Looking Through the Alt-Right

In: https://digitalcollections.saic.edu/islandora/object/islandora%3A17647

Abstract

In this paper I track the rise and growth of the alt-right in contemporary US culture through its presentation on and offline. I task myself with the simple question: "What does the alt-right look like?" I rely on personal experience to guide research into representations of the group. Briefly looking back at the history of the internet as a political gathering ground, I then parse out the spaces inhabited by the alt-right online. First, I explore the structures of online trolling and meme culture as a response to contemporary Tumblr identity politics of the web. I then analyze the peculiarity of the digital online image, proposing a unifying rhetoric of the meme. Using a case study of the first alt-right press conference, I look at the digital online image offline and analyze its effects. Then, I turn to offline imaging of the alt-right, through visual analysis of video documentation of the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, VA. In an effort to flesh out this illustration, I then look to representation of the group in pop cultural forms of film. Representation of the alt-right has been powerfully slippery and difficult to identify. Through an additive analysis of the various implications of representation styles, I "get a grip" on the group's representation. Looking through the alt-right, I reframe the group as a part of, and born from American culture at large.