage in them.

3. Past traditions and rituals that evolved alongside humanity served a net benefit to the family unit.

4. Testosterone is the biological cause for masculinity. Environmental changes that reduce the hormone’s concentration in men will cause them to be weaker and more feminine.

5. A woman’s value significantly depends on her fertility and beauty. A man’s value significantly depends on his resources, intellect, and character.

6. Elimination of traditional sex roles and the promotion of unlimited mating choice in women unleashes their promiscuity and other negative behaviors that block family formation.

7. Socialism, feminism, cultural Marxism, and social justice warriorism aim to destroy the family unit, decrease the fertility rate, and impoverish the state through large welfare entitlements.

The RedPill documentary, in addition to most red pill ideology spouted by these “men’s rights” activist groups, fundamentally misunderstands feminism. A lot of the issues discussed in the documentary are a consequence of dictatorial gender roles. The very idea that hegemonic gender roles are restrictive and oppressive to both men and women is, in fact, a feminist idea. Moreover, men have always been involved in feminism, helping to flesh out ideas and fighting alongside feminists to create new masculinities. As Barton aptly points out, the “alt-right” counterfeit “male liberation” as if it were their idea. Then again, men taking credit for women’s labour and innovation isn’t exactly a novel concept.[36]

However, feminism does not blame men for everything, they blame the patriarchy. It’s not surprising that many “men’s rights” activists will admittedly oppose a movement that they cannot be bothered to do even the most basic level of research into. In wanting to dissemble patriarchal structures and society, feminists are simply saying “hey this is how it is, its not necessarily your fault, but let’s work together to dismantle it because it negatively effects us all.”

The problem is that both sides are being told that their struggles are insignificant comparable to the other's. Men and women both have different lived experiences. Talking about one gender’s issues isn’t neglecting the others, as the “alt-right” so desperately claim. Moreover, trying to quantify and compare the different ways each suffer from sexism is not helping either side. The idea that oppression has turned into some kind of twisted competition is an obstacle to open and honest discussions about sexism and other kinds of social violence. This oppression dialectic needs to go if the “alt-right” does indeed care at all about men’s issues.

Perhaps the most important point raised by the MRAs of the “alt-right” is the acknowledgement that men are becoming increasingly aggrieved and resentful. As men’s complaints about the rise in rates of depression, anger, and suicide rates are being proliferated across public discourse, it is also the case that across classes, and races, we are seeing a wholesale revision of what female life might entail. An article in New York Magazine quotes Traister’s research: ‘We are living through the invention of independent female adulthood as a norm, not an aberration, and the creation of an entirely new population: adult women who are no longer economically, socially, sexually, or reproductively dependent on or defined by the men they marry’.[37]

As women become more independent and self-sufficient they are no longer willing to settle for a marriage where their needs are not met. They would rather get their social and emotional support from work associates, friends, and family, whereas men don’t seek to replenish their lost relationships and are fully dependent on women for the kind of support they now seek out in the “alt-right” community. Diamond notes that as men feel unable to meet women’s needs for economic, emotional, and social support, they feel more inadequate and distance themselves even more, often escaping into pornography, increased alcohol consumption, and compulsive work habits.[38]

Let’s make one thing clear: the fact that men feel unable to meet an independent women’s needs corelates with feminism, it is not the cause. There is no reason that men cannot elevate their behaviour to match women’s raised standards. It’s not feminisms fault that women don’t like you. MRAs often argue that empowered women automatically disempower men, if that indeed is the case, then it’s time for men to find ways to empower themselves. As one Tumblr user suggests:

Go to therapy, make better friends, stop being rapists, develop interests other than porn, learn better social skills, work on curating empathy, gain knowledge on how to actually give women an orgasm, repair broken family relations, read a book on social skills, take a class on social skills, stop having sexual tourettes, develop a life that a woman might actually say yes to if you were to propose.[39]

It’s difficult to be sympathetic when most men will not move an inch to change their lives for the better based on their unfounded sense of entitlement. For example, The National Coalition for Men urges the world to “FREE MEN:

From the notion which a) ignores the rigid definition of their roles and b) insists they are culturally favored.

From the tendency to evaluate themselves and each other by the degree to which they meet an impossible ideal.

From conditioned competitiveness and the fear of sharing failures, anxieties and disappointments with one another.

From a mistrust of their feelings and instincts and an over reliance on logical thought processes.

From the notion that violent action confirms and enhances their manliness.

From a relative ignorance of their bodily functions and disdain for their body’s warning signals.

From their conditioning to pacify and protect women, thereby inhibiting them from expressing their true feelings.

From the pressure to be what they are not in preparation for their success role.

From an over reliance on their jobs for a sense of identity.

From conflict between their polygamous sexual conditioning as youths, and society’s expectation that they will overcome that conditioning after marriage.

From preoccupation with sexual technique and from imperatives to concentrate on satisfying their partners sexually, seemingly at the expense of their own sexual pleasure.

From the social barriers and pressures which stand in the way of their establishing close emotional friendships with other men.

From the inclination to turn their wives into permission giving mother figures.

From the need to prove their worthiness as protectors and providers.

From feelings of inadequacy in matters of child care and child rearing.

From feelings which inhibit them from developing a closer more emotional relationship with their children.

From the notion that as a class they oppress women any more than women as a class oppress them, or than society in general oppresses both sexes through stereotyping."[40]

White male victimhood exists in opposition to feminist and anti-racist movements not because those movements actually victimize men, but because those movements ask white men to look critically at their own identities and histories. The “alt-right’s” whiteness is the one thing that can never be taken away from them, yet it is also the one thing that took no effort whatsoever to possess, thus giving them a completely undeserved sense of superiority[41]. I understand the difficulty in admitting white privilege is real when so many have amounted to so very little despite it.

From its inception, feminism has been repeatedly coopted by men who feel entitled to ask, “what can feminism do for me?” The “alt-right” have a problem with feminism, not because of its aims, but because of the fundamental feminist premise that men must recognize the ways that patriarchy has subjugated women and allowed men their conditional but still near absolute social power. The “alt-right” want what feminism can offer them, but they want it only on the condition that they: a.) Keep all of the power and privilege they’ve always had; and, b.) Be absolved of all blame or responsibility.[42] To that point, I agree with Barton’s claim that “men’s rights” movement is not an ideology comparable to feminism, but a solipsistic, reactionary panic against it[43], much like how the “alt-right exists as a solipsistic, reactionary panic against progression.

The “alt-right” victimize themselves so they can be absolved of all responsibility in other people’s suffering. Barton argues that they aim to steal the fire behind other people’s liberation, to commandeer the reigns of other people’s success by employing a desperate, violent defense against the recent gains of social justice by pretending that they are the ones who need justice most of all.[44]

As much as they’d like to think so, the “alt-right” movement has no political clout as they surely lack a cogent political platform. Instead they use their baseless online platform to engage in extremist discourse, using deceptive irony and racially tinged internet memes to spread false and intentionally misleading information.[45] Though trolling is nothing new to the internet, Boyd argues "what has shifted recently is the scale of the operation, the coordination of the attacks, and the strategic agenda of some of the players."[46] Therefore even if the “alt-right” becomes obsolete, its tactics and origins should not be forgotten or underestimated. Malmgren argues that "while its beliefs may seem rooted in contrarianism for contrarianism’s sake, the “alt-right’s” casual embrace of overt racial violence can have real consequences for those who its members target—women, people of color, and others—offline too."[47] The “alt-right” want to be villains.

The “alt-right” are about maintaining a sense of power at all costs over an ever-expanding list of designated targets. They are far more committed to antagonizing than proselytizing. The “alt-right” are dangerous in that they are movement that champions a form of American extremism. Extremism and fascism are the enemy of justice and free society. In recognizing the “alt-right” as a mass movement based in extremism, we must admit to the possibility of totalitarianism. What unites movements is a mood more so than laid-down outlines and platforms. In the "Origins of Totalitarianism" Hannah Arendt argues that movements create alternate realities that offer stability to their adherents and are successful when they offer rootless people a consistent world and create narratives that give meaning to these people’s lives.[48] The “alt-right” accomplishes this by repeating or spamming key ideas and terminology to thus provide a sense of belonging “grounded upon a coherent fiction that is ‘consistent, comprehensible, and predictable”.[49]

The basic experience underlying both totalitarianism and the “alt-right”, is loneliness: an alienation from political, social, and cultural life. Arendt claims that mass movements begin with “atomized, isolated individuals”[50] much like the members of the “alt-right.” Totalitarianism needs to make those living under it feel expendable and this cannot occur without loneliness. Loneliness is necessary to totalitarian regime in that mass movements depend on an extreme kind of total loyalty to the group. “Such loyalty,” Arendt writes, “can be expected only from the completely isolated human being who, without any other social ties to family, friends, comrades, or even mere acquaintances, derives his sense of having a place in the world only from his belonging to a movement”.[51] Totalitarian regimes force those living under them to abandon all relationships, even familial and interest-based ones because they decrease a person’s sense of loneliness and are thus unacceptable. Moreover, Arendt argues that loneliness also increases in relation to the diversity of the community. So as the world becomes more progressive, the “alt-right” continue to feel increasingly isolated and “at risk of extinction.”

Arendt suggests that one of the ways we can work to avoid the return of totalitarianism is through generating a fear of the horrors that may come about. Fear reminds us of what is at stake. Malmgren warns about sensationalizing a fringe group as it “can play directly into its demands for attention, even if that attention is exclusively negative”. Unmasking the flawed logic of “alt-right” ideology won’t stop young, white males stop from joining these communities because their members are not drawn to the movement for of the strength of its arguments. Rather, outrage is exactly what the “alt-right” seek to provoke, and many “alt-right” adherents only commit to their racist and exclusionary ideology insofar as it brings them attention.

Therefore, the solution to the “alt-right” is to simply stop engaging. Any time you try to debate with the reactionary you are gambling with someone else's safety. The “alt-right” is always recruiting and trying to expand its audience. However, there are ways to reach their intended audience without engaging them directly. In dealing with the “alt-right,” it's not only safer, but it's also often more effective to cut out the middleman in speaking past them not directly to them as to avoid getting caught up in argument with someone who does not understand the basic tenants of logic. The “alt-right” are simply not even worth fighting with. As David accurately states, “nobody has the will power to argue with someone who thinks Hillary Clinton is a Jewish cyborg, Obama is a Muslim Lizard, and John Oliver of the Daily Show, is an NWO plant designed to corrupt our puritan white women and brainwash our children into thinking that NOT all Muslims are terrorists.[52]

The most basic way to resist fascism is to simply recognize it as propaganda. The purpose of debating the “alt-right” should not be to change their minds, but to stem the flow of lies and bad rhetoric. This is not to say we are to stop caring, nor become desensitized. Rather, it is an urge to continue reminding the world that their beliefs are by no means normal and should not be accepted. As hard as the “alt-right” may work the shift the overton window[53] by forcing people to consider unthinkable extreme ideas thereby making all less-radical ideas seem more acceptable by comparison, we need too work harder to maintain the window of that which we consider normal and expected, as well as keep reminding ourselves and the world at large that for what we consider normal and expected, “alt-right” ideology falls far outside of.

Arendt warns us against getting caught up in “sophistic-dialectical interpretations of politics which are all based on the superstition that something good might result from evil”.[54] We should not be accepting of the “alt-right” to show our tolerance and commitment to democracy. Their rhetoric is a direct call to commit violence. Incitement is NOT protected speech. Therefore, we need to keep calling it as we see it. I echo Mohajer assertion that we need to have the same reaction to the term “alt-right” as we did to Kellyanne Conway’s insistence on “alternative facts”—"utter disbelief and amusement at the idea that we couldn’t see a lie for a lie."[55] We need to continue to identify “alt-right” beliefs as racist, sexist, and fascist. We need to continue to foster a space in which neo-Nazi’s do not feel safe. This has proven an effective strategy of resistance as Richard Spencer, who coined the term “alt-right”, claims to have quit public speaking due to backlash from progressives[56] after being publicly punched in face.

The crux of calling out the abnormality of the “alt-right” needs to be calling out the movements sexism. Across the many disperse factions of the “alt-right” the basic idea that “women are getting too out of hand” is the patriarchal common denominator. It aligns perfectly with male rage against “social justice” activism, which in turn paves the way for white nationalism and white supremacy to gain a foothold. The “alt-right” primarily targets feminists and progressives as the instigators of cultural demise. Their belief in insidious cultural plots against white patriarchy leads them to overlap and interact with other branches of the “alt-right” — the innumerable online right-wing conspiracy groups that see Jewish, Islamic, and foreign plots in perceived attacks on white patriarchal culture.[57] The movement’s top priority is elevating the status of white men. It does so by creating a culture of vitriolic defensiveness among young white males, which aims to establish a common belief in white male victimhood. By constructing a complex cultural narrative of male vulnerability, the “alt-right” has created a uniting collective of men who view the subordination of women as both part of a functional society and a stepping stone to a larger movement: one steeped in fascist ideology and willing to openly champion a politics of hate and violence.

[1] Alt-right. (2018, April 15). Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-right

[2] Hunter, J. D. (2017, September 12). Perspective | How America's culture wars have evolved into a class war. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/09/12/how-americas-culture-wars-have-evolved-into-a-class-war/?utm_term=.913517f04e57

[3] Boyd, D. (2017, January 05). Hacking the Attention Economy – Data & Society: Points. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://points.datasociety.net/hacking-the-attention-economy-9fa1daca7a37

[4] Hunter Ibid

[5] Waller, A. (2017, May 15). Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://datasociety.net/output/media-manipulation-and-disinfo-online/

[6] Hunter Ibid

[7] Malmgren, E. (2017). Don’t Feed the Trolls. Dissent, 64(2), 9-12. doi:10.1353/dss.2017.0042

[8] Romano, A. (2016, December 14). How the alt-right's sexism lures men into white supremacy. Retrieved April 10, 2018, from https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/14/13576192/alt-right-sexism-recruitment

[9] Malmgren Ibid

[10] Danskin, I. (2018, April 4). The Alt-Right Playbook: Mainstreaming [Video blog post]. Retrieved April 10, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq0ZHgKT2tc

[11] Waller Ibid

[12] Boyd Ibid

[13] Malmgren Ibid

[14] Alt-right. (2018, April 15). Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-right

[15] Swatting. (2018, April 12). Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting

[16] Boyd Ibid

[17] Malmgren Ibid

[18] Boyd Ibid

[19] Malmgren Ibid

[20] Malmgren ibid

[21] Malmgren Ibid

[22] Bloch, E., & Ritter, M. (1977). Nonsynchronism and the Obligation to Its Dialectics. New German Critique, (11), 22. doi:10.2307/487802

[23] Malmgren Ibid

[24] Alexander, L. (2016, November 29). It's Time For a New Kind of Power Fantasy – How We Get To Next. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://howwegettonext.com/its-time-for-a-new-kind-of-power-fantasy-a5ff23b2237f

[25] Romano Ibid

[26] Romano Ibid

[27] Wachowski, L., & Wachowski, L. (Directors), & Silver, J. (Producer). (1999). Matrix [Motion picture]. United States: Village Roadshow Pictures.

[28] A Voice For Men. (2017, June 16). Mission Statement. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://www.avoiceformen.com/policies/

[29] A Voice for Men Ibid

[30] Jaye, C. (Director). (2016, October 7). The Red Pill [Video file]. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from theredpillmovie.com

[31] Walsh, K. (2016, October 13). 'The Red Pill' only makes worse the divide between men's and women's rights activists. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-capsule-red-pill-review-20161008-snap-story.html

[32] Walsh Ibid

[33] A Voice For Men Ibid

[34] Valizadeh, R. (n.d.). About ROK. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from http://www.returnofkings.com/about

[35] Valizadeh Ibid

[36] Barton, R. (2017, August 03). Social Commentary: On White Male Victimhood and "Meninism." Retrieved April 10, 2018, from https://rmbartonblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/social-commentary-on-white-male-victimhood-and-meninism/

[37] Traister, R. (2018). All the single ladies: Unmarried women and the rise of an independent nation. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[38] Diamond, J. (2016, July 23). Why Women Are Saying “No” to Marriage and Men Are Becoming Angry, Depressed, and Lonely. Retrieved April 10, 2018, from http://menalive.com/why-women-are-saying-no-to-marriage-and-men-are-becoming-angry-depressed-and-lonely/

[39] Tumblr.com

[40] National Coalition For Men. (n.d.). Our Philosophy. Retrieved April 8, 2018, from http://ncfm.org/ncfm-home/philosophy/

[41] David. (2017, February 06). Rise of the 'alt-right' and 'Meninism'. Retrieved April 10, 2018, from https://viewsfromagrassyknoll.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/rise-of-the-alt-right-and-meninism/

[42] Barton Ibid

[43] Barton Ibid

[44] Barton Ibid

[45] Romano Ibid

[46] Boyd Ibid

[47] Malmgren Ibid

[48] Arendt, H. (1951). The Origins of Totalitarianism. Schocken Books.

[49] Arendt Ibid

[50] Arendt Ibid

[51] Arendt Ibid

[52] David Ibid

[53] STRIKETHROUGH. (2017, December 21). How Trump makes extreme things look normal [Video blog post]. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v-hzc6blGI

[54] Arendt Ibid

[55] Mohajer, S. T. (2017, August 14). It is time to stop using the term 'alt right'. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://www.cjr.org/criticism/alt-right-trump-charlottesville.php

[56] Doctorow, C. (2018, March 17). Richard Spencer says that antifa sucked all the fun out of college appearances, calls it quits. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://boingboing.net/2018/03/17/horses-mouth.html

[57] Romano Ibid