Alternative Right

The Alternative Right is a term coined in 2008 by Richard Bertrand Spencer, who heads the white nationalist think tank known as the National Policy Institute, to describe a loose set of far-right ideals centered on “white identity” and the preservation of “Western civilization.” In 2010, Spencer — who had stints as an editor of The American Conservative and Taki’s Magazine — launched the Alternative Right blog, where he worked to refine the movement’s ideological tenets. Racist alt-right celebrity Richard Spencer was slated to speak at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Spencer describes the alt-right as a big-tent ideology that blends the ideas of neo-reactionaries (NRx-ers), who advocate a return to an antiquated, pseudo-libertarian government that supports “traditional western civilization;” “archeofuturists,” those who advocate for a return to “traditional values” without jettisoning the advances of society and technology; human biodiversity adherents (HBDers) and “race realists,” people who generally adhere to “scientific racism”; and other extreme-right ideologies. Alt-right adherents stridently reject egalitarianism and universalism.

Alt-Right 2024