# Alt Left Alt Left is a loosely defined political label used to describe far-left activists, Antifa groups, and progressive politicians outside mainstream liberal politics. The phrase blew up nationally after President Donald Trump invoked it at his August 2017 Charlottesville press conference. ## Overview Alt Left is a political label used to describe far-left activists, Antifa groups, and progressive politicians who fall outside the mainstream of liberal politics [2]. The term functions both as a self-affirming banner adopted by a small pocket of fringe leftist writers and as a pejorative deployed by conservative pundits and, later, President Donald Trump [2]. Vanity Fair and The New Republic both treated the phrase as ill-defined and largely rhetorical rather than a coherent political movement [1]. The New Republic argued that the phrase was legitimized in part by red-baiting liberals who feared the rise of a progressive populist movement, and pointed out that alt-left had always been an insult rather than a self-chosen identity [2]. Unlike alt-right, which was coined by white supremacists as branding for their own movement, alt-left was invented from outside the groups it described [2]. Vanity Fair's coverage focused on the term's use by contrarian liberal writers who criticized fellow leftists for identity politics and Hollywood grandstanding [1]. ## How It Spread In March 2017, Vanity Fair published 'Why the Alt-Left Is a Problem,' calling out writers like Berkeley film professor Eileen Jones, whose Jacobin article had attacked Meryl Streep's Golden Globes speech about Trump [1]. Conservative figures including Sean Hannity and future White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci were already using the phrase to denigrate Trump's opponents [2]. YouTuber Tim Pool posted 'The Rise of the Alt-Left' on April 30, 2017, drawing a distinction between mainstream liberals and what he called fringe groups that 'do not do research' [8]. The label crossed into national political vocabulary after Trump's press conference at Trump Tower on August 15, 2017, where he demanded 'What about the alt-left?' when pressed to condemn the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who had marched in Charlottesville, Virginia [2]. One of the marchers had killed counter-protester Heather Heyer by driving a car into a crowd of demonstrators days earlier [2]. ## How to Use The label is typically deployed in one of two ways. Conservative commentators use it to lump progressive Democrats, Antifa activists, and any left-wing protester into a single scary category, often as a rhetorical mirror to the alt-right [2]. A small pocket of self-identified alt-left writers, mostly clustered around AltLeft.com and adjacent Facebook communities between 2015 and 2016, used it as an affirmative label for anti-political-correctness leftism [7]. Urban Dictionary's top definitions frame the alt-left almost entirely as an insult, describing it as anti-feminist and 'the alt-right wearing anarchist and communist clothing' [5]. ## Cultural Impact New Republic writer Osita Nwanevu argued that Trump's use of the term was a deliberate false equivalence, and warned that liberal writers who had adopted it earlier were helping to legitimize the framing [2]. The controversy over Trump's Charlottesville remarks put the phrase at the center of political coverage across both conservative and liberal outlets for weeks [2]. Vanity Fair's earlier critique had focused on how the term was being used within left-of-center media to attack fellow leftists, especially over Hollywood pieties and identity politics [1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Alt Left? Alt Left is a loosely defined political label used to describe far-left activists, Antifa groups, and progressive politicians outside mainstream liberal politics [2]. ### Where did Alt Left come from? The label was picked up online through the subreddit r/AlternativeLeft launched in August 2015 [6] and the website AltLeft.com registered that October [4]. ### What does Alt Left mean? It has been used both as a self-affirming banner by fringe leftist writers and as a pejorative deployed by conservative pundits to smear progressive politicians [2]. ### How do you use Alt Left? Conservative commentators use it to lump progressive Democrats and Antifa into one category, while a small group of self-described alt-left writers used it for anti-political-correctness leftism [1]. ### Is Alt Left still popular? The term reached its peak visibility around Trump's August 2017 Charlottesville press conference and generated intense commentary from conservative and liberal media at that time [2]. ### Who invented the term Alt Left? There is no single inventor. A Swiss political party used Alternative Linke terminology in 2010, a Reddit subreddit launched in August 2015 [6], and the website AltLeft.com was registered in October 2015 [4]. ### When did Trump use the term Alt Left? Trump used it at a Trump Tower press conference on August 15, 2017, while responding to questions about the Charlottesville rally where a neo-Nazi killed counter-protester Heather Heyer [2]. ### What is AltLeft.com? AltLeft.com was registered on October 12, 2015 [4], and its owner Rabbit published a first post titled 'A Clockwork Greenshirt: Introducing the Alt Left' about a month later [7]. ### Is Alt Left a real political movement? Researchers speaking to The New York Times in August 2017 said 'there is no such thing as the alt-left,' calling it a media construction rather than a real movement [3]. ### What did New Republic say about Alt Left? The New Republic argued the term was legitimized by red-baiting liberals and pointed out that unlike alt-right, alt-left was always an insult imposed from outside [2]. ### Did anyone actually call themselves Alt Left? A small pocket did, mostly clustered around AltLeft.com and a Facebook group called 'Alternative Left' launched on April 9, 2016 [3]. ## References 1. [https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/why-the-alt-left-is-a-problem]() 2. [https://newrepublic.com/article/144361/liberals-helped-create-trumps-new-bogeyman-alt-left]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/alt-left]() 4. [https://who.is/whois/altleft.com]() 5. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Alt%20Left]() 6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/AlternativeLeft]() 7. [http://altleft.com]() 8. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sCcMPa2hk8]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/alt-left Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library