4 ms·
> What does 'alt' mean when added as a prefix to left or right to you? Not the GP, but the 'alt' prefix to me seems to invoke the similar usage in the term 'al
by danans 6y ago
> What does 'alt' mean when added as a prefix to left or right to you?
Not the GP, but the 'alt' prefix to me seems to invoke the similar usage in the term 'alternative' music like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc, which were an 'alternative' to pop music from the 80s and 90s. The prefix suggests a change of type and not just a change of degree. They aren't just "more conservative Republicans".
This is why it applies more to the right than the left in today's social discourse, since the spectrum on the left is still more a matter of degree than kind.
In the context of the right, this change of type means abandonment of traditional establishment Republican stances like free trade and foreign interventionism in near totality, and the promotion of previously fringe movements within the right like ethnic nationalism (often under the guise of 'economic nationalism').
- FFRefresh 6y agoThanks for offering a perspective on the right. I do disagree about a change of type not happening on the left. I see a very large rift developing on the left around whether to honor classically liberal values or not. I do think the trends in 'alt' usage are predominately aimed at the right as more of a pejorative towards the outgroup, and less of a descriptive term. You can see a snapshot of the vast disparity in usage here: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=Alt-right,alt-left https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=Alt-right,...
- derekp7 6y agoWhat I imagined years ago is that the Occupy movement and the 99 percenters would become the Democratic's version of the Republican Tea party. You can kind of see this to a degree in AOC and Sanders, if I understand everything correctly.
- xupybd 6y agoI think you are correct in your definition. But if you are many people use it incorrectly. It's thrown at most conservatives. While most conservatives find ethnic nationalism appalling. That said nationalism is appealing to a large percentage of conservatives.