The alt-right. White supremacists. Nazis. Guys with Pepe the frog pictures as their avatars on Twitter. Whatever you want to call them, these figures have become a major part of the American political conversation these days. Their mix of irony, Internet memes, and horrific racism is so common and uniform that it almost seems like it's almost an organized plan. Like it was someone's bright idea to present hateful Nazi views in this manner.
Well, thanks to Ashley Feinberg at The Huffington Post, we now know that it was an organized plan and it is someone's idea. Feinberg got her hands on the style guide for noted white supremacy website The Daily Stormer and it is a harrowing read.
Aside from the things you'd expect `to find in a website's style guide (insert "grammar nazi" joke here), the guide also includes what can only be described as strategy. Strategy for winning the hearts and minds of a new generation of young people.
Yeah, that terrible, awful "I'm just joking, why are you getting so mad?" tone they use? That's by design. But there it is, in black and white—"this is obviously a ploy." The goal is to make their feelings of hatred more palatable to people by disguising it with humor. It creates an acceptable on-ramp to white supremacy. Someone starts by laughing at the racist "jokes," then they begin making racist "jokes," and then, before they know it, they'll feel comfortable believing the things that they're making jokes about.
Additionally, the guide also includes their true priorities and even though those priorities are pretty clear from the things the write about, there's something astounding about seeing it written in such instructional form.
And perhaps what is most terrifying and depressing about this is just how successful this type of strategy has been in wooing people to the cause. According to the guide, The Daily Stormer's traffic is up and judging by Twitter and events like Charlottesville, it's bleeding into the real world in real ways. There was a time when the idea of being a Nazi was something to be ashamed of. These people are trying their best to change that.