What Was the ‘Alt’ in Alt-Right, Alt-Lite, and Alt-Left? On ‘Alt’ as a Political Modifier

Bibliographic Data

ID6344919
AuthorsBenjamin Moffitt (0000-0003-1843-6032, Australian Catholic University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume72
Issue3
Pages903-923
Publication date2024-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00323217221150871
OpenAlexW4318994136
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited26

What was the ‘alt’ in alt-right, alt-lite, and alt-left? Tracing these controversial terms’ development over the 2010s, this article interrogates the construction, meaning, and utility of the ‘alt’ modifier in US politics. Contextualizing the emergence of ‘alt’ among wider debates about how to spatially conceptualize anti-system politics beyond the left-right spectrum, it argues that ‘alt’ was used to name a tendency that moved beyond traditional ideological questions about what society should look like, and instead signified a preference about how politics should be done: namely, a rejection of the mainstream norms of political conduct, and an embrace of vulgarity, incivility and an extremely adversarial approach to political opposition. It shows how a popular-cultural understanding of ‘alternative’ was used to give this approach a countercultural sheen, and maps out the cleavages between groups that the alt/mainstream binary opened up. Finally, it considers the legacy of the ‘alt’ modifier in contemporary politics

Aesthetics · Ideology · Mainstream · New Left · Opposition (politics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · European Union Policy and Governance · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Populism, Right-Wing Movements

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