The alt-right arrives in Alexandria

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The ‘alt-right’ arrives in Alexandria

January 26, 2017

By Chris Teale

[e-mail]
@chris_teale

Last week, a new website dedicated to the self-proclaimed “alt-right” launched, with its operations based on King Street in the heart of Old Town {Alexandria, Virginia}.
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The AltRight.com website lists three members of its leadership team: Daniel Friberg, Jason Jorjani and Richard Spencer. The trio did not respond to requests for comment.
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And in an interview with The Atlantic earlier this month, Spencer said the new headquarters in Alexandria will serve as more than an office for his new project. He said the space — confirmed to be at the intersection of King and North Patrick streets by multiple business owners and residents — will include areas for video making and functions on the outdoor patio.

I emailed him regarding the use of the term "alt-right":

Hi. About the article in the Alex Times about Richard Spencer. Alex Times is not a member of the Associated Press, I suspect. You might follow their style book regardless. AP has issued guidelines on the use of the term "alt-right." The term exists to make the white supremacist crowd sound as if the "alternative" is on a level with choosing Pepsi over Coke. Just a perfectly normal, day-to-day choice. They should be called by what they are: white supremacists. Here is what AP had to say.

Best wishes.

https://blog.ap.org/behind-the-news/writing-about-the-alt-right
Writing about the ‘alt-right’

Nov. 28, 2016, by John Daniszewski

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Usage

“Alt-right” (quotation marks, hyphen and lower case) may be used in quotes or modified as in the “self-described” or “so-called alt-right” in stories discussing what the movement says about itself.

Avoid using the term generically and without definition, however, because it is not well known and the term may exist primarily as a public-relations device to make its supporters’ actual beliefs less clear and more acceptable to a broader audience. In the past we have called such beliefs racist, neo-Nazi or white supremacist.
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Be specific and call it straight

Finally, when writing on extreme groups, be precise and provide evidence to support the characterization.

We should not limit ourselves to letting such groups define themselves, and instead should report their actions, associations, history and positions to reveal their actual beliefs and philosophy, as well as how others see them.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. A One-Stop Shop for the Alt-Right

A ‘One-Stop Shop’ for the Alt-Right

The white nationalist leader Richard Spencer is setting up a headquarters in the Washington area.

Rosie Gray | Jan 12, 2017

Richard Spencer, one of the best-known leaders of the white nationalist movement that has adopted the name “alt-right,” has—by his standards—been laying relatively low lately. Spencer’s never shied away from the media, but an outbreak of Nazi salutes caught on video by The Atlantic at his organization’s conference in November caused an overwhelming uproar, making Spencer a target within his own movement and threatening his carefully cultivated image as the alt-right’s approachable face.

Add to that a planned neo-Nazi march against Jews in Spencer’s town of Whitefish, Montana, stemming from his feud with a local woman whom he accused of harassing his mother, a dilletantish congressional-run trial balloon, and getting banned from Twitter for a while, and it hasn’t been the best couple of months for Spencer. Meanwhile, the movement he takes credit for naming has been riven by internal feuds over “Hailgate.”

This month, Spencer’s rebooting again: He is renting a “hub” for the alt-right movement in a townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia. Spencer and Jason Jorjani, the editor-in-chief of Arktos, a publishing arm associated with the alt-right, have bought the domain name altright.com. Spencer and Jorjani met at the conference for the National Policy Institute, Spencer’s innocuously named think tank, where attendees gave Nazi salutes as Spencer shouted “Hail Trump” from the stage. They quickly formed a bond, and are now joining forces to brand themselves as the intellectual leaders of the alt-right.