The problem with the conservative movement, say the founders of the new webzine, Alternative Right, is that conservatives no longer want to ‘go there’.
“The conservative establishment is… brain dead,” said contributing editor and VDARE.com proprietor Peter Brimelow. “We’re trying to do something cutting-edge,” says editor Richard Spencer.
That’s all well and good, save the fact that the cutting-edge ideas that Alternative Right seeks to promote are actually tired, reactionary ideas that harken back to when people found out there were other races. In fact, their new ideas include concepts that the right largely exorcised fifty years ago, like denying women the right to vote.
The site’s frustration lies in their view that white, male conservatives lack the courage to address issues of sex and race with a sense of superiority. “There are races who, on average, are going to be superior,” says Spencer, with implication in tow.
The problem with conservatism today is that, as Spencer puts it, “the conservative establishment is full of politically correct purists” who lack the courage to take up the mantle of what should be a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant America.
It’s tremendously ironic that Alternative Right’s charge against the conservative movement is political correctness, when they themselves hide their sexist and racist ideologies behind the gloss of sweet-sounding, pseudo-intellectual terms.
Instead of spouting racism, Alternative Right is engaging in the much more respectable-sounding analysis of ‘human biological diversity’ and ‘socio-biology’.
Rather than railing against the beast that is first-wave feminism, Richard Spencer’s magazine is actually writing about ‘paleo-masculinity’.
He’s not reactionary – he’s a ‘radical traditionalist’; He’s not castigating race X’s culture – he’s being ‘literary’.
What makes this all the more ironic is that, despite his critique of the right, Spencer was strikingly skittish when I asked if his goal was to make conservatism more ‘racially conscious’. “Racially-conscious? That’s a little bit of a ‘hot word’,” said Spencer.
The academic-sounding terminology might be impressive if backed up with anything but hysterics. Instead, Spencer comes out with statements like:
I would actually oppose mass Japanese immigration for the reason that they would most likely push out my children from getting into college. We might have a new Asian ruling class.
And that having women in the workplace contributes to:
… the wussification of society [and] an economy [that is] far more tame, bureaucratized and far less entrepreneurial.
It’s tough to classify Alternative Right’s ideology as either left or right, when really the ideas belong in some sort of padded room.
Spencer, however, plants his feet squarely in the right’s camp. “We are on the right in some fundamental way,” says Spencer, before admitting that his ideas have been “outside of the bounds of respectable left and right as it has been defined over the last fifty years.”
Exorcised from the mainstream decades ago, where does Alternative Right fit in now?
Spencer is not a Paul-istinian, for Ron Paul too suffers from the failings of political correctness. “Ron Paul is really not a man who is going to discuss some of these more ‘literary’ issues. He’s not going to discuss, say, America as a Western European or Anglo-Saxon Protestant nation,” Spencer says.
Despite this, the website does have a lot in common with the anti-war libertarians. “The right is still in love with war, and talk of spreading democracy…. I think there are people who basically have conservative values and want nothing to do with [this concept],” says Spencer.
That said, Alternative Right is not a libertarian site. “The state is necessary [to stop] immigration – people are not interchangeable… America is not going to be America if it is Hispanicized,” says Spencer.
Are they paleo-conservatives? No. “Sadly, a lot of paleo[-conservatives] now… have actually denounced human biological diversity. Paleo-conservatism is now irrelevant,” declares Spencer.
The website’s prevailing ideology doesn’t even fit within the category of white nationalism, or so Spencer claims. However, he stalled when asked to point out a few differences between his site and a white nationalist site.
“We’re going to talk about literary things, about culture,” said Spencer after some hesitation.
In other words – they’re going to be white nationalists, but, by God, they’re going to be a little fancy about it.
A New “Racist” Conservative Magazine?? - Hip Hop Republican // Mar 10, 2010 at 4:59 am
[...] Tim Mak a writer for Frum Forum has an article out that looks into a new magazine that claims the mantle of Conservatism but on second glance seems to have goals and views that are clearly racist in nature. He argues that the views that the magazine Alternative Right seek to promote are – ”actually tired, reactionary ideas that harken back to when people found out there were other races. In fact, their new ideas include concepts that the right largely exorcised fifty years ago, like denying women the right to vote”. [...]
sinz54 // Mar 10, 2010 at 9:51 am
SpartacusIsNotDead:
I consider IQ tests to be pseudo-science, not science.
Modern theories of intelligence don’t consider intelligence to be some specific quantity that can be measured with a single number.
Heck, even the SAT tests have language proficiency measured separately from math proficiency. And Salvador Dali, who was a great artist, might not have scored particularly well on either.
And no, your blatant attempts at baiting conservatives are far too obvious to work.
You need to be more subtle.
sinz54 // Mar 10, 2010 at 9:56 am
MSheridan:
You read what I wrote, at least.
Ergo, I didn’t waste my time.
sinz54 // Mar 10, 2010 at 10:12 am
The nations of Botswana and Zimbabwe offer almost a controlled experiment in economic success.
Botswana has averaged a growth rate of about 8% per year, far higher than the U.S.
Zimbabwe is an economic basket case.
Are the peoples of Zimbabwe and Botswana so different genetically?
No.
But they are poles apart in their philosophy.
Zimbabwe adopted Marxism.
Botswana adopted Capitalism, with a very strong central bank that keeps a stable currency.
The lesson is clear.
It’s not genetics that makes people unsuccessful.
It’s socialism that makes them unsuccessful.
The only winners in socialism are those of the elite ruling class: The bureaucrats, the scientists, the engineers, the lawyers, and especially the politicians. Everybody else gets shafted.
Patriot628 // Mar 10, 2010 at 11:29 am
24% of Botswanans have AIDS. Typical black behavior, whether in the Caribbean, Africa or America.
Galtonian // Mar 10, 2010 at 1:11 pm
@sinz54
Now we have something we both agree on, that Marxism holds back economic progress!
The population of China is about 90% Han, this ethnic group (part of the East Asian group) has a higher average IQ than Europeans (East Asians ~108, Whites ~100). But thanks to Mao and the Chinese Commies we Americans were given about a 50 year reprieve from having to compete with those smart Chinese. However those smart Chinese have now adopted capitalism and they will no doubt proceed to kick our butts economically. Especially since so much of our efforts are being diverted toward the hopeless task of trying to ensure that lower IQ Blacks and Hispanics achieve at the same level as higher IQ Whites and Asians in primary, secondary, college, and post-graduate level education.
As to Botswana’s relative success, like many other African countries, much of Botswana’s economic growth is due to allowing Chinese companies (and European and Indian companies) to manage major sectors of their economy that require higher IQ and technology. These foreign companies often have to hirer foreign workers because it is difficult to find indigenous Africans who are reliable and capable workers. Because of the overall lower IQs in African countries there are fewer higher IQ indigenous Africans to begin with and then a further problem is the “brain drain” problem in that many of the more capable higher IQ indigenous Africans are electing to emigrate to Europe or America.
Quoted from Wikipedia:
“[Botswanan]Lawmakers have also expressed concern about the rising number of unskilled Chinese labourers coming to Botswana to work in jobs such as ditch-digging, even in deep rural areas.[11] According to government records in 2006, there were 1,094 Chinese citizens legally registered to work in the construction industry in Botswana, slightly more than a third of the total number of legal Chinese residents at the time.[12] A number of construction projects managed by Chinese companies, such as the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport expansion project, primary schools in Serowe, Oriental Plaza, and Dikgathong Dam, illegally employed Chinese workers whose had no work permits or whose permits had not yet been approved.[13] However, in response to these accusations, the Chinese embassy claimed that the work permit process was already very cumbersome and that it was difficult to find locals willing to work on construction projects.[14]“
PlatosRepublic // Mar 10, 2010 at 3:39 pm
I am a long time reader of Frum Forum and frankly I’m surprised that the editors here would allow the non-Western Tim Mak to engage in this sort of anti-Western tirade.
Why does Tim Mak so hate Europeans and European Americans? Do they have the right to exist in his estimation?
I had never heard of this Alternative Right website…but now I think I may start reading it.
SpartacusIsNotDead // Mar 10, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Sinz wrote: “And no, your blatant attempts at baiting conservatives are far too obvious to work.
You need to be more subtle.”
Well, you’re certainly correct in detecting that, like you, I put very little stock, if any, in IQ tests. However, it appears that other posters on this thread put a great deal of stock in them. For those posters, the lower IQs of conservatives and religionists should be a little unsettling.
lesacre // Mar 10, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Sinz54 said:
“In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal”. He didn’t limit that to “all men of the European gene pool,” as these bloggers would.”
and
“JUST LEAVE THE GENETIC PSEUDO-SCIENCE OUT OF IT, OK?”
Here is my initial reply.
http://lesacred.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/the-hereditarian-hypothesis-and-the-banal-charge-of-racism/
lesacre // Mar 10, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Sinz54 said:
“The sequencing of human DNA has finally shown us just what skin color is all about–and it ain’t about much. Go to”
Yes, skin color is just one small part of the total differences that developed over the 40-100 Kya the separated different ancestral populations.
Refer here:
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/image/S0960-9822%2809%2902065-X?imageId=gr2&imageType=large
And here:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/319/5866/1100 as graphically represented here
http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/race.jpg
Occidental Dissent » Blog Archive » Tim Mak on Alt Right // Mar 10, 2010 at 9:42 pm
[...] Mak of Frum Forum has a new hit piece on Alternative Right. The article is called “The New Racist Right.” It is standard [...]
VDARE Friend Richard Spencer Starts New Group “Alternative Right” :: Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) // Mar 11, 2010 at 8:35 pm
[...] to address “AltRight and Its Enemies,” complaining about articles by Imagine 2050 and Tim Mak on the new “Alternative Right” organization. In Richard Spencer’s article on [...]
Alternative Right’s Ugly Racism | FrumForum // Mar 13, 2010 at 9:09 am
[...] Mak is right: the website Alternative Right is run by a white nationalist, for white [...]
wonda // Mar 13, 2010 at 11:10 am
I’m frankly disgusted by some of the disgusting racism on here. And the simplistic notions of IQ and race. I’d like to know what the IQs of some of these posters are.
If whites are inherently superior in intelligence, what accounts for all the stupid rednecks out there? Do you really think Sarah Palin would do well on an IQ test? Or others of her ilk?
I have taught in both rural and urban poor schools. I can tell you there is not a scintilla of difference in the IQs of the students in these schools. What they have in common is ignorance and poverty and poor diets and parents who are ignorant and poor and provide them with poor diets. And chaos in their home environments.
Furthermore, a small vocabulary is a huge contributing factor to poor IQ test results. And poor scores on SAT tests. People who are poor and ignorant tend to have small vocabularies. Or different ones.
If you are asked a question in academic English and you don’t know what the words mean, of course you are not going to be able to answer the question. How is that a valid measure of your intelligence?
Richard Spencer and the ugly white nationalism of the ‘Alternative Right’ - E.D. Kain - American Times - True/Slant // Mar 13, 2010 at 3:51 pm
[...] Tim Mak and Alex Knepper both take turns picking apart Richard Spencer’s new website, Alternative Right. They’re both right, of course: Spencer and Derbyshire* and Sailer** and the rest of the far-right-wingers at Alternative Right represent the ugly – and yes racist – underbelly of ‘alt’ conservatism. This is white nationalism, folks, dressed up in faux-intellectualism. Indeed, they are so ‘alternative’ that Spencer has disavowed paleo-conservatism altogether, claiming that “Sadly, a lot of paleo[-conservatives] now… have actually denounced human biological diversity. Paleo-conservatism is now irrelevant.” [...]
Alternative Right= Racism? – Republicans United. // Mar 14, 2010 at 12:12 am
[...] Tim Mak, Alex Knepper and E.D. Kain have noted, this magazine is basically a gathering place for racists [...]
Dennis Sanders: Alternative Right Magazine = Racism? - Hip Hop Republican // Mar 14, 2010 at 12:54 pm
[...] Tim Mak, Alex Knepper and E.D. Kain have noted, this magazine is basically a gathering place for racists [...]
M Pearle // Mar 15, 2010 at 6:31 am
***BTW, analysis of human mitochondrial DNA shows that there is no longer ANY pure racial stock of any race. And that the differences in genetics among people of a race are actually larger than the genetic differences among races. Skin color is a relatively minor trait; few other genes are linked to it.***
sinz54 ,
This is the Lewontin Fallacy, explained by the Cambridge geneticist AWF Edwards in 2003. It is discussed here by Steve Hsu:
“Further technical comment: you may have read the misleading statistic, spread by the intellectually dishonest Lewontin, that 85% percent of all human genetic variation occurs within groups and only 15% between groups. The statistic is true, but what is often falsely claimed is that this breakup of variances (larger within group than between group) prevents any meaningful genetic classification of populations. This false conclusion neglects the correlations in the genetic data that are revealed in a cluster analysis. See here for a simple example which shows that there can be dramatic group differences in phenotypes even if every version of every gene is found in two groups — as long as the frequency or probability distributions are distinct.”
Geneticists such as as Neil Risch and Hua Tang have shown that groups consistently fall into clusters that reflect the traditional ethnic groups:
” Numerous recent studies using a variety of genetic markers have shown that, for example, individuals sampled worldwide fall into clusters that roughly correspond to continental lines, as well as to the commonly used self-identifying racial groups: Africans, European/West Asians, East Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans (Bowcock et al. 1994; Calafell et al. 1998; Rosenberg et al. 2002)…
Subjects identified themselves as belonging to one of four major racial/ethnic groups (white, African American, East Asian, and Hispanic) and were recruited from 15 different geographic locales within the United States and Taiwan. Genetic cluster analysis of the microsatellite markers produced four major clusters, which showed near-perfect correspondence with the four self-reported race/ethnicity categories.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1196372/
As Hsu discusses:
“There is no strong evidence yet for specific gene variants (alleles) that lead to group differences (differences between clusters) in behavior or intelligence, but progress on the genomic side of this question will be rapid in coming years, as the price to sequence a genome is dropping at an exponential rate.
What seems to be true (from preliminary studies) is that the gene variants that were under strong selection (reached fixation) over the last 10k years are different in different clusters. That is, the way that modern people in each cluster differ, due to natural selection, from their own ancestors 10k years ago is not the same in each cluster — we have been, at least at the genetic level, experiencing divergent evolution.
In fact, recent research suggests that 7% or more of all our genes are mutant versions that replaced earlier variants through natural selection over the last tens of thousands of years. There was little gene flow between continental clusters (“races”) during that period, so there is circumstantial evidence for group differences beyond the already established ones (superficial appearance, disease resistance). ”
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2008/01/no-scientific-basis-for-race.html
M Pearle // Mar 15, 2010 at 6:42 am
***If whites are inherently superior in intelligence, what accounts for all the stupid rednecks out there? Do you really think Sarah Palin would do well on an IQ test? Or others of her ilk?***
Individuals within a population vary. The point is that groups have different averages, which leads to considerable differences at the upper levels. For instance, the difference between the tallest man and the shortest man is greater than the average difference between the heights of men and women. However, if you’re looking at people above 6 feet tall a greater proportion will be men.
Similarly, with differences in iq group averages you see differences in the proportion from respective groups at certain levels. An example is Ashkenazi Jews. Psychologists and educational researchers have pegged their average IQ at 107.5 to 115. That’s only modestly higher than the overall European average of 100, but the gap is large enough to produce a huge difference in the proportion of at the top end. When a group’s average IQ is 100, the percentage of people above 140 is 0.4%; when the average is 110, the rate is 2.3%. So you get a higher proportion in academia or the professions.
A common issue is complaints about a lack of non asian minorities in certain professions or being hired at colleges. But if groups have different averages, then you would expect unequal proportions at the higher end. This can be parsimoniously explained by average group differences due to different evolutionary paths over the past 50,000 years (ie. what James Watson noted in his book ‘Avoid Boring People’).
MSheridan // Mar 15, 2010 at 6:48 pm
This argument is ridiculous on several grounds, but I’ll limit myself to two, which is still treating it more seriously than it deserves. First, the measured differences between groups vary so widely over time that it is clear that the testing methodology is suspect in the extreme, not particularly surprising considering “intelligence tests,” so called, weren’t originally invented to be tests of intelligence. Even now what they measure is not, properly speaking, intelligence, mostly because intelligence itself is still ill-defined. Then too, some of the differences that have been measured can be traced with relative ease to non-heritable cultural factors, such as the advantage in mathematics enjoyed by many Asians that is given by several of the much more math-friendly Asian languages.
Second, even were it true (and I assert this only as a mental exercise–I do not believe it is), the proposition that there are real heritable differences in mental ability between different groups of individuals would have zero applicability in the real world. The most unabashed proponent of the theory would find it nearly impossible to assert with a straight face that exceptional ability may NOT be found in individuals of any given group. So if we were to somehow discover that people of Irish descent were slightly more likely, on average, to test poorly, what would that actually mean in policy terms? Would high testing Irish-descended people like me be somehow penalized therefore? If so, why? If we are trying to find the smartest “race” on the planet (even realizing that the laws of statistics require it will necessarily contain a large number of dolts), what will we do once we find it? Put them in charge? Because they somehow need the help? Of course, the same question of applicability could be raised if we were to try to establish the least-gifted “race,” assuming one existed. Given that we don’t come even close to educating children to the limits of their ability now, it is surely unnecessary to worry that we may be educating some of them past their limits.
Once upon a time, it was a “progressive” view to subscribe to eugenics. The conservatives of the day were right to oppose it. It would be more than a shame if some few conservatives revived the fallacies that underlay that movement.
Orly // Mar 15, 2010 at 9:36 pm
If I have to choose my politics, I choose David Frum over Richard Hoste 9 out of 10 times.
Hoste strikes me as anti-free trade, anti-american and probably an anti-Semite. However, there is no question that he is correct, as are the posters Galtonian and M Pearle, on the issue of racial group differences. You don’t have to look into the literature and science very hard to find out how robust and significant the differences are, and how the environmental explanations fail time and time again. Calling people “racist” for being minimally acquainted with this knowledge is absurd. However, as a political matter, it’s wise to shut-up about it publicly while supporting the correct policies.
Orly // Mar 15, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Saying IQ doesn’t matter = dead wrong and profoundly ignorant. Read “The Bell Curve” to see how much it matters in determining life outcomes — from income to occupational status to deciding whom to hire for a job to criminal behavior… on and on. It matters. A lot. If you don’t believe me you simply aren’t familiar with decades of research that consistently show its predictive influence.
Control for IQ and blacks to nearly or just as well as whites on many socio-economic variables. Now that’s strange, isn’t it? Whites with IQ’s of 85 do awful in life compared to someone with an IQ of 100. But… but… *scratches head*
Ask yourself, Does the average IQ of a country correlate very strongly with IQ? If so, should that matter as far as immigration policy is concerned?
Orly // Mar 15, 2010 at 11:34 pm
“Ask yourself, Does the average IQ of a country correlate very strongly with IQ?”
Should have read, Does the average IQ of a country correlate very strongly with GDP?
nhthinker // Apr 22, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Do you believe in Briggs-Myers personality tests?
It clearly shows a significant difference in the percentage of men that lean toward thinking versus feeling versus the percentage of woman that lean toward thinking versus feeling.
As a whole the American electorate now has a higher percentage of voters than tend toward feeling versus thinking. That might not be wussification: what word would feel right to you?
JFG // Apr 24, 2010 at 1:57 am
Thank God for AlternativeRight.com.
Neocons like David Frum have ruined the Republican Party. A neocon is a liberal who likes war, at least if the war is deemed to be beneficial to Israel. On domestic policy neocons are indistinguishable from Democrats. Like the Democrats they favor big spending government programs — such as Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, which greatly expanded the role of the federal government in our local schools, and Bush’s unfunded, budget busting Medicare prescription drug program. Neocons are totally unconcerned about monster deficits. Like Democrats they favor the anti-white discrimination known as affirmative action. Like Democrats they favor open borders. Neocons believe that we must not only have legal immigration well in excess of one million people a year but must not enforce immigration law at all, and instead let 20 million illegal aliens stay here forever. Of course they do not object to Israel’s Jew-0nly immigration policy. Neocons have no respect for our Constitution. The Patriot Act was written before the 9/11 attacks, it was waiting in the wings for just such an event. Congress passed it in the panic following the attacks, and as usual few of them bothered to read the bill. The Patriot Act shreds the Bill of Rights, and only non-neocon conservatives like Ron Paul seem to care.
If recognizing average differences among races is racist, then acknowledging reality is racist. So we have two choices: Lie in public or be called a racist. Most people take the easy way out and take the first choice. But look where they choose to live and where they send their children to be educated and you will find that most people who swear up and down that all races are the same really believe otherwise. The Clintons could have saved a lot of money on their house had they moved into diverse Mount Vernon or Hempstead, New York. Instead they paid an outrageous sum to live in lily white Chappaqua. The Clintons are Democrats, but neocons do the same.