What is the alt right? A linguistic data analysis of 3B Reddit comments | Hacker News Reader

What is the alt right? A linguistic data analysis of 3B Reddit comments

qz.com

17 pointsrcarmo7 comments

I stopped using Reddit because I became aware of the strong astroturfing. It is impossible to be a member of any popular open subreddit without being exposed to branding and political ideas. This extends to something like the_D where any whiff opposing ideas are insta banned. It feels like to me these subreddits curate their users to get a specific commentary going. Are they really all collected in their political agenda? I doubt it. They're simply the more vile users who agree to keep perpetuating the hate.

Multiply this to every other subreddit with heavy handed moderation, and it's no doubt that reddit is no longer a fun place to be. There is a constant struggle to control the media that is being presented to the majority unaware redditors.

I read the Game of Thrones subreddit to spoil myself every single episode before I watch it and it's quite pleasant. Guess it really depends and it's not black and white.

This is not the answer to the question. Alt-right seems now to be everything that is not included in alt-left. Most prominently various scientists like Gad Saad, Jordan Peterson and Carl Benjamin.

> Alt-right seems now to be everything that is not included in alt-left.

Since “alt-left” is a term recently made up by the alt-right’s defenders to dismiss everyone who in any way disagreed with them that’s been trivially true since the term “alt-left” was coined.

(“alt-right”, OTOH, was a term invented by people in the movement the term refers to, to distinguish themselves from voices they disagree with that are conventionally characterized as part of the right, particularly, AFAICT, voices that they see as globalist.)

As someone who would definitely be grouped into the 'alt-left', I don't let it get to me. It's just a word used to describe my views, which is attempted to be used as a prejorative. We should judge people by the views they hold, not the names we give to them, and I think that goes for everyone. When someone is described as 'alt-right' I have little idea what their positions are, so I feel it's not right for me to judge them on that.

Similarly, when I'm called 'alt-left' without having expounded my viewpoint, why should I take it to have any meaning? I could be a Communist, democratic Socialist, syndicalist, Communalist, an anarchist, or even a national Bolshevik or social democrat.

Just like the groups I associate with have turned round 'commie' to mean something neutral or even positive within their groups, the same might happen to 'alt-left', and I think that's the best way to go about it.

Another example is when Left-wingers were accused of calling each other 'conrad'. Now we call ourselves 'Conrad', and it's great fun.

It's a shame it's Carl Benjamin instead of Walter Benjamin[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Benjamin

Whenever you hear about linguistic analysis of some sort or another you should immediately stop listening and add the source of the analysis to your mental kill file.

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