Real Talk: What's motivating all these alt-right Internet guys?

[acri1]

Don't get me wrong, far-right politics is far from new, but the degree to which they dominate the Internet and media now is just insane.

You look at the comments of any Youtube video (regardless of if it has anything to do with politics or race), any Yahoo article about anything, any gaming message board, you go try to play a game online, or really almost anywhere on the Internet and there's nothing but bytching about SJWs, illegals, minorities, reverse racism, and whoever else these guys think is their enemy. It literally makes the Internet less enjoyable overall when you can't even read Youtube comments anymore. I used to not really be bothered by it, but the Internet is so inundated by this stuff it's literally driving political discourse in the real world and influencing politicians.

So what do yall think is driving this phenomenon? Because it wasn't really like this in the 2000s. Did Obama getting elected just drive a lot of people crazy? Is it just the culmination of years of FOX News? Do they really think they're helping the world? Or am I just underestimating the influence/quantity of trolls and bots? I'm just trying to understand what's driving the sheer dedication.

 

[Mike Nasty]

It's been like that from the beginning of the internet. Any forum not heavily moderated will devolve into a right wing shyt hole. They are like cancer. If anything it's better than it used to be.

 

[AnonymityX1000]

Miserable people look for avenues to complain. Everyone else is minding their business living their life. lol

 

[acri1]

It's been like that from the beginning of the internet. Any forum not heavily moderated will devolve into a right wing shyt hole. They are like cancer.

Maybe it's just nostalgia for my younger days ( ), but it doesn't seem like it was that bad in the 2000s.

It seems like there was a time where I didn't have to go out of my way to ignore the comments section on just about every website.

 

[mastermind]

attention and they believe it will bring them women.

These people come from gamergate.

 

[Starman]

The anonymity of the internet shields them from shame. Also, demographic shifts in the US and other parts of the West fosters a feeling of loss which leads to desperation, which can make people reckless.

 

[Mike Nasty]

Maybe it's just nostalgia for my younger days ( ), but it doesn't seem like it was that bad in the 2000s.

It seems like there was a time where I didn't have to go out of my way to ignore the comments section on just about every website.

Remember the days when you couldn't scroll down a couple post in the youtube comment section without seeing the N-word, no matter what the video was about. Maybe I'm older now and don't care as much, but I don't ever remember a time when the internet wasn't full of racism. The only thing that surprises me now, is how so many people from around the world are fixated on AAs in particular.

 

[88m3]

Decline in cac exceptionalism and bots make for a hell of a mix.

 

[Starman]

I'd also like to add the internet connects them with like minded people so they motivate each other.

 

[88m3]

The anonymity of the internet shields them from shame. Also, demographic shifts in the US and other parts of the West fosters a feeling of loss which leads to desperation, which can make people reckless.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

 

[Starman]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

 

[Robbie3000]

They are extremely motivated . It’s not just comment sections, they also spend money to prop up personalities especially on YouTube who shyt on minorities and women.

Coincidentally, I started noticing this trend around 2008. I wonder why?

For example, a lot of popular atheist YouTube personalities who only dealt with religion started pandering to the alt right and they saw their subs and income via donations rise dramatically...to the point they could make a comfortable living online.

 

[.r.]

..

 

[Starman]

Coincidentally, I started noticing this trend around 2008.

This is also an important point. The election of a phenotypically black man as president of the united states, and therefore leader of the free world had to have caused quite the stir in the minds of the alt right. I'd imagine Obama's election embodied the loss of the US, if not the west generally, like no other single event has.

 

[Geek Nasty]

I've been online for 20 years+ Culturally, it used to be unacceptable for whites to express racist thoughts in public. Instant banning and flaming from other whites. Not because that's not how they didn't think too, but it was about staying on code and at least trying to look like you were acting right. Understand that the Republican party has always had this alt-right conspiracy theorist, John Birch society racist wing. but the real rabid ones were a small percentage.

Bush came along and the vitriol made them really vocal on the internet when they realized they could all talk to each other. Still a very small minority, but just about every forum had a handful of them. Typically stupid guys just reciting whatever they heard Limbaugh or Fox and Friends say in the mroning with no context. Now, this is the reallly where the power of the right wing investment in Fox News started to pay off (they operated at a loss for years because they were about pushing an agenda).

Now, keep in mind that the Republican party has played this traditional game of holding a racist tiger by the tail. Just feed them enough to placate them, but stick to moderate social policy and tax cuts. Notice that even when Republicans have sole power in government they never do the big social things like banning abortion? That's just a carrot to keep the religious right pulling the wagon.

Then Obama got elected

Bush fukked up royally and the Republican establishment was all depressed. The only guys fired up were the Tea Party types. So, since they were fired up about that "n****r" in office, they started slowly taking over the party. They had the enthusiasm so the establishment used them to drive turnout.

Ten years later, the Republican party is run by the old Tea Party wing. Even the rspectable old guard is out there defending what ever bullshyt Trump says. That's why you have so many Republicans going public and leaving the party.

The racist base grew to the size that if you could get their vote you could win an election. That base was tired of the establishment republicans favoring pro-business policies over shyt like immigration control (inherently anti-business) and abortion. Trump knew he could just feed raw meat to the base and win.

What these dummies don't get is they made a Faustian bargain. There isn't enough of them to stay in power and by nature they burn bridges. They've probably lost the country for a generation. Once these states start losing their gerrymandered districts we'll start seeing that they're not that powerful.