Over the last few days and during my Christmas break i ventured into the realms of Instagram. its crawling with Aryan nationalists and Alr Right types. here is a guide for the left on confronting the Alt Right in 2018.

Far-right extremist planned 'race war' by making explosives

By Jordan Davies BBC News

Media captionFar-right Wales: 'High risk' individuals concerns

"High risk" and dangerous far-right extremists in Wales have been prevented from carrying out violent attacks in the last three years, according to a Home Office advisor.

A Newport man was preparing for a "race war" by making and testing explosives.
Nick Daines, who works with the UK Government's counter-terrorism Prevent programme, said Wales has a "unique landscape" for far right extremism.
But he said membership was still relatively small.
Welsh counter terror police said they devoted as much time to far-right extremism in Wales as Islamist extremism.

Nigel Bromage, co-founder of the violent neo-Nazi group Combat 18, said Wales had traditionally been seen as a "safe haven" for the ultra-right, away from the authorities.
He now works to confront the far-right through his organisation, Small Steps.
He said groups like the National Front had tried to hijack causes like the miners strike in the 1980s to help spread their ideology.
"South Wales was seen as a big area to not only go in and support the miners, offering food and picket line support, but it was also very much about once we were in that community we could open up and support other things," he said.
Mr Bromage said the groups would not initially advocate violence, or Nazism as they knew people in Wales would reject that.
He said the tactics were a "slow burn", and he believes the same tactics are being used by the far-right in Wales today.

Image caption Neo-Nazi group Combat 18 co-founder Nigel Bromage now tries to confront far-right extremism

His organisation is now beginning to hold sessions in Wales to educate people on the dangers of the far-right.
Just over 7,600 people in England and Wales were referred to the UK government's Prevent programme in 2015-16 - about 5,000 them over concerns about Islamist extremism.
According to the Home Office figures - Wales accounted for just 2% of those referrals - 148 cases.
But of those Welsh cases - 22% were for concerns about far-right extremism.

Officers from The Welsh Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit said they investigate every Prevent referral carefully.
Experts believe the high proportion of far-right referrals is a genuine reflection of what is being seen in Wales, and not a consequence of the low number of overall referrals.
Nick Daines, a Home Office Prevent co-ordinator, works across Wales with people who are in danger of - or have become radicalised.
He has 20 cases ongoing, and rarely speaks about his work.

Much of his role involves providing support and guidance in matters that could be completely unrelated to extremism, such as employment, housing or education.
He said isolated parts of the South Wales valleys remained "strongholds" for the far-right, contributing to Wales' "unique" far-right landscape.
He said the mindset of the people he works with was becoming more extreme.
"There are significant problems along the M4 corridor from Newport across to the furthest parts of West Wales," he said.

'Race war' preparations

"I worked with a man in the Newport area that was acquiring operational manuals for paramilitary groups and was creating explosives and experimenting with those in a quarry.
"He was very racially motivated and held a perception there was a coming race war and needed to prepare for that kind of eventuality."
Mr Daines said there had "certainly has been" moments where he had helped stop violent acts being carried out in Wales.
He believes one "high risk" individual from south Wales who had a "propensity for violence" would have "acted on his views" - had the authorities not intervened.

Image caption Nick Daines helps tackle the issue of far-right radicalisation for the UK's Home Office Prevent programme

He said incidents where people prepare explosives or weaponry are "not as rare as you would think".
But he said the membership of far-right groups is still relatively small in Wales and that the public should not be worried or alarmed.
Senior officers at The Welsh Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit said they had particular concerns about one emerging group, called the System Resistance Network.
Their posters were found in a student area of Cardiff this month - officers believe they are trying to attract young people.
Experts on the far-right claim former members of the now banned group Nation Action have switched to the System Resistance Network.
Their social media posts display Nazi iconography.
The System Resistance Network is not a banned group.
Zach Davies, who was convicted of attempted murder after attacking a dentist in a supermarket in Mold, claimed links to National Action.

Image caption Intervention can be at a very early stage, says South Wales Police's Assistant Chief Constable Jon Drake

Senior Officers at The Welsh Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit said half their time was devoted to combating far right extremism, as much as Islamist extremism.
Officers said the threat had never gone away, and urged people to contact them if they suspected someone was being radicalised.
Assistant Chief Constable Jon Drake from South Wales Police said the Prevent programme can help stop someone committing potentially criminal acts.
"This is often work a long long way before there's any criminal offending, it could just be someone needing some advice some guidance, the clue is in the title - the prevention of harm".

"There are many things that separate the alternative right from old-school racist skinheads (to whom they are often idiotically compared), but one thing stands out above all else: intelligence. Skinheads, by and large, are low-information, low-IQ thugs driven by the thrill of violence and tribal hatred. The alternative right are a much smarter group of people — which perhaps suggests why the Left hates them so much. They’re dangerously bright."

I have seen the following terms used over and over again. The attempts to control language is an important step in controlling people. Please make yourself aware of the meaning, implications and discourse of the alt right. These terms are also often used by unthinking right wingers. its time to resist.....

The general world view of the alt-right. But how can you identify someone who considers themselves part of it? Like most groups, the alt-right has its own code words and slang. Here are some terms they use, and other hallmarks to look out for

Beta: Members of the alt-right are obsessed with masculinity, manhood, gender roles and the concept of "alpha" and "beta" males. Alpha males are leaders, like Trump; beta males are portrayed as weak and emasculated.

Crybaby, whiny: Anyone who disagrees with them or their preferred candidate, particularly protesters and people who complain that the alt-right is embracing racism and anti-Semitism.

Cuckservative, cuck: The term "cuckservative" originated in the alt-right. It's a portmanteau of "conservative" and "cuckold" used to describe Republicans who are perceived to be emasculated or "selling out." Frequently shortened to "cuck," the term has come under scrutiny for its racist implications.

Human biodiversity: Despite the fact that many say racism is at the heart of its platform, the alt-right is very sensitive about being called racist. They use the term“human biodiversity” as a more scientific-sounding way of referring to issues of race.

Libtard: The alt-right revels in the rejection of "political correctness," so embracing an outdated term for a person with an intellectual disability ("retard") serves the purpose of insulting liberals.

Masculinist: A word meant to embody the opposite of feminist, celebrating “manliness” and the traditional “heroic” nature of men. To the alt-right, "masculinist" principles are ones that serve and advocate for men. Critics say they primarily reinforce antiquated gender roles.

Multiculturalism (as a derogatory term): A major component of the alt-right platform is white supremacy and nationalism. "Multiculturalism" is used as a negative term for the blending of multiple cultures, as opposed to celebrating the supposed superiority of Western European culture. . Often used as shorthand for policies that benefit immigrants and people of color.

Neoreactionaries: Also known as NRx and the "Dark Enlightenment." A group of people who call for stripping away anything other than supposedly rational thought, as opposed to a “feelings first” mentality. They advocate for libertarianism, traditional gender roles and neofascism.

Political correctness: Anything that challenges an alt-right person's right to say whatever they want, whenever they want, in any way they want to say it. According to the alt-right, political correctness is responsible for most of society's ills, including feminism, Islamic terrorism and overly liberal college campuses.

Snowflake: Short for "special snowflake," a pejorative for an entitled person. Most people protesting Trump are "snowflakes," according to the alt-right, as are anti-Trump celebrities and most liberals.

SJW: Short for "social justice warrior," this insult is mostly reserved for young women who try to argue on behalf of liberal or feminist ideas.

White genocide: What many alt-right members feel is the natural conclusion of liberalism and pro-immigrant policies. The alt-right views just about anything that benefits nonwhite people, particularly ones who aren't American citizens, as a risk to whiteness and a step on the road to the eradication of the white race.

It pays to increase your word power these days. There’s much more to alt-right coded language than meets the eye – or the ear. “Steven Petrow is a Social Justice Warrior, a public predator, a devotee of political correctness, and happy to tar and feather others with false accusations.” If they say it often enough, you might believe it, and then you might not believe anything I write or say. That’s their whole point.

Now is the summer of our discontent: memes, national identity and the globalisation of rage

Author

Michelle Mielly
Associate Professor in People, Organizations, Society, Grenoble École de Management (GEM)

Disclosure statement

Michelle Mielly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Memes may be all the rage in these heady days of digital trending, but they’re not a new thing. Ever since Richard Dawkins coined the term in his popular 1976 book The Selfish Gene, scientists have been putting memes under the microscope.
For Dawkins, memes were discrete units of cultural inheritance (gossip, images, fashion fads, catchphrases) that, by virtue of their rapid dissemination and adoption, drive cultural evolution, just as genes propel forth our biology.
In other words, memes can change the world with “likes” and “shares”.

Global meme wars

There’s even a field dedicated to their study: memetics considers how certain cultural artefacts go “viral”. Mentally and socially “contagious”, memes provide immediate, visual expressions of our common humanity as they jump from brain to brain.
Since memes are simplified versions of reality, their intended meaning can be easily subverted or simplified to serve a new political purpose. Hitler’s appropriation of the sacred Hindu swastika, which symbolised well-being, is a prime example.
Once the brain makes the memetic association, it’s next to impossible for it to restore the original content. What traveller doesn’t think of the Nazis when they see swastikas at holy sites across Southeast Asia?
This is how memes are helping to redraw the boundaries of what constitutes acceptable political discourse, particularly since the 2016 US presidential election, when meme wars raged between left and right.

These online battles, which continue today in America, skewering everyone from the news network CNN to Trump supporters and Hillary enthusiasts, came to France, too, just in time for its 2017 election season.
Memes failed to sway the French citizenry, as several commentators have noted. But France’s meme wars demonstrated the transnational influence of the so-called “alt-right” hate groups that managed to transform Pepe the Frog into a racist mouthpiece and, in doing so, set a precedent for future memetic wars.

The alt-right rises online

The meme maelstrom is pushing us to rethink questions of national identity that have been with us for quite some time.
Since the Enlightenment, Western scholars have largely been sympathetic to the notion of an international, cosmopolitan identity shared by a global citizenry. This was the view promoted in Martha Nussbaum’s 1994 essay on cosmopolitan education, in which she promotes the “embrace of humanity” wherever it is encountered, “undeterred by traits that are strange”, and an eagerness to “understand humanity in its ‘strange’ guises.”
That same year, Homi K. Bhabha’s Location of Culture theorised that cosmopolitans inhabited a hybrid “third space”, comfortably in the interstice between two national cultures or passport identities.
The historian and anthropologist James Clifford, too, saw that Western identity was at a crossroads in the late 20th century. His Predicament of Culture (1988) described modern identity as one that “is always, to varying degrees, ‘inauthentic’: caught between cultures, implicated in others”.

What these cultural critics missed as they gazed across the planet at the height of globalisation was that some elements then just barely on the horizon – including the pain and anger of a less privileged, untraveled, often rural electorate – would soon build serious momentum.
Nor did their visions include the digital advent of an array of anti-cosmopolitan provocateurs, from conservative intellectuals, hackers, reactionaries and anarchists to anti-Semites, fascists, Islamophobes and homophobes, who would eventually form the alt-right.

Memes are not limited to any given ideology, but the alt-right used them effectively in the 2016 US presidential campaign. Jim Bourg/Reuters

Fake news and dark memes are not limited to the West, nor to any one political leaning, of course. Many other democracies, some of them secular, are struggling with their own multicultural identities.
The disenfranchised of the world don’t celebrate their global citizenship; they take their political rage to the internet. The Arab world is grappling with online calls to jihadism, and India with violent nationalism that has spawned a wave of Hindu attacks on Muslims.
From Reddit to 4Chan, the anti-cosmopolitans can voice their anti-establishment views anonymously loosening or dispatching entirely with the straitjacket of political correctness.
All of this reflects what author Pankaj Mishra calls the “globalisation of rage”. His new book, Age of Anger, explores the paranoia, hatred, and pain of those who remain beyond the reach of liberal cosmopolitanism.
Triggered by the influx of new and diverse populations, the conservative instinct seeks out familiarity and attempts to ward off foreignness more intensely than the average. Now, thanks to memes and social media, these defensive impulses can spiral outward much faster, and hit a lot harder.

Free speech or hate speech?

The use of memes to promote hate complements more traditional forms of communication, such as physical poster boards, signage and advertising. We can see their confluence at universities around the globe.
In May 2017, leaders of an Anglo-Afrikaaner student group at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University updated, in meme-like fashion, old Nazi propaganda posters to publicise their group.
Spurring a debate on privacy, free speech and social media, the college meme war has even gone Ivy League, a surprising twist in the narrative of the dispossessed.
In June 2017, Harvard announced that it would withdraw offers made to ten admitted freshmen for starting a Class of 2021 Facebook group that promoted offensive memes that “mocked sexual assault, the Holocaust and the deaths of children”.
Harvard is not alone. Across the United States, college campuses are ablaze with the debate over what constitutes free speech versus hate speech, demonstrating that we are not at the beginning of something new here, but rather well immersed already in a cultural identity war.

Banalising evil

Unlike Nussbaum and other cultural critics, American philosopher Richard Rorty (1931-2007) foresaw the dangers of turning a blind eye to America’s underprivileged. In the 1990s, he envisioned an environment of “sadism[,] which the academic Left has tried to make unacceptable to its students, will come flooding back”.
Ten years after his death, Rorty’s dual predictions that “the gains made in the past forty years by black and brown Americans and by homosexuals will be wiped out” and that “contempt for women will come back into fashion” are now bearing out.
While many of his contemporaries dismissed or ignored Rorty’s dire predictions, philosopher Hannah Arendt had also foreseen these identity wars, as early as 1963.
Dissecting the trail of war criminal Adolf Eichmann, Arendt observed the systemic failure to think among Nazis and their followers and concluded, famously, that evil can easily be banalized.
As we now know only too well, evil can easily become banal online, too.

Anthill 20: Myths

er Metropolitan University

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How do we know that ideas we hold true aren’t just myths that will be proved untrue in the future? Or maybe you have a favourite fact or story that’s already been debunked but no one has told you yet.
In this episode of The Anthill podcast, all about myths, we’ve got three stories of researchers pouring cold water over ideas that some people still believe.
First, we hear from Cat Jarman, a bio-archaeologist at the University of Bristol who studies old bones on Easter Island in Polynesia. The native Rapanui people are often accused of destroying their own society by chopping down all the island’s trees to erect their famous stone statues. But as Jarman explains, this “ecocide” theory is a myth.

Statues, known as moai, on Easter Island. via trackpete/flickr, CC BY-NC

From myths about population decline, we turn to myths about race. Ornette Clennon, who co-leads Manchester Metropolitan University’s critical race and ethnicity research group, explains the history of polygenism – the pseudoscience of categorising humans into different racial categories or species. And Duncan Sayer, an archaeologist at the University of Central Lancashire, debunks myths about the Anglo Saxons that some present-day alt-right movements still hold true. Our final story is about urban myths – those spine-tingling horror stories which always seem to happen to a friend of a friend. Karl Bell, a historian at the University of Portsmouth, recounts the origins of one such urban legend that terrified Victorian Londoners: spring-heeled jack.
You can subscribe to The Anthill on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts from. And while you’re there check out The Conversation’s new podcast, In Depth Out Loud, where we narrate in depth articles by experts in audio form.

The Anthill theme music is by Alex Grey for Melody Loops. In the segment on Easter Island, the clip of Jared Diamond was from UCTV and the Easter Island music came via YouTube and the ChileTravelChannel. In the segment on urban legends, the music came from Lionel Schmitt via Soundcloud.
Click here to listen to more episodes of The Anthill, on themes including Belief, The Future and Pain.
A big thanks to City University London’s Department of Journalism for letting us use their studios to record.