The Real Difference Between the Alt and Dissident Right: A Response to James Knox

Recently I read Alt vs. Dissident Right by James Knox over at The Knox Papers, which caught my attention because this is a topic that often comes up irl. Though there are some things Knox says that are mostly true, especially when it comes to the demographic, and religious, differences between Alt and Dissident Right, he paints the demographics a bit too broadly, but, most of all, misses the core difference between the two.

I got into right-wing politics during the Alt-Right. My Tv regularly had The Radical Agenda streaming via Bitchute, TheRightStuff.biz was on my suggested listening, I watched Millennial Woes on Youtube quite a bit, along with Vox Day. I watched many of the big events—NPI 2016, The Battle of Berkley, the free speech protests, Richard Spencer’s speaking tours, and Augustus Invictus’s debates—live, and with popcorn. After consuming podcasts, lurking on 4chan and IronMarch, and being scared to death after the Unicorn Riot discord leaks (you can read between the lines), I got involved with four activist organizations that were either pre-Charlottesville, or were continuation groups. I even started my own organization for a time. This lead, among other things, to a few Antifa stalkers, and “a come to Jesus moment” were I realized my stay at grad school could be ruined, not to speak of my career.

This I say not to brag, because looking back at it, I made a lot of really dumb decisions, associated with some truly unhinged people, was woken up at 7am by a phone call that went along the lines of “if you do not give us $500 by today, we will ensure your friend goes to jail”, stumbled into a situation with people, people who if I even alluded to would almost certainly get put me on a government list, and, in short, almost ruined my life. I know people that had their lives ruined by the Alt-Right, and who have never been the same again. It is only by the grace of God, and my own internet paranoia, that I was not screwed over, and has put me in a position to say what I just said, and not worry about being discovered. I say this to give some background to what I am about to say, and to acknowledge the very real issues the Alt-Right had, which go far and above the atheism and snobbery that Knox complains about.

With all the faults of the Alt-Right, it had a redemptive characteristic that makes it distinct from the Dissident Right. This characteristic existed in both iterations of the Alt-Right, both when it was primarily a call for restricted immigration, reduced involvement in foreign wars, and a return to normal sexual relationships, and when it became a hard nationalist street presence, with the Traditionalist Workers Party, Vanguard America, The Rise Above Movement, Identity Evropa, and Anti-Communist Action being staples at any speech. Whether it was Peter Brimelow, or Vox Day, Richard Spencer, or Christopher Cantwell, all speech, all action, was oriented towards changing public policy. It was a common trope on every podcast to say “Tucker Carlson must be listening to us, because in last episode he said…”, and I can attest to the reality of this, as I know/knew people whose articles, and podcasts, were read, and listened to, by Tucker’s staff.

We were involved in a genuine political movement, because our aim was to affect political outcomes. Was it always done well? No, but there were some successes. Most notably was the mainstreaming of “The Great Replacement.” Another success was getting many in the GOP to adopt the frame “why do we send X billion dollars to foreign country Y, when our own people are dying of drug overdoses/are on the street/cannot afford rent, etc.” Did this frame exist before the Alt-Right? Yes, but it was pushed pretty hard, and pretty regularly, and it clearly rubbed off. Another great one was “It’s Okay to be White.” Very simple, and it brought many people to despise the left through their reaction. Failed attempts were still done strategically, and intelligenlty, like the attempted mainstreaming of the JQ with the (((echo))) Google Chrome plugin, developed by TRS, that elicited a pretty vocal response from the fine (((journalists))) at Twitter.

Our ideas and policies were very simple, could be explained in a minute or less, and were aimed at being intelligible to everyone with at least a high school education. The art of the meme was the art of the elevator pitch.

Contrasting this core characteristic with the Dissident Right, I think it is safe to say that the Dissident Right exists primarily as its own subculture. Articles, podcasts, and books are written for the Dissident Right. Yes, there are some who do tremendously well in branching out to the GOP, such as The Prudentialist, Auron MacIntyre, Curtis Yarvin, and the Project 2025 guys, and even for a brief while, yours truly was messing around in state elections, and was able to get two state representatives to adopt some of my policy proposals. But, and here is the big but, these examples are examples of personal motivation, not a collective, sustained, push. If you do not believe me, read any ten Dissident Right articles, and ask “if someone was not familiar with the DR subculture, would they understand the article in full?” and “is the intention of this article to change the view of current news anchors, and political staffers, or is it to contribute to a discourse only happening on the DR?” You can find exceptions, and the recent talk about canceling the left might be the best example, but these exist in, and are supported by, a subculture that caters to itself. Ideas are complex, take a long time to explain, and an even longer time to apply to the world of policy. Mannerbunds, the place of Greek philosophy, and meta analyses of team red vs team blue, while interesting to some of us, is not capable of being mainstreamed, or being turned into concrete political action. It is not meant to, which is okay, but it is a difference with noting. One iteration of the right was outward focused, while the other is inward focused.

I am no cheerleader for the Alt-Right. It almost ruined my life, and many of the views that were in vogue go deeply against my Christian beliefs. Sure, many were upperclass atheists, though to overemphasize this is to ignore the palpable influence of Christopher Cantwell, Vox Day, and Robert Rundo. What I am trying to point out is that the Alt-Right differed most significantly from the Dissident Right in terms of of its aim, and strategy. This is not a criticism of the Dissident Right, but simply an acknowledgment of their different orientations.