Christian+E’s+2017+OpEd+Article



I have grown up with the assumption that being a liberal, being someone who wants to see society and the government move forward, someone who wants to change the status quo, was synonymous with being someone who is countercultural, and some sort of “rebel”. As someone who considers himself a democrat, a person who will without a shadow of a doubt vote blue in the next election cycle, I cannot say I was the least bit happy when I heard the news of Donald Trump’s election by the American people. My instinctive reaction was that the only conceivable way that someone as unqualified as Mr. Trump could take the Oval Office was if he was creating some truly incredible lies. A recent poll from the alternative right wing “news” organization known as Breitbart revealed that a mere 15% of Trump voters trust the media. This statistic only serves to affirm my belief that Trump supporters trust him more than the traditional media, leading to “alternative” facts finding their way into the heads of more people than ever before. During our last presidency, the administration was attempting to right some of the wrongs committed by our nation, by offering up assistance and support to minority groups through programs like affirmative action. It is my belief that a whole new political movement has been spawned by young, white males who -- for reasons I cannot comprehend -- believe that they, the privileged, are now the oppressed. The one thing some teenage boys hate more than homework and personal hygiene, is being told they cannot say a certain word or phrase. My generation, who has grown up in the culture of the internet, where anonymity is to a certain degree possible, and hate speech is tolerated in certain corners, simply cannot handle being told they should not shout the N-word while spending the majority of their Saturday on Xbox Live. My experience with this group, has been that many of these boys are ignorant or uninterested in history or politics. The people I've known like this weren't exactly what I'd describe as high achievers in school, and likely tuned out when their teacher explained the history of minority mistreatment in the U.S. While it's true that this age group is for the most part, not particularly politically active, I sometimes fear that these opinions being formed could perhaps influence our future political climate.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones affirmed these views through “alternative facts” and falsified statistics. Alt-right leader Alex Jones runs a network called InfoWars which has garnered over a million subscribers on YouTube, and receives thousands of dollars worth of donations every month. Early on Jones was considered obscure with no real platform for influence, but recently, that has changed. President Trump was interviewed on InfoWars last year, in this interview, he expressed deep respect for Alex Jones and the supporters of InfoWars. Many young white males are now drawn to figures like Jones, for their news. The alt-right has another faction within, made up of pseudo-intellectual, racists who -- like the group I mentioned earlier -- share the common feeling that white rights are being infringed upon. This group has come to the conclusion that as more couples are made up of mixed races, the white race is being eliminated. They refer to it as “white genocide” and see the only solution is to help elect Donald Trump, the only man who could stop the white race from being “exterminated”.

Some have attributed the formation of the alt-right to the left’s push for political correctness, and their encouragement of using correct pronouns with respect to people's gender. Perhaps this anger is actually a form of fear, toward the change that is occurring in our society. In my opinion, people have always had difficulty with the idea of accepting change, especially changes that are uncomfortable. It is common for people to resist periods of social change, but when they refuse to follow it, it becomes what I consider oppressive. Americans need to find a way to accept various others, with differing lifestyles without building walls, or banning certain religions from entering our country. Our only course of action from my point of view is to stay informed, fight hate with facts, and never lose our strength. However, one thing is clear to me right now, and that is that we are living through a significant period of history, and what we choose to do, or not to do in these coming months and perhaps years, will shape the future of this country forever.