Something I think almost everyone has noticed in terms of political ideologies, is that alternative right membership is on the rise. This is nothing new in the United States, we have had ultra-reactionary organizations for generations. But, particularly within the last decade, the alt-right has gained a lot of steam both within the American consciousness and on the American political compass. Far-right extremism is a global issue, predominantly one of the West. I’m not going to be writing about right-wing extremism, rather how people are coaxed into these ideologies. I was inspired to write this after watching an episode of Big Mouth, a show about middle schoolers navigating puberty. I realized that the show demonstrates a way in which the alt-right pipeline works. 

In the season 3 episode, “Girls Are Angry Too”, Andrew Glouberman is recovering from his ex-girlfriend rejecting his advances. In his frustration, he streams a rant of himself speaking about the hypocrisy of women. The main point of his rant was that it is “hard to be a boy” in our current times. In the comments, a man says he understands Andrew’s dilemma and invites him to go to a meeting with other like minded men. When Andrew first arrives at the meeting, he agrees with most of their opinions, but soon finds out that they are white supremacists when they mention the biological inferiority of women. 

Andrew and his ex-girlfriend Missy

Richard Spencer, the white supremacist who coined the term alternative right, firmly believes that alt-right ideology could be accepted by society if it is packaged in a covert way. The alt-pipeline is a series of pathways that incrementally lead viewers to far-right content due to social media’s algorithms. The content within the pipeline slowly integrates racist, homophobic, and antisemitic rhetoric into the videos before explicitly condemning those they see as the “out group”. This predominantly happens on Youtube, but also occurs on TikTok, Facebook, and Reddit. There are several pathways to alt-right content, but most of them prey on vulnerable people and acclimate them to the rhetoric and thinking of alt-righters. Some of the pathways include: gaming, self-help, relationship help/pickup artistry, and anti-politically correct videos. A majority of the “pipes” have little to do with politics, but they all funnel into the same niche of videos. For example, after a couple self-help videos, a user might be recommended a Youtuber like Sargon of Akkad, who perpetuates alt-right rhetoric but does not openly state that he is one. He as well as other Youtubers like him are known as alt-lite, individuals who are covert in their reactionary views but ultimately lead individuals further down the pipeline. 

Alt-right and alt-lite Youtube influencer web

There are two main types of coaxing within the alt-right: targeted internet radicalization and parasocial audience radicalization. Targeted internet radicalization happens on an individual level where radicalized individuals attempt to “redpill” or radicalize others by appealing to their hardships and providing “explanations” and “solutions” to their problems. This mainly occurs on online forums like Reddit or 4chan. Parasocial audience radicalization happens between an influencer and their audience. These influencers expose their audiences to alt-right rhetoric and connect them with other alt-right/alt-lite influencers who they support or have on their channel/page. 

Unfortunately, the alt-right pipeline is quite successful at sucking people in. These people are complicit in their own descent, but they are manipulated as well. One thing that we can do is be vigilant of the people around us and educate people about race, class, and tolerance from an early age.