Former Alt-Right Member: “It Was Presented As Wholesome”

I watched the ABC interview.

I had a brief chat about Samantha with Patrick Casey who is the leader of the American Identity Movement. We both agreed that there is a real issue here with women in the movement that needs to be addressed before it continues to rear its head in the media.

ABC News:

“During her mid-20s, Samantha spent about a year of her life embroiled in a white supremacist hate group.

“I never thought of myself as a racist person, but I was,” she said.

Samantha, who asked for her last name not to be used, was involved in the group “Identity Evropa.”

“When you’re in there, you think that you just know the truth…[that] white people are more intellectually capable than other people… White people were the best,” Samantha said.

“I started to believe that…there is some sort of white genocide happening,” Samantha continued. “I start[ed] to use the phrasing and the language…that there is an overwhelming majority of Jewish people in media and banking…and you start to ask yourself, are Jewish people white?” …

Samantha said she worked as a volunteer for former President Barack Obama’s campaign before she was old enough to vote. Then, in 2014, she met someone and fell in love. But, she said everything changed one day when her boyfriend started acting differently.

“He started saying strange things to me that didn’t make any sense,” she said. “He would call me a degenerate… He started saying phrases like he couldn’t defend me on the Day of the Rope.”

Patrick Casey responds to Samantha:

I considered Samantha a friend. I did her initial interview, and we talked and hung out often for the year she was involved.

She did get in over her head, though, and was severely mistreated by a certain wing of the Alt-Right.https://t.co/lGxHpX4Xmf

— American Dissident (@OPTICS___CHECK) October 22, 2019

Samantha is correct about there being a large, toxic undercurrent to the Alt-Right. There were indeed people who were primarily motivated by base hatred, who advocated genocide, etc.—one of the many reasons why IE moved away from all of that in late 2017.

— American Dissident (@OPTICS___CHECK) October 22, 2019

With that said, she’s painting with too broad a brush here. To characterize everyone in the Alt-Right as hateful is simply incorrect. There’s nothing hateful or unethical about opposing mass immigration, anti-white policies, the erasure of our history, cultural deterioration etc.

— American Dissident (@OPTICS___CHECK) October 22, 2019

These are things that most white people right of center want—and for good reason. People are beginning to realize that whites becoming a minority in an increasingly anti-white political climate is probably going to result in tragedy. But the answer to this isn’t white supremacy.

— American Dissident (@OPTICS___CHECK) October 22, 2019

I joined the Alt-Right in late 2015 because I saw it then as a movement willing to explore taboo perspectives, which is often an exercise necessary to arrive at the truth.

However, after Charlottesville, misgivings I had with the Alt-Right rose to the surface.

— American Dissident (@OPTICS___CHECK) October 22, 2019

What was once a movement with potential had become indistinguishable from white nationalism. That toxic element was always there: “day of the rope” nonsense, racial animus, paranoia about every Jew being part of a vast conspiracy, a cult-like mentality, etc.

— American Dissident (@OPTICS___CHECK) October 22, 2019

To be clear, I still remain staunchly opposed to mass immigration, demographic change, globalism, anti-whiteness, etc. I don’t think Jewish organizations and Zionism should be immune from criticism. But I have no interest in associating with lunatics motivated by hate.

— American Dissident (@OPTICS___CHECK) October 22, 2019

In summary, it’s easy to look at Samantha leaving the Alt-Right and think, “Wow, screw her!”

But the reality is that had the Alt-Right had a less toxic and degenerate culture—had the bad apples been excluded—perhaps Samantha wouldn’t have felt compelled to leave.

— American Dissident (@OPTICS___CHECK) October 22, 2019

As I have explained before, the Alt-Right (the 2.0 movement) differed from White Nationalism (the 1.0 movement) in only a handful of ways. The hallmarks of the Alt-Right were ironic humor and online trolling and the clever use of memes to spread its message.

It adopted identitarianism as its core philosophy and it tended to promote health and fitness, infiltrating mainstream politics and networking and community building events like rallies and meetups. Otherwise, it was White Nationalism and carried with it a lot of that baggage particularly in the form of “ironic Nazism” and violent RAHOWA fantasies.

The problem with White Nationalism is that it is built around three central truths. These truths are race realism (race exists and matters), the Jewish Question (Jews have enormous power and influence in our society) and White identity (it is legitimate for White people to have a racial and ethnic identity like other groups). There is nothing objectionable about these three truths per se which are suppressed in “mainstream” society. I agree with all of them.

White Nationalism as a worldview doesn’t have much to say about life. It is at best incomplete and inadequate. It lacks a strong and serious philosophical foundation, an economic platform, a focused cultural critique, a strong moral foundation and a political strategy. Whereas Christianity answers questions like how do we please God and achieve the salvation of our souls or how should we we live in a good society, White Nationalism doesn’t wrestle with and try to answer these questions. For them it is enough that a good society is one which is 100% White.

The Alt-Right may have been “presented as wholesome,” but actually, it was hardly trad except perhaps in the idealistic sense as the Matt Heimbach fiasco which destroyed the Traditionalist Worker Party so powerfully demonstrated last March. White Nationalists are ultimately Americans who have a few outré ideas about race and Jews. They have long struggled with trying to shake the sins and vices of “mainstream” society.

What are these sins and vices?

By struggling with sins and vices of mainstream society, I mean things like:

• Nihilism
• Adultery
• Pride
• Greed
• Vanity
• Jealousy
• Drug abuse
• Alcoholism
• Having a salacious affair with your best friend’s wife or gf
• Sexual promiscuity
• Passing around groupies
• Being possessed by wrath

It’s not like the church is reaching these people anymore.

Most of these problems are best classified under “men” and “bro culture” in “an age of nihilism” rather than “hate.” They are multiplied by being in a dissident underground sub-culture which drew so many people into the fold from the most nihilistic corners of the internet.

There were Christians within the Alt-Right, but it was never a Christian movement. It wasn’t focused on ethics or religion. In fact, many people within the Alt-Right were hostile to Christianity which, obviously, doesn’t approve of adultery or mass shootings or many of the problems which have plagued the movement. Insofar as the Women Question goes, one of the biggest problems has been women who get into a relationship with someone in our circles and get burned who then run off and condemn everything about the movement and everyone involved in it to Antifa and the media which, of course, sounds like something that a bitter woman would do.

I will continue to quietly pray for the conversion of everyone involved in the Alt-Right to Lutheranism. If we could only agree to follow a few simple rules and proceed from a faith, family and folk perspective (the first two being the key to rehabilitating the third), it would solve so many of our problems.