I live in a small town in Pennsylvania. It is the quintessential picture of small town America. Tonight is our town's Christmas tree lighting celebration in the middle of the borough. It is the oldest continuous tree lighting in the country, 104 years. Right next to the tree is 'Santa's' house, where at scheduled times up until Christmas kids come to visit Santa. The borough is a compact cozy, well kept town, and everything I need is within a few blocks. For the most part it is as ideal a place to live as anyone could wish for.
It is also representative of many non-urban and non-suburban towns in Pennsylvania. The population is mostly white. In this neck of the woods folks are predominantly of German decent. This is not to say that there is something wrong with these facts, they are simply that, facts. Just like anywhere else, there are good people and bad people. Caring people and bigots. Informed people and misinformed or uninformed people.
This morning, I was at the deli I always go to, a couple of blocks away. I walk my black lab there and then hang out to talk with neighbors and other members of the community that I see there frequently. This morning, there was a woman at the deli with her terrier. I see her often, but had never met her husband in the eight years I have known her. I asked her if she was ok with nazis, she said no. I asked her if she was ok with the kkk, she said no. I asked her if she'd heard of steve bannon. She replied she'd heard the name before, but didn't really know who he was. I explained that he will be trump's chief whitehouse strategist and that he was strongly and vocally endorsed by the kkk and the american nazi party. This alarmed her (as it should).
She then asked her husband if he knew who steve bannon was, to which he said yes. I asked him if he was aware of his being strongly endorsed by the kkk and the american nazi party. He immediately pointed out, and truthfully so, that bannon is member of neither organization. I agreed with him, and pointed out that if he has received those endorsements he must be philosophically in synch with those organizations. He noted that bannon is nothing more than a spoiled white kid (bannon is in his late fifties, maybe sixty).
The problem with these answers is that if most Americans either don't know who he is or dismiss his philosophical underpinnings, then bannon will be given the power, by default, to do as he pleases. It starts when he is labeled as 'alt-right'. I'm willing to bet that a large number of Americans do not know that 'alt-right' means 'alternate right'. Well that's not so bad, right wing and left wing are the two accepted ends of our political spectrum. 'Alt-right' is strongly associated with 'white nationalism'. Now this is starting to sound a little bit racist, but after all, it is nationalism. We all love our country, right? There must be a problem with you, with anyone who is not nationalistic; that means you don't love our country. 'White nationalism' is obviously a thinly veiled way of saying 'white supremecist', which is now pretty bad stuff. Lastly, let's call a spade a spade; a white supemecist whether they belong to these organizations or not, strongly supports the kkk and the american nazi party.
This is a common tactic for people with philosophies that they know are not ok. In there gut, they know it is not acceptable. Maybe it's acceptable to them, but they know in their hearts that it is not ok with the majority of our society, including white folks. So, what do the do, they try to dress it up, they use many layers of euphemisms to attempt to make their philosophies palatable, ok. This distraction, this misdirection cannot be allowed to move forward. Based on what I just noted above, the simple equation is that the alt-right equals bigotry in its wort forms, the kkk and the american nazi party. Anyone who considers themselves to be 'alt-right' and does not like the characterization I just painted, should strongly consider not aligning themselves with the alt-right.
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