Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed: The Alt-Right on Building Christendom Without Christ

The rise of the Alt-Right has changed the face of the American and international far-right. Although an online movement, it has shown a growing influence on political discourse. One puzzling and understudied aspect of this movement is its relationship to religion. Stanchly anti-Muslim and heavily re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal for the study of religions and ideologies
Main Author: Shaw, Daniel Odin (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: CEEOL [2019]
In: Journal for the study of religions and ideologies
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B USA / Right-wing radicalism / Whites / Hegemony / Christianity / Atheism
RelBib Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
KBQ North America
ZC Politics in general
Further subjects:B Discourse
B Social media
B Alt-Right
B far-right
B Paganism
B Youtube
B Christianity
B Social Movements
B New Atheism
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Description
Summary:The rise of the Alt-Right has changed the face of the American and international far-right. Although an online movement, it has shown a growing influence on political discourse. One puzzling and understudied aspect of this movement is its relationship to religion. Stanchly anti-Muslim and heavily reliant on Christian identity and iconography, it is nevertheless made-up of a significant number of avowed atheists. A desire to protect Christendom from outside influences is combined with a focus on rationalism and anti-Christianity drawn from the writings of the new atheists. This paper will combine preliminary content analysis of online comments with an examination of prominent alt-right YouTube videos in order to understand the role of these competing ideological strands within the movement. YouTube has become a particularly fertile group for the Alt-Right, with many prominent commentators achieving popularity on the site. Crucially, these mediums allow for the candid observation of deliberation on religious and ideological issues between members of the Alt-Right. This methodology will allow for an understanding of how this group perceives and constructs its own relationship to religion, rather than simply how it presents itself. This paper will therefore seek to make a contribution which is both theoretical and methodological.
ISSN:1583-0039
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the study of religions and ideologies