From: doktorjai@wog.net   
      
   The 'Far Right' in America: A Brief Taxonomy   
      
   Untangling the different figures and factions, from the Klan to the alt-   
   right.   
   Richard Spencer of the National Policy Institute arrives on campus to   
   speak at an event not sanctioned by the school, at Texas A&M University in   
   College Station on December 6.   
   Richard Spencer of the National Policy Institute arrives on campus to   
   speak at an event not sanctioned by the school, at Texas A&M University in   
   College Station on December 6. Spencer Selvidge / Reuters   
      
       Matt Ford Jan 22, 2017 Politics   
      
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   and events in American politics.   
      
   Donald Trump’s election to the presidency has elevated a set of radical   
   groups, generally understood to be on the extreme right of the American   
   political spectrum, to their greatest prominence in the modern era. Some   
   mainstream publications have struggled to describe these disparate groups,   
   especially those that openly espouse racism.   
      
   To help understand the distinctions and relationships between these   
   groups, here’s a brief taxonomy.   
      
   White supremacists and white nationalists   
      
   Although the terms are often used interchangeably, there are genuine   
   ideological differences between them. White supremacists believe that   
   people of European descent are biologically and culturally superior to   
   people from non-European regions. In multiracial societies like the United   
   States, they espouse a racial hierarchy in which white people enjoy a   
   privileged status.   
      
   White nationalists, on the other hand, oppose multiracial societies and   
   instead support the creation of a white ethno-state. How this state would   
   be created is an open question: Richard Spencer, who runs a white-   
   nationalist institute and occasionally garners genteel profiles in   
   mainstream publications, has called for “peaceful ethnic cleansing.”   
   Others support more violent means to their ultimate end.   
      
   Nazis and Neo-Nazis   
      
   The term “Nazis” is generally reserved for former members of the National   
   Socialist German Workers’ Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945   
   under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and oversaw the Holocaust. The Allies   
   legally abolished the party at the end of World War II; only a handful of   
   its original members are still alive. The most-wanted Nazis still sought   
   by the Simon Weisenthal Center, the most prominent Nazi-hunting   
   organization, are elderly ex-guards who served in concentration camps in   
   eastern and central Europe.   
      
   Neo-Nazis idolize Nazi Germany and adopt its symbolism. Like their   
   namesakes, neo-Nazis espouse a virulent hatred of Jews as well as non-   
   whites, people with disabilities, and the LGBT community. George Lincoln   
   Rockwell’s American Nazi Party was among the most prominent organizations   
   to take root in the United States after World War II, but had little   
   widespread appeal. Today, hate websites like Stormfront act as a   
   decentralized hub for neo-Nazi ideas and discussion.   
      
   Ku Klux Klan   
      
   The first Klan was founded by ex-Confederate officers in the aftermath of   
   the Civil War. During the Reconstruction era, Klan groups intimidated and   
   murdered black freedmen and white Republicans who sought to build a   
   functioning multiracial democracy in the South. President Ulysses Grant   
   and the newly founded Justice Department successfully eradicated the Klan   
   by the mid-1870s.   
      
   The Klan’s second iteration in the 1920s and 1930s functioned as a social   
   fraternity of sorts dedicated to preserving white supremacy. In addition   
   to its hostility towards black civil rights, this version also   
   incorporated anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia. Those themes   
   would carry over to the third and modern version of the Klan, which   
   emerged as a response to the African American civil-rights movement’s   
   success in the 1950s and 1960s. The contemporary Klan is more of a   
   movement than a single organized group, ranging from militant factions   
   that support violence to figures seeking mainstream reputability like   
   David Duke.   
      
   Neo-Confederates   
      
   A largely regionalist ideology grounded in Confederate revivalism and   
   nostalgia for the “Old South.” According to the Southern Poverty Law   
   Center, which monitors hate groups nationwide, neo-Confederate ideology   
   “incorporates advocacy of traditional gender roles, is hostile towards   
   democracy, strongly opposes homosexuality, and exhibits an understanding   
   of race that favors segregation and suggests white supremacy.”   
      
   What separates the neo-Confederate movement from other white supremacists   
   is its historical narrative. A cornerstone of the ideology is the “Lost   
   Cause” mythology of the Civil War, which portrays the South as a victim of   
   Northern aggression against states’ rights. It also favors a hostile view   
   toward Reconstruction-era reforms towards multiracial democracy, often   
   relying upon the Dunning School of history that overemphasized Republican   
   corruption and elided white Southern violence.   
      
   Alt-right   
      
   The term “alt-right” was coined in 2008 by Richard Spencer, a white   
   nationalist who has called for a “peaceful ethnic cleansing” of the United   
   States. Spencer is best known for giving a speech met with Nazi salutes at   
   a white-nationalist conference in November to celebrate Trump’s victory.   
   While many of those who identify with the alt-right also identify with   
   white nationalism or white supremacy, not all of them openly espouse such   
   beliefs.   
      
   What nearly all alt-right groups and advocates share is a hostility toward   
   Muslims as well as opposition to immigration, modern feminism,   
   egalitarianism, and pluralistic societies. Some entirely reject liberal   
   democracy. Internet culture shapes the alt-right’s rhetoric and provides a   
   lingua franca for its ideologically nebulous followers. It also draws   
   heavily in tone and tactics from the Gamergate movement, a loosely   
   affiliated connection of online trolls that harassed feminists in the   
   video game industry.   
      
   Those affiliated with the alt-right portray themselves as steadfast   
   defenders of American society against left-wing political correctness   
   enforced by a globalized elite. Some alt-right members use anti-Semitic   
   tropes and describe the globalist elite as Jewish; others do not. Many   
   prominent alt-right figures have been lightning-rods for controversy. Milo   
   Yiannopoulos, a Breitbart writer, was permanently banned from Twitter for   
   inciting harassment of black actress Leslie Jones.   
      
   The movement gained increased prominence due to its enthusiastic support   
   for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Most notably, Breitbart News   
   chairman and Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon declared his publication to   
   be the “voice of the alt-right.”   
      
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