Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by gjsman-1000 1603 days ago
Ben Shapiro is, even though I disagree with him on many things, certainly not alt-right. He is very pro-vaccination and condemned January 6th as an ugly day in American history. His advice to people basically is work hard, get married, have a family, and don't be a criminal.
2 comments
PickledHotdog 1603 days ago
While actively denying it's much easier to avoid being a convicted criminal if you're white or rich or both
link
gjsman-1000 1603 days ago
He has stated that black incarceration rate is higher and does not deny it. He does not address too much why the rate is higher (he suspects it is related to the same reasons why the marriage is much lower among black people), but he does not actively deny it in any way.
link
dfadsadsf 1603 days ago
At least in US the best way to avoid being incarcerated is being Asian. Does Ben deny it?
link
p1necone 1603 days ago
Maybe he didn't quite follow the same trajectory of radicalization/insanity as the rest of the alt-right, but he was definitely a poster child of the movement at some point. Him claiming to not be doesn't really change anything.
link
gjsman-1000 1603 days ago
The alt-right a loose collection (with overlaps) of January 6th supporters, anti-vaccination activists, people who believe the election was stolen, white supremacists, and so forth.

Ben Shapiro is pro-vax, does not believe the election was stolen, and has had the FBI arrest alt-right people who made death threats against him multiple times over the years. "Poster child of the movement?" Unless you consider alt-right to be completely the same as far-right, that was never the case. No movement makes death threats against their poster child.

link
_-david-_ 1603 days ago
Ben Shapiro was one of the people most attacked by the alt-right. The alt right isn't a big fan of Jews after all.
link
refurb 1603 days ago
“Alt-right” is just a label slapped on an unacceptable right-of-center viewpoint that attempts to lump it in with racism, authoritarianism, etc.

It’s kind of a useless label at this point, since it’s thrown around so much.

link
jjgreen 1603 days ago
According to Wikipedia [1], the term was coined by American white nationalist Richard B. Spencer and shortened to "alt-right" and popularised by far-right participants of /pol/, the politics board of web forum 4chan.

So more a label that they slapped on themselves.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-right

link
refurb 1603 days ago
That Wikipedia article seems like a stretch?

A white nationalist launched a webzine called “The Alternative Right”.

Then “His term was shortened to "alt-right" and popularised by far-right participants of /pol/, the politics board of web forum 4chan.”

So other people used the term alt-right and somehow it’s linked to a webzine?

link
jjgreen 1603 days ago
You could always correct that article then.
link