Throughout the 2015-2016 Trump Presidential campaign, the Alt Right was at its peak in terms of internet popularity. The decentralized movement played a pivotal role in the victorious election of President Trump, uniting an aggressive political base comprised of middle American conservatives, hardcore white nationalists and more casual white advocates such as the Alt Lite and Anti SJWs. Their influence was so widespread that even democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton named them on national television in one of her speeches.
However, after the electoral victory of Trump, the Alt Right quickly dissolved into infighting and factions. The Never-Trump GOP establishment conspired with the mainstream media to deplatform inconvenient personalities (such as Milo Yiannopoulus’ CPAC ban). Under the leadership of Richard Spencer, the white identitarian sect took a more brutalist route of activism, launching the chaotic ‘Unite the Right’ rally in charlottesville. These and many more examples highlighted the obvious reality that the dissident right were splitting up. And this ideological secession was most damaging to the White Nationalists or “Alt Right”, who now hold a monopoly on the once popularized movement. Popular figures such as Tara McCarthy voluntarily disassociated due to the questioning of her part-Jewish ancestry and rejection of female leadership, other Alt Righters were in a frenzy trying to avoid digital censorship from Social Media companies & Domain Registrars. Even the most resilient soldiers of the movement such as Christopher Cantwell, a self identified racist seeking to resurrect the impassioned anti-communist fervor of Augusto Pinochet, has now been forced to assist the FBI in collecting information against (supposedly left wing) extremist groups in exchange for leniency in the criminal charges filed against him after his participation in the Unite the Right rally.
All in all, the Alt Right is a mess. But some formerly vocal white nationalists are trying to silently rebrand themselves as normie pro-Trump conservatives. And as expected, the Alt Right isn’t to keen on allowing them to opt out of their commitment to “securing the existence of our people and a future for white children”. Recently, anonymous shitposter Ricky Vaughn -pseudonym-, had his identity involuntarily revealed by prominent members of the Alt Right. Which I won't reveal out of respect for the family and friends of Ricky but let's be honest, it's easily Googlable at this point.
Allegedly Paul Nehlen (Alt Right candidate for the House of Representatives), Chris Cantwell and several other unidentified conspirators unveiled the face, name and location of Mr. Vaughn to the Huffington Post who was delighted to assist in the take down of what many describe as one of Donald Trump's most influential supportive trolls. The reason for this expose, as described by Mr. Cantwell in a livestream, was that Ricky Vaughn “counter signaled” the Alt Right and Paul Nehlen, sabotaging what is (in his view) the greater collective goal of pro white advocacy.
Ricky Vaughn’s dox signifies two very important phenomenons happening amongst the inner circles of the dissident right. The first is that the Alt Right is out for Blood from not only it’s direct enemies, but also anyone who it feels did not commit their full loyalty and effort to the cause of White Nationalism, and in some cases White Supremacy. The second phenomenon is that the once unified coalition of nationalists now have to determine which dispersed sect among them is anti-white.
The Alt Right makes the case that the more marketable Civic Nationalist ‘Alt Lite’ or “Cuckservatives” are anti-white because of their cowardly retreat from explicit pro white identity. Arguing that people like Ricky Vaughn who previously exploited the abrasive optics of the Alt Right when it was safe and profitable to do so. The Alt Lite has long taken the opposing position, claiming that the Alt Right’s autistic purity testing and poor marketability has curtailed several opportunities of pragmatic victory and lead to the self destruction of its own movement due to a drift towards an extreme obsession with identity politics (which is rather ironic because that’s what got Trump the presidency).
Only time will tell who’s narrative will prevail but as an outside observer I will say that the notion of “white identity” is clearly not enough to maintain the momentum of the far right. And frankly I’d predict that the infighting will cost both groups dearly in their efforts in combating demographic replacement.