Alt-right is just a meaningless catch-all term to describe someone who is sarcastic and "not-liberal."
Unfortunately, this isn't true. There definitely is movement afoot on the right side of the spectrum that distinguishes itself from the standard U.S. "conservative" camp of roughly the mid-1960s to present in many disturbing ways (open and enthusiastic embrace of race-baiting techniques, climate change denialism, and an abdiding belief that political correctness is basically the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced) that many traditional conservatives actually find quite ridiculous and/or outright repugnant.
The WP entry may not be the best, but for further research here are two fairly cogent descriptions you may consult, from two (otherwise, in a normal world) diametrically opposed sources -- NPR and Glenn Beck.
The wikipedia entry[1] is even worse. It literally lists the associated platforms as including: "white supremacism, Islamophobia, antifeminism, homophobia, antisemitism, ethno-nationalism". You'd swear these people, whoever they are, are the American ISIS.
helpfulanon: I think there are more people than you expected here who are willing to state that they lean right. (That's not the same as "closeted alt-right" by any means.) Some of those people are a bit strident right now. But there are a bunch of people who lean left who are pretty bitter, too. And I think that the only thing that changed was that we had an election. Those people who lean right, leaned right before the election. They didn't just come here in the past week to triumphantly throw their weight around.
newswriter99: According to your definition. I don't think that's the right definition, though. Wikipedia's definition seems pretty accurate: "The alt-right is a loose group of people with far right ideologies who reject mainstream conservatism in the United States." That's why they're "alt" - they reject the normal, mainstream right. So not everyone who voted Republican is alt-right. Trump, however, is certainly not a candidate who embraced normal conservatism, so it might be fair to call him an alt-right candidate.
The Wikipedia goes on to say (also, quoting Wikipedia as a source, kek) that there's no telling how many of the "alt-right" are trolling, how many are dead serious, and how many fall in between.
I repeat my previous statement: the term is meaningless.
One tell of someone who supports the goals of the alt-right is use of oddball terms like "kek." So you're not a disinterested bystander curious about the labeling of the alt-right, you are most likely a member of the alt-right, and as claimed above, attempting to extend the Overton window.
Unfortunately, this isn't true. There definitely is movement afoot on the right side of the spectrum that distinguishes itself from the standard U.S. "conservative" camp of roughly the mid-1960s to present in many disturbing ways (open and enthusiastic embrace of race-baiting techniques, climate change denialism, and an abdiding belief that political correctness is basically the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced) that many traditional conservatives actually find quite ridiculous and/or outright repugnant.
The WP entry may not be the best, but for further research here are two fairly cogent descriptions you may consult, from two (otherwise, in a normal world) diametrically opposed sources -- NPR and Glenn Beck.
http://www.npr.org/2016/08/26/491452721/the-history-of-the-a...
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/15/politics/glenn-beck-bannon-app...
Like Beck says, while Trump supporters generally cannot be fairly categorized as alt-right, "they are being influenced without knowing it."