This is my daughter's Sociology final: She chose to write on Alt-Right video...PLEASE READ!!!
So yeah, she's a real firecracker and going to be running for office someday soon: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212765643
But this is an example of her writing and thought process....better at 17 than I was in my 20's!!!
She had several videos on Social angles she could choose from, and she chose the most difficult of them all IMO... the video is about the Alt Right movement and Neo Nazis in America...with the culmination in Charlottesville...
(link to video in Cited works: I think it is a Netflix link)
Copied from her google docs :
Laney Terrel
December 9, 2019
The Rise of the Alt-Right and the Cost of Privilege
During WWII, Nazi Germany massacred millions of people who did not fit into their ideal image of what a ‘German’ should look and act like; white, blonde, blue-eyed, straight, and Christian. Today, in Germany, it is illegal to use the Nazi salute, but just across the ocean, in America, the symbology and ideology of Nazi Germany flourish. Alt-right: Age of Rage is a documentary by Adam Bough which follows the rise of the alt-right and Nazism in the USA leading up to the infamous Charlottesville rally in 2017. Closely following both sides of the argument, Antifa and white supremacists, helps give a chilling dichotomy of what is at stake should the government fail to protect people of color (POC) from this recent rise of extremism. Shortly into the film Richard ‘Dick’ Spencer, a notorious white supremacist states with absolute vigor, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory” (Alt-right, 6:39), perfectly capturing the essence of his viewpoint throughout the documentary. Through their violent and hateful ideology, members of the alt-right and Nazis in America fuel systematic racism and further exacerbate stratification leading, ultimately, to acts of extreme violence and in the worst cases, mass murder and genocide.
The threat which white supremacists feel is largely based upon the fact that as equality gradually becomes more widespread in the modern world, those who have previously benefitted from the system (white, upper-middle-class men) lose their privileges. Jared Taylor, yet another white supremacist, warns his fellow Nazis that, “Equality is a dangerous myth.” (Alt-right, 33:03). Conflict theory may help explain why this ‘threat’ holds so much weight against those in power for millennia. As the benefactors of an unjust and unbalanced system which disproportionately relied on the exploitation and oppression of other races and lower-class individuals, those at the top of the strata held the power to shape the way the world worked. These upper-class individuals created and instilled a false consciousness in the oppressed people to help convince them into thinking that they were less than their oppressors. This false consciousness has taken many forms and names over the decades, such as eugenics, but ultimately, remained the same idea: White upper-class folk deserved to be in power and were naturally smarter, kinder, and better than others.
As time went on and the oppressed masses grew, they began to fight for rights like freedom from slavery, the right to vote, and more. Instead of viewing these movements as a step towards equilibrium and a balanced world, those who now found themselves without previous privileges, such as owning slaves or the ability to lynch black people, viewed this tipping of the scales as a threat. David Duke, a former KKK grand wizard, states in response to these movements towards equality, “We are being ethnically cleansed.” (Alt-right, 10:33). It becomes clear that as the world becomes more diversified and global in its culture, groups like the KKK will only become more outspoken and active in their bigotry if nothing is done to stop them.
The emboldening of hate groups in the USA largely contributes to increasingly radicalized and violent ideas. Spencer largely promotes ideas of ‘separatism’ of POC and white people and genocide of all black people if such an event could not occur (Alt-right, 8:47). Ultimately, the goal of Nazis, white supremacists, and the alt-right is not to have a peaceful conversation and incite moderate change to communities and cultures in America. The goal is to remove all those who do not fit the criteria from what they view as rightfully theirs by whatever means necessary. Their defense, when faced with criticism and jail time for hate speech, can be summed up in one quote from Gavin McInnes where he claims, “There is no situation in America where words come out of your mouth and you belong in prison. None.” (Alt-right, 48:50). Institutionalization and Thomas Thereom present the ideas, respectively, that when a norm is reinforced enough, it becomes implanted within a society or a community and that behavior among individuals is determined by their subjective, not objective, experiences.
The reinforcement of racist, sexist, and other oppressive rhetoric is the first step in a journey towards radicalization. Spencer mentions multiple times that he was not raised in a radical or alt-right home, that he grew up in a republican suburb in Texas. Nazis are not born Nazis. They are slowly radicalized through institutionalization, habitualization, and reinforcement of ideologies and rhetoric from other individuals. The more white supremacists experience positive responses from their peer groups, the more confident and solid they become in their ideas.
One of the quickest and easiest ways for an individual to become radicalized in the modern era, especially younger people, is through the internet. As Simran Jeet Singh, a civil rights activist puts it, “People can do it anonymously and without consequences and then actually be … rewarded for doing so.” (Alt-right, 15:30). The anonymity of the internet is a double-edged sword. It can be a blessing for activists in countries where speaking against the government could lead to execution or disappearances, such as China, but in countries where neo-Nazism thrives, such as the USA, the veil of anonymity provides the perfect breeding ground for abhorrent ideas to spread like wildfire in a drought. Unfortunately, those who suffer the brunt of the influence exerted by Nazis online are young adults and teenagers.
Many extremists have realized this and use the internet as a recruitment tool. The power of the internet is not lost on Spencer, who says, “With a lot of these young kids, they haven’t read the book, they’ve watched a YouTube video … they’ve come to these ideas much more quickly and in a much more intense fashion.” (Alt-right, 14:50). Teenagers who become Nazis acclimate to the culture. First, they are presented material from hate groups as a kind of deviance, a way to stand out amongst their peers or seem edgy. As time goes on, more and more of these young people become radicalized through what seems at first to be a rejection of mainstream, ‘politically-correct’ culture and grows to be cold-blooded bigotry and hatred.
An example of this phenomenon is the Charleston church shooting. In 2015, A young man entered a historically black church and slaughtered 9 people. He was 22 years old and had been radicalized through the internet with hateful rhetoric, implying that blacks deserved painful deaths and nothing more (Zapotosky). An article by Business Insider found that all extremist mass shootings in 2018 had roots in the alt-right (Haltiwanger). The people he murdered are gone. They will never get to see the sunset again or hear their loved ones joke around or grumble about waking up to their spouses, because he was radicalized and committed a heinous, violent, and senseless act. The reinforcement of these principles and ideas in the alt-right solidifies stratification and helps them justify their bigotry. This is the cost of privilege, the cost of hate, and what happens when it is allowed to spread.
Ultimately, the spread of Nazi and alt-right ideology helps stratification, bigotry, and systematic oppression thrive in the modern era. Their use of technology to spread rhetoric heavily influences and impacts youth and permeates these ideas in a new generation by masquerading as deviance. By utilizing fear-mongering, white supremacists promote the ‘threat’ of equality as the greatest burden to modern America. Without some sort of action taken by government officials, the alt-right will continue to thrive. Symbolic interactionalism is based on the idea that one-on-one interactions and communications form the overall structure of society. Therefore, the future rests in the hands of minorities and their allies. A hurricane can be born from a single gust of wind. Movements do not start out large. They grow. To be silent in the face of bigotry, to be neutral in the wake of tragedies and violence is to be compliant. The question should not be whether action should be taken. The question should be when. The answer is now.
~ ~ ~
Works Cited
Haltiwanger, John. “All of the Extremist Killings in the US in 2018 Had Links to Right-Wing Extremism, According to New Report.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 5 Aug. 2019, https://www.businessinsider.com/extremist-killings-links-right-wing-extremism-report-2019-1.
Lough, Adam B. “Alt-Right: Age of Rage.” Netflix, 28 Jan. 2019, https://www.netflix.com/title/80998786.
Zapotosky, Matt. “Charleston Church Shooter: 'I Would like to Make It Crystal Clear, I Do Not Regret What I Did'.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 4 Jan. 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/charleston-church-shooter-i-would-like-to-make-it-crystal-clear-i-do-not-regret-what-i-did/2017/01/04/05b0061e-d1da-11e6-a783-cd3fa950f2fd_story.html.
= new reply since forum marked as read
is so strong....when she gets fired up, she writes like she is on a soapbox/preaching!
I love that fire in her 
Not only that, but I love the voice of someone who is a full on Gen Z kid...all about social media and video...and yet she uses it to expand horizons. I cant tell you how much she has forced me to watch science and other research videos cuz she is nerding out
ya, I guess I am her biggest fan 
This girl is going places and she plans on being a Senator
she's a Bernie supporter and one of the new Dems
<img src="
" alt="laney-bernie" border="0">
I know she won't be able to run for a while, so does she....but THAT is her end goal.This girl has known since she was in 8th grade that this was what she wants to do.
So Vote LANEY 2030 !!!
http://southtahoenow.com/reader-content/12/06/2019/local-teen-scholar-invited-delegation-diplomacy-south-africa
We should not be coddling those people. 
