Summary of The Alt-Right Playbook: The Cost of Doing Business

00:00:00 - 00:35:00

The YouTube video "The Alt-Right Playbook: The Cost of Doing Business" discusses the various tactics and strategies employed by the alt-right. It argues that the alt-right is able to gain sympathizers by using anti-racist rhetoric, and that they target certain groups (such as transgender people) for their bigotry. The video urges white moderates to stop trying to humiliate opponents and instead work together.

• 00:00:00 This YouTube video is about a conservative provocateur who makes his living off controversy. He discusses how his economy runs on engagement and hate clicks, and how one revenue stream is speaking engagements on college campuses. He also discusses how he might provoke a reaction on campus and how that might lead to more national media coverage. The white liberal who is opposing him is described as trying to avoid coming out and saying that minorities are being sacrificed, instead relying on mental gymnastics to justify their position.
• 00:05:00 This video provides a playbook for white supremacists, detailing the various costs of doing business in a white supremacist world. Racism is not always a passion, but it is tolerable, easy to disregard, and useful in a white supremacist world. The weaponizing of minority suffering is employed against many marginalized groups, and this is the cost of doing business for white supremacists. The cost of doing business for white supremacists includes the use of racism against people of color as a weapon of choice. There are three main types of white people in this world: white supremacists, collaborators, and moderates. The white supremacist is the most dedicated and aggressive of the group, and the anti-racist is the only person who is trying to get rid of white supremacy. The white collaborator is the most common type of white person, and they are usually working alongside white supremacists. The white moderate is a less committed white person, and they are more likely to appeal to the better natures of people of color rather than oppose their collaboration. These three groups of white people are constantly fighting amongst themselves, and it is difficult to be an anti-racist in today's climate.
• 00:10:00 The video discusses the alt-right, a movement that is "new" and "titular" in its approach to racism. The alt-right breaks from the iconography of racism typically associated with white nationalism and neo-nazism, instead focusing on class as a means of gaining access to the political and social capital of more mainstream collaborators. The average white person shorthand for a racist is still primarily a rural, working-class white nationalist and an urban, working-class white nationalist, but the alt-right is the "gentrification" of these movements. This results in the "short-out" of white moderates, as well as the more mainstream collaborators, and the "brainwashing" of white conservatives into thinking that racism is worse than evil. However, despite this, the alt-right cannot be as bad as everyone says, because whoever heard of a racist going to Harvard?
• 00:15:00 The video discusses the benefits of collaborating with white supremacists, and the challenges of doing so. It argues that, while collaboration may be necessary for some businesses, it is ultimately harmful to society as a whole.
• 00:20:00 The video discusses the tactics of the far right, and how the center left is susceptible to them. It points out that, while white moderates are very cagey about using the term "racism," they are actually complicit in white supremacy. They don't want to think of themselves as white, and they don't want the constant awareness of their race and how it is perceived.
• 00:25:00 The video discusses the benefits of understanding racism as a tool for achieving political ends, and the danger of white moderates slowing down anti-racist efforts. It points out that fascism exists in a state of permanent conflict, and that the US has been in a state of conflict for the last three generations. The video concludes by urging white moderates to stop trying to humiliate opponents and instead work together.
• 00:30:00 The video discusses how the far right relies on identity politics, and how the far right targets certain groups (such as transgender people) for their bigotry. The video also discusses how white allies need to be aware of their own privilege, and that there is no single strategy that can defeat the far right.
• 00:35:00 The video discusses the alt-right, and how they operate. It provides insights into their playbook, which includes using anti-racist rhetoric to win over sympathizers.