What happened to the Right?

I hear so much about the alt-right, particularly in the media. And I hear the conflation of the “alt-right,” (Neo-Nazis, White Supremacist groups, and other pseudo-fascist organizations) with the “right” and “far-right” in today’s dialogue. It is a minor thing, but it is a major thing.

There is a notion of “otherness,” involved with political discussion. This notion is particularly helpful when building a straw man argument. To claim that one’s opponents are a part of this “other” group, particularly those who are fixated on an ideology that involves the domination of one group over another or with the historical transgressions of said group(s) is an opportunistic argument that is designed to sway the unaligned and often under-informed members of the middle. It is a coalition tactic that is meant to build up opposition to this other group with the intent of annihilation. They are the varelse, pronounced “Vuh-rehl-suh,” (at least that’s how I pronounce it) the true aliens, and are unable to be communicated with. For those of you not familiar with this term I urge you to check out the Ender’s Game Saga by Orson Scott Card. The term originates in the book The Speaker for the Dead, and is a great look into the psychology of the human species as a whole. The general principle is that we equate humanity on one of four levels, I will link it here for those of you who are interested. The demonization of our political or ideological opponents is the attempt to classify those who disagree as something so alien that there is no possibility of communication, and therefore the only rational answer is their eradication.

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that those who support President Trump are “all” any combination of the following: racist, homophobic, sexist, white supremacist, ableist, transphobic, xenophobic, nazis, kkk, bigoted, prejudiced, evil, stupid, or nationalist. And usually those are lobbied in shotgun fashion, hurled until something sticks, and repeated over and over until the heckler’s veto is complete and they are forced to “retreat,” which can then be interpreted as a victory for those doing the shouting and justification that their arguments are indeed correct.

What bothers me, and what I believe bothers others who occupy the middle of the political spectrum, is that they don’t want to be a part of either group, but that their decision to remain neutral will force them into one or the other camps by default. I am seeing this “us or them” tribal mentality forming in fairly rapid fashion, and I am concerned that this will go from a cold war shouting match to a blood soaked civil war, particularly after this next election. I have urged civil discourse on my social media platforms, and have tried to encourage that conversation here. And yet I can’t seem to shake this feeling of inevitability. It is like the country is on track to tear itself apart with this war of ideas that will spill over into an actual war. And that thought scares me if I am being honest.

So I circle back around to my topic, what happened to the “right” in this country. I do believe that the political right is different than the “alt-right,” to the same extent that a leftist and a liberal/progressive is different. Liberals and progressives believe, as far as I am aware, in using the existing means of government to achieve their goals, which at least to some extent rely on a coalition government and the approval of the people. A leftist believes that the people are incapable of deciding for themselves and that their agenda must be enacted by force, without consent of the governed. This is a dangerous road to travel down, because history shows us the long bloody trail it leaves in its wake.

So then, what happened to the right? I believe that they are still there, patiently speaking and defending their positions. I believe they are trying to clarify the distinctions between themselves and the “alt-right” camp that their opponents are trying to shove them into, and that they prefer to use civil discourse in their private and public lives instead of flashy social media pea-cocking. But those behaviors don’t play well for the media, and are certainly not useful when using mob tactics. It is not a matter of who is loudest is right, it is a matter of who is right.

Thank you to D Cotzee from Flickr for providing the cover image.