Author and top pro-Trump social media organizer Mike Cernovich talks about what he got right and wrong about the alt-right, in light of the events of the last week in Charlottesville, VA. Cernovich has been labeled a member of the "alt-right," the "alt-light," and the "Trump right" by different people, but in this video posted to his YouTube account Tuesday afternoon, he explained why the alt-right sounded appealing.



At first he thought it was exactly what it sounded like: An alternative to the mainstream right. It was only later that the "Nazi boys" took over the movement, Cernovich said.



"When you get things wrong in life, it is important to talk about them," he explained. "My view of the alt-right was that it was a big tent. [I thought it] was an edgier, aggressive, unapologetic version of the [mainstream] right."



He continued, talking about the Republican Party: "When you think of the mainstream right you think of people like [House Speaker] Paul Ryan... The Republicans controlled Congress and yet they rolled over for Obama on everything. So you think of Jonah Goldberg... Rich Lowry... dorks who don't even go to the gym or take care of themselves, who beg to be on CNN and other shows, and are just horrified of being called nasty names by the media. They were conservatives, but they didn't actually conserve anything."



"So we thought -- Oh, 'Alt-Right,' that is an alternative to this. That makes sense," he said. "We need an alternative to the right, and none of these so-called leaders [of the alt-right], none of these 'Nazi boys' told us we were wrong?"



"None of these 'Nazi boys' said no, actually, you're not alt-right. The alt-right is about being a Nazi, Nazi salutes, letting people fly Nazi flags at your events, 100% white nationalism. It was such a fringe marginal thing that they were more than happy to not say the alt-right was about the Nazi-flag kind of stuff. So that was the reality," he said.



"So, now I know the alt-right is really about Nazi flags at their protests, about Nazis salutes at tailgates," he said.



He also said: "The alt right is a disinfo group designed to discredit Trump, and to frustrate his agenda, which is why David Duke and all those guys go around saying they're pro Trump. Why don't you shut up about Trump? Why don't you just say you're David Duke, and I have great ideas. They don't have any ideas. They don't have a book.There's no books out there articulating what the alt-right is. If they're such great philosophers and they have such good ideas, and they're on the vanguard of intellectualism, where are their books? They don't have any. That is why Richard Spencer and David Duke have to keep dropping Trump's name. Why can't they just say we're about ourselves. No, they always have to say Trump's speech was about them, because that is how they get media attention. They're an element whose sole purpose is to discredit Trump, so I had no idea what that was about."



"If they are these 'cutting edge intellectuals,' where are their books? They don't have any," he said about David Duke and Richard Spencer.



To any Nazis or white supremacists, Cernovich says: "You need a lot of help, and I want those people to get help... Rather than focus on hating on the Jews or whatever, I would focus on what went wrong with your life. That you don't treat yourself right... You're not educating your mind. Where did you go wrong? Let's talk about it... How can you improve your life? How can you become better and live a fuller life?"