Some Thoughts on the Alt-Right and Perception

The following was written by Students For Liberty Executive Board Member, Emily Reynolds. 

A lot of people claim the alt-right movement and other forms of new fascism are a response to extreme leftism in the media and academia. I don’t think this is outright wrong, but I’m skeptical of the claim. I find it difficult to buy into these explanations about causality at a cultural level because they often offer little to no empirical proof, and there is little repercussion if one’s claim in incorrect.

A leftist perspective would be that Westerners really have been racists all along and are finally showing their true colors. Another theory I’ve heard is that radical Islam and/or immigration has fueled a nationalist backlash – a clash between East and West. Globalization and neoliberalism haven’t been spared as possible causes either. Trumpism, which is in many ways adjacent to the alt-right, has been explained as a result of economic hardship of working-class white Americans. Many of these explanations overlap.

The more left-wing theories are similar to the one that blames the media and academy, though. It’s difficult to prove clear-cut causality when we’re talking about these social movements. They might not be wrong but I need more confirmation than hand-waving or assuming mono-causality based upon a sequence of events. I’m especially skeptical because many of these explanations seem to be ideologically driven. I’m rarely surprised when an ideologue gives his own particular explanation of how the alt-right came to be; it usually fits into his narrative. That’s not to say he is wrong, but I’m not particularly interested in hearing these sort of predictable theories.

I’m inclined to believe there’s a more counterintuitive answer, or at least one that can be proven with empirical or statistical social science. One of the problems with media in particular is that 1) there is an availability/hype bias and 2) there is rarely a discussion about perception vs reality. These are important points, so allow me to flesh them out.

One might say that the increase of fascist nationalism in Europe is largely a response to the influx of Muslim immigration in recent years. This claim requires statistics clarifying immigration rates, comparisons to historical data, differences between countries, etc. Now suppose this claim is correct and European countries with higher rates of Muslim immigration have significantly stronger, larger, and more influential nationalist parties. How do we know whether it was the actions of many typical Muslims, a few radical Muslims, or Europeans’ perception of these Muslims? Is it all three at varying degrees, reinforcing each other? Are there any confounding variables? Could the existence of enclaves increase the severity?

This leads me to some similar questions about explaining the alt-right in the United States. Is the alt-right a result of legitimately powerful leftism and PC culture run a muck in our institutions, or of the perception that leftist hegemony reigns supreme? Is the alt-right even something we need to worry about, or is it a particularly loud bunch of bigots who get hype coverage? Are they a real threat or do we, classical liberals and libertarians, merely perceive them to be?

I do not know the answers to these questions. Obviously. But I think they’re worth asking. Or perhaps my skepticism is an indication of my occasional contrarian tendencies. Maybe someone has done the social scientific heavy-lifting, but I don’t seem to see it in the popular discourse.

Let’s get more abstract. Perhaps all of these movements and ideologies are a symptom of some larger trend, not just a reaction to cultural attitudes. Perhaps the alt-right is a canary in the coal mine that is America, signaling an approaching demise of her unity. Perhaps Western civilization was already failing and this is a backwards attempt to save it. Maybe it’ll blow over in a year.

Or maybe there’s something in the water.