You know who else was really into aesthetics

You know who else was really into aesthetics

by digby

A movement of good looking clean-cut men

Elle Reeve, who made that Vice documentary about the Charlottesville rally was on Nicole Wallace's show and had some very interesting insights into this movement. She has followed up with some of the people she interviewed and Wallace asked her what their next steps are. She said:

They want to avoid PR disasters like killing a person. But they also want to focus on aesthetics. That means getting rid of swastikas because they call that a dead ideology so there's no point in bringing that out.

They also want to cut out, as they call it, white trash. They want to look like a middle class movement with clean cut good looking men. Its a movement focused on aesthetics. They want to look like successful people so that people want to join them.

When asked why it is they are so willing to show their faces on camera:

They feel emboldened by the events of the last year of political events. But they also have the internet. And that means that they can fund-raise from their supporters. There's a site called researcher than can raise money for an alt-right cause, they can raise a hundred thousand dollars overnight. So they don't have to depend on normal jobs anymore. They don't have to worry about getting fired for their vile beliefs.

Is the "alt-right" distinct from white supremacy?

Only in tactics and the audience they're looking for. They are not burning crosses. They are using social media. They're using jokes and memes. They want to portray themselves as witty as intellectual as appealing to college students and not people that you would associate with racist movement of the past.

This is not new, actually. The original fascist movements were also extremely focused on aesthetics and wished to portray themselves as "clean-cut, good looking men." In fact, it's a hallmark of the ideology: