But Rosie Started It!

As I scoured the internet for articles that I could discuss in my critical blog post, I stumbled upon the Southern Poverty Law Center’s concise (SPLC) description of the alt-right. In a few words, the SPLC managed to succinctly explain what drives this prejudiced political movement.

“The alt-right, which the Southern Poverty Law Center defines as ‘a set of far-right ideologies, groups and individuals whose core belief is that ‘white identity’ is under attack by multicultural forces using ‘political correctness’ and ‘social justice’ to undermine white people and ‘their’ civilization.”

What makes this relatively dry, dispassionate definition so interesting is that the SPLC is perceptive enough to discern a certain disdain for ‘political correctness’ as one of the driving force. Just look at the anti-p.c. rhetoric spewed by prominent members of the alt-right intelligentsia. Listening to, and reading, the polemics of public intellectuals like Milo Yiannopoulos, it becomes fully apparent that political correctness has animated the pepe-lovers as much as any other issue. Of course, standing at the helm of the alt-right movement, Donald Trump has adopted this anti-p.c. stance and made it one of the key issues in his campaign. While there are innumerable examples of Trump’s scorn for political correctness, nothing throws this sentiment into sharper relief than his statements on Islam. The most egregious example of this was when, in the wake of the horrific Orlando shooting, Trump released a press statement proclaiming, “I am trying to save lives and prevent the next terrorist attack. We can't afford to be politically correct anymore.”

            So, if Trump and his acolytes believe that political correctness makes people fragile (a criticism that’s not only been made by the alt-right but also respectable publications like The Atlantic), one would expect Trump to be a resilient candidate who is able to easily brush off any criticism, right? After Monday night’s debate, apparently not. A classic example of failing to live up to one’s own ideal, Trump’s constant framing of his critics, specifically Rosie O’Donnell and Hillary Clinton, as “vicious” and mean betrays a frailness that the alt-right usually associates with political correctness.

You know, Hillary is hitting me with tremendous commercials. Some of it’s said in entertainment. Some of it’s said—somebody who’s been very vicious to me, Rosie O’Donnell, I said very tough things to her, and I think everybody would agree that she deserves it and nobody feels sorry for her. But you want to the truth? I was going to say something…extremely rough to Hillary, to her family, and I said to myself, ‘I can’t do it. I just can’t do it. It’s inappropriate. It’s not nice.’ But she spent hundreds of millions of dollars on negatives ads on me, many of which are absolutely untrue. They’re untrue. And they’re misrepresentations. And I will tell you this, Lester: It’s not nice. And I don’t deserve that.

Watching the debate, I found it to be extremely rich that a man who beckons us to be tough on Islam gets so outraged by a couple of biting comments by people he’s offended in the most repulsive ways possible. Furthermore, Trump’s tenderness begs the question: Can you really be the archetype of the politically-incorrect strongman when you cannot help but tell the world how much Rosie O’ Donnell hurt your precious feelings? Though the obvious answer is no, maybe the paradoxical nature of Trump as an authoritarian figure and petulant crybaby is emblematic of the alt-right as a whole. It’s no wonder that, while they fashion themselves as courageous fighters in the war against politically correct America, the members of the alt-right always see themselves as a marginalized group. In a way, Trump’s debate performance showed that, despite their anti p.c. protests, those who associate with the far right are as sensitive as the politically correct strawmen they constantly rail against. Trump and friends can bloviate all they want about how tough they are; it still doesn’t change who they are—a bunch of sniveling cowards.