6 From Alt-right to Hard Right

As Field (2025, pp.  126-127) describes it, “This chapter is about  (the) ugly underbelly of the New Right … personalities we encounter here are adept at weaving tantalizing conspiracies about, for example, the dark female forces that ruthlessly dominate the commanding heights of politics and culture in America today. They have a knack for being deeply aggrieved by the most basic institutions and norms of liberal government, deeming them evil and plotting revenge, in a way that far surpasses anything on the left. And while the alt-right lost some of its momentum during this period, the ideas it promoted were being mainstreamed through places like the Claremont Institute.”   The extremism of the alt-right to hard right framed the assault on Modern Government starting especially on January 20, 2025, with it supposedly justified in the frame of said Government being some kind of evil “deep state.” Empirical evidence, please. 

Stephen Bannon is one of said “personalities.”  Stephen Miller another.  Others pointed to by Field include Richard Spencer, Paul Gottfried, Darren Beattie, Jason Jorjani, Michael Anton, Curtis Yarvin, Costin Alamariu, Jason Richwine, Jack Murphy,  and Ryan Williams … the list is long, and even a few with some academic credentials.

Bannon is a former naval officer, with master’s degrees from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and Harvard University.  Bannon is all about wreaking havoc on the supposed deep state, an imaginary state.  Bannon is also a self-proclaimed “economic nationalist” whatever that means.   Bannon was also a key figure along with Stephen Miller in the banning of Muslims coming into the country. Bannon is a huge fan of Thucydides and the Spartans, the manly frame ensured by violent control over all the inferiors. 

Miller has an undergraduate degree at Duke University, graduating in 2007 with a degree in political science.  Miller is closely associated with Bannon, and with Richard Spencer.  The latter --- Spencer --- worked toward a PhD degree in the Duke history department (dropped out to pursue extremist activities), having earned a BA from the University of Virginia in 2001 and an MA from the Humanities program at the University of Chicago in 2003. Spencer has been called a neo-Nazi, and, has revealed a lean toward being a white-nationalist, which is also a leaning of Miller. Spencer is all in on the belief in the heritability of IQ --- and some races, it is claimed, are inherently inferior.  So, it is about “peaceful ethnic cleansing” which likely undergirds what has turned into an extreme attempt with face-covered “immune” from the law ICE agents, charged with finding and removing 10-11 million “illegal” immigrants. Spencer has a deep contempt for Democracy, and, perhaps guilty by association, so does Miller. One reason:  The immigrants from the non-white races are too dumb to vote intelligently, and said immigrants supposedly always vote for Democrats, so remove all who are here, and stop the rest from coming.  Empirical evidence, please. Spencer is associated with the “Hail Trump” ala “Hail Hitler” salute at a right-wing event.

Paul Gottfried, PhD from Yale University, is credited with coining the term “paleoconservative.”  So, Gottfried et al (with some help here from ChatGPT 5.2) “emphasizes tradition, nationalism, cultural continuity, and skepticism toward modern liberal institutions. The prefix paleo (“ancient” or “original”) signals its self-image as a return to an older conservatism—pre–Cold War, pre–civil rights era, and pre–neoliberal globalization.”  So, turn back toward the 1500s, like in Project 1500 (oops, keep making that typo, 2025). No Progress is to be tolerated.

Darren Beattie, PhD in political science from Duke University, is connected with the Claremont Institute.  Beattie is all on forming an anti-globalist intelligentsia.  Beattie is close with Bannon, and Michael Anton. Beattie is an enthusiastic supporter of “(Michael) Millerman … a University of Toronto PhD who writes apologetics for the neo-fascist Russian thinker Aleksandr Dugin (Field 2025, p. 131).”  It seems reasonable to presume Beattie is all in on the modern version, as in neofascism, a more subtle and harder to see (and harder to stop) form of the old fascism of the 1930’s Europe.  Russia invading for the purpose of taking over Ukraine, well, neofascists are all in.

Jason Jorjani, PhD in philosophy from SUNY Stony Brook, is all in on “the revival of ‘Indo-European world order’ based in a de-Islamicized Iran (Field 2025, p. 132).”  Jorjani is an Iranian-American. The anti-Muslim frame is clear.

Curtis Yarvin, Brown University undergraduate degree, dropped out of a PhD program in computer science at Berkeley, is one of the purveyors of the Bronze Age Mindset and the Dark Enlightenment. Yarvin is “a pioneer of nerdy avant-garde and right-wing bro-speak…  may be nothing on the New Right more depressing than the rise of Curtis Yarvin  (Field 2025, p. 135).”  Yarvin is a bit of an enigma, as in believing in a kind of digitized “turbocapitalism” but is against anything in the progressive agenda. Field (2025, pp. 135-136) points to Yarvin wanting a  “new technocratic absolute monarchy, and his blogging is full of appeals to strongmen and Caesarism, which has had an impact on (Peter) Thiel and many others across the New Right (in 2024 he recommended Elon Musk for the role of American Caesar).” 

And on white nationalism and racism, well, Yarvin seems not really opposed. Yarvin is also known for the phrase “the Cathedral” which is all the progressives with a left-lean and represented in the  media, government, and the academy. Well, yes: Said entities deal with science-based facts, working to put fact content to truth, which the alt-right and hard right disdains. Yarvin is known for such catch phrases as  RAGE, for “Retire All Government Employees.” Yarvin et al who are using said framing --- along with the manly Bronze Age Mindset which (help from ChatGPT 5.2 here) “explicitly rejects modern academic standards of evidence, peer review, and empirical validation” ---  are also Extreme Libertarians, like represented in the DOGE  debacle.  The Bronze Age Mindset is also associated with the Dark Enlightenment (again, some help from ChatGPT) which “argues that modern society is a mistake and that hierarchy, rule by elites, and exit from democracy are both inevitable and desirable.” So, what could possibly go wrong? Just asking.

Costin Alamariu, undergraduate degree from MIT, and PhD in Straussian political philosophy from Yale, is all in on the Bronze Age Mindset (author of a book by said name) and the Dark Enlightenment.  Field (2025, p. 138) points to Alamariu X/Twitter feeds as alternating “between racist spewings, photographs of white muscle men posing on beaches around the world, and prowar propaganda. His life’s goal appears to be to inspire bodily and military strength among young white men, to weaken or destroy everyone else, especially women, and to be worshiped as a god himself for having the courage to speak openly in such terms … (and, on p. 139) Bronze Age man …  revolted against the feminine tyranny of the Iron Age, exerted his power, and invented political order and rule, and this was exceptional and great.” So, the frame of a vertical power rule of men, literally, styled system comes through clearly. It will also reduce if not eliminate homosexuality, as the manly man would never be a homosexual. Field also points to the Alamariu podcast, which is even more outrageous.

Darren Beatty is all about stirring a New Right intelligentsia. As Field (2025, p. 142) says it:   Beattie’s concern  (is) that right-wing political victories might not translate into ‘something of real philosophic significance.’ He was right to be concerned.”  Yes.  It is not only concern, but reality:  The New Right is based in largely ideological and theological claims without empirical merit. Also, as Field highlights, the normalization of right-wing extremism is the play.  It is not about bringing serious and systematic inquiry using legitimate science & humanities (including philosophy) into play: It is about imposing extreme alt-right and hard right beliefs and views on everyone else, and reality is not in play.  Total disregard for truth for purpose (again, as Harry Frankfurt calls it, Bullshit) is the play.

Ryan Williams, President of the Claremont Institute, has especially been involved in said normalization. Williams referred to writings about the Bronzed Age Mindset as “philosophical art.”  Really. Williams has indicated pride in having influenced the Administration put into power on January 20, 2025 with the extreme views of the alt-right and hard right. Radicalizing the youth is also cheered.  Why? Just asking.