Recently, an exchange between President Trump and a reporter following a speech that was supposed to be about infrastructure turned into a screaming match wherein Trump slammed the so-called “alt-left” for initiating violence against white supremacist protesters in Virginia.
Liberal social media accounts mocked the exchange, suggesting Trump invented the term on the spot as a spin on the “alt-right”, a movement known to sympathize with and sometimes endorse white nationalism.
Alleging that this ideology somehow represents an extreme version of political conservatism, this Tweet suggests that an “alt-left” would actually be an outrageously friendly parade of free gifts from the government.
But Trump didn’t make this up. The term “alt-left” popped up on internet forums not long after the alt-right began gaining notoriety. Just as the alt-right is characterized by its hardline populism, the alt-left describes a militant enthusiasm for leftist causes.
Considering this, referring to radical groups like Antifa as “alt-left” isn’t at all inaccurate. In fact, it might actually be doing mainline liberals a service by drawing a distinction between a group that likes to throw bricks at people and rank-and-file Democrats.
Of course, leftist accounts like these don’t want any such favors, and have deluded themselves into actually supporting what many states are beginning to refer to as domestic terrorism.
~ Facts Not Memes
