Professor George Hawley of the University of Alabama has a new book coming out next month called Making Sense of the Alt-Right. He was invited on NPR this week to talk about the events in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend.
He gave a surprising answer when asked who makes up the alt-right. He said:
“I would say it is definitely a young movement. I’d say that it is predominantly white millennial men. It is not sort of stereotypically conservative in its profile. I’d say that probably it is a more secular population than the country overall. That is, there are a lot of agnostics and atheists or people who are just generally indifferent to religion. And I think that it is a fairly well-educated movement on average, that as I think that probably the model alt-right member has at least some college education.”
I could see saying they are indifferent to religion. I mean, they aren’t exactly sharing Bible verses online. However, saying that they are atheists and agnostics is something different. There’s nothing inherently “atheistic” about hating black people or Jews.
They’re religious beliefs are probably closer in line with those of President Donald Trump. It doesn’t really factor into their lives at all. Sure, there may be atheists in the movement, but it is not an inherently “atheistic” movement.
There is no evidence to back up the Richard Spencer quote that the average alt-righter is an atheist. It’s purely anecdotal. They are not inherently hostile towards Christians, so they don’t alienate potential supporters.
The alt-right has been condemned by many atheist groups including the Center for Inquiry, the American Humanist Association, the American Atheists, and the International Humanists and Ethical Union. So, no actual groups of organized atheists want anything to do with these alt-right assholes.
Here is a video about a psychologists’ survey of alt-righters:
Featured image via Twitter.
