Bait and Switch: The American Alt-Right’s Manufactured Martyrdom

Exclusionary notions of American national identity have been endemic since the country’s founding. Since the Culture Wars, they have returned with vengeance. One of their champions is a new generation of tech savvy activists known as the Alt-Right. This is a movement that embraces a vision of America that is unapologetically white and Christian supremacist, misogynistic and xenophobic. Rather than see the Alt-Right as an outlier, the authors of this book treat it as an integral part of an endemic battler over the articulation of American national identity. Critically, what distinguishes these cyber warriors from other far-right movements is their rhetorical style. Their far-right counterparts employ muscular rhetoric and demand the right to dominate. The Alt-Right, on the other hand, has opted for a weapons-of-the-weak strategy and accuses adversaries of persecuting them. Embracing a cult of victimhood, this shift in rhetorical tactic is not only a matter of gaslighting; its goal is to justify potential acts of violence.

Anastaja Abraham is a PhD Candidate in political science at Northeastern University. Her research focuses on American nationalism, especially the nationalist expressions of far-right movements.

Amílcar Antonio Barreto is a professor and chair in the Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies at Northeastern University. He received his law degree and PhD from the University at Buffalo, SUNY. His research focuses on nationalism, race, ethnicity and gender.