Having risen out of obscure boards on 4chan and Reddit, the alt-right is a right-wing extremist movement that’s mostly decentralized. Despite this, they have become incredibly pervasive, not through logical argument, but through operating in a way that makes spotting and opposing them particularly tricky. This post shall act as a brief look into some of the tactics they employ, and how leftists can effectively counter them.

  1. The Lulz
  1. Never On The Defensive
  1. I Decide What You Believe
  1. Whataboutism
  • Yaky@slrpnk.net
    8·
    5 days ago

    The article matches my experiences.

    I knew a guy, not MAGA, but a self-identified libertarian, with very bigoted and bad takes (racism, misogyny, general lack of empathy). His responses for being called out or criticized were:

    • This is a joke
    • You are too stupid to understand the joke
    • The joke I made is supposed to be making fun of people who say the same offensive things seriously (except the joke has no hint of irony or self-awareness)
    • You are too stupid to understand the point I am making
    • You don’t know stuff about life
    • You lack EQ to understand my situation
    • General insults about intelligence
    • Why are you being an asshole to me?

    Eventually, I also figured out that the only way to win is not to play the game. Shame, we were good friends back in the day.

  • psyklax@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    18·
    6 days ago

    As someone with a lot of experienced interacting with the alt-right IRL (at work 😞) I gotta say, this is very accurate. Their methodology has become transparent to me, but I can’t get others to see it as it happens. When I argue with them in front of a centrist, I am painted as unreasonable for taking them seriously (1), for always defending my points while they speak lies with confidence (2), for believing the crazy shit the other guy says I believe (3), and for being just as bad as them (4).

    It’s absolutely infuriating that these tactics work so well.

  • LinkOpensChest.wav@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    12·
    6 days ago

    I find it best just not to engage with them at all. I know the argument can be made that it’s for the benefit of other readers, but that’s best done in a top-level comment imo