Alt-Right: Age of Rage (2018)

Alt-Right: Age of Rage review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

In 2008, Richard Spencer developed a new term called the Alternative Right, a term to be used for a new breed of conservatives that embraced a louder and bolder claim. Shortened to alt-right, he spawned a movement that made racism and hatred more palatable for conservatives. It all started with a blog that wasn’t as crystal-clear with its bigotry. The blog entitled AltRight merely suggested that “maybe” we should try black genocide. As one interviewer describes them best, they are the more brandable version of white supremacy.

Alt-Right: Age of Rage reveals this new brand of white supremacists and why it is so important to nip this political movement in the butt. Anyone who is active online is most likely aware of all these jerks. Richard Spencer, Gavin McInnes, and Milo Yionopolis among others are trotted out and showcased for their gross racist behavior that has been proven dangerous to this point. There’s a lot that led to their rise in popularity; Donald Trump, YouTube, and alt-right media are all factors. Trump’s induction has led to comfort where most bigotted feel encouraged to come out of the shadows and make their voices heard. YouTube and alt-right media have done the same to a broader degree.

This is a troubling aspect that makes the documentary tough to support. On one hand, all the alt-right goons are showcased to a degree that we can how flawed and hypocritical they are. Gavin at one point mentions how violence is a necessary tool to squashing those against them, remarking that it is an effective way to make your point known. And yet a major claim against the push back from the anti-right protestors of Antifa is that they are too violent when in truth their many protests have resulted in zero deaths. The alt-right protest death numbers? Well, even one is too many and nearly everyone knows of ONE incident in particular. But on the other hand, this documentary is also giving these nuts another platform. And so we have to ask if it’s worth giving these folks who have tons of media coverage even more of that.

In the bigger scheme to silence the alt-right, I can understand the bitterness. Yet I’m conflicted because simply ignoring these people will not make them go away. We can’t act like their nobodies when they literally inspire violence, chanting in the streets and running over protesters. It’s a quandary that leads one to easily take satisfaction in a protestor punching Richard Spencer in the face. Some may label this action counter-productive but the alt-right itself is already counter-productive. Some may remark that this is the act of the radical left, implying that punching Neo-Nazis won’t solve anything. The paradox of this logic, however, is that being tolerant of the intolerant is not tolerant. It’s a tough ideology to follow but it’s one that is simple enough by not thinking that the guy who thinks “maybe” all blacks should be destroyed should “maybe” have a platform. Let’s not pretend this is some high school debate team where we have to be fair and cordial to those who want to eradicate Jews and blacks.

Alt-Right: Age of Rage is at least willing to ask the tough question if they should talk to the alt-right at all. One interviewer says it’s impossible when they have prevailed so much. The alt-right must be challenged to avoid them quietly slipping into the discourse and becoming a mainstream method of political belief, that white people are being persecuted to the point where they need to be violent against those evil lefties. There are no “both sides” to this battle. The protest in Charlottesville that resulted in a protester being run over by a white supremacist, an act that was previously discussed by the alt-right prior to the protest, is not a “both sides” battle. Richard Spencer said the car incident was sad but refuses to “play the game” by reexamining their movement. That really says it all; the movement is more important than human life. They are not a party of good ideas. This may seem obvious and that another documentary on them may seem redundant but they still remain. And they’re cowards. Nearly every documentary I’ve seen on them has portrayed them as coddled bullies standing on shaky ground. Though the film is fair by remaining distant enough to let the talking heads talk, these snapshots will eventually have to boil into something more. But for what it is, Age of Rage is more notable as a piece to a larger puzzle of the ugly shift in American politics that has bred inhumanity to “own the left.”