An alt-righter and others explain the movement few of us had heard of before this week; college students around the country are reacting to a letter from The University of Chicago warning incoming freshman that so-called "trigger warnings" won't be tolerated; plus, Larry & KPCC film critics Christy Lemire and Wade Major review this week’s new movie releases including a wide release horror called “Don’t Breathe."
Everything you need to know about the alt-right movement
Hillary Clinton claims Donald Trump is embracing the alt-right philosophy, calling it a paranoid fringe movement that's taking over the GOP. Breitbart executive chairman and Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon bragged earlier this summer that his website had become "the platform for the alt-right."
What is the alt-right movement? The Southern Poverty Law Center defines the alt-right as "a set of far-right ideologies, groups and individuals whose core belief is that 'white identity' is under attack by multicultural forces using 'political correctness' and 'social justice' to undermine white people and 'their' civilization."
The Wall Street Journal’s national politics reporter Beth Reinhard has written about the alt-right movement. She says the “typical alt-right person is an educated person, obviously white, mostly male, mostly young and very active on social media.”
While that’s also a demographic that Trump appeals to, it’s not clear if the Republican presidential nominee is purposefully courting the group or if the alt-right is riding on the coattails of the GOP candidate’s platform. “At its best, they’re pushing boundaries and poking fun at people; and at its worst it’s the way Hillary Clinton described it as violently racist,” Reinhard says.
In an interview with ABC News, self-identified alt-righter Jared Taylor described the group as "a dissident movement" where "the prevailing orthodoxy about race is that it is an insignificant phenomenon."
“We are the champions of true diversity. We don’t want the entire world to turn into some kind of multi-culti mishmash,” Taylor says of the alt-right movement. “We should try to build a society based on a correct understanding of human nature, not to build a society on a flawed view of what we would like human nature to be.”
According to Taylor, Trump isn’t alt-right at all but some of his proposals and positions do appeal to the group, such as: sending undocumented immigrants back to their home countries, abolishing birthright citizenship and “examining whether or not we need more Muslims in the United States.”
Other Trump supporters think this whole alt-right business is a political ploy by the Clinton campaign. “I’ve never heard of alt-right until Hillary Clinton opened up her mouth,” says Republican political analyst Paris Dennard. He says making a campaign issue out of Trump and the alt-right is a “grossly inappropriate and tremendously outrageous” attempt by the Democratic nominee to divert attention from her rival’s recent outreach to black and Latino voters. In Dennard’s opinion, Trump is no more responsible for the ideologies of certain fringe supporters than Clinton is.
Do you think Trump is actively courting the alt-right movement? Or is the alt-right just spin from the Clinton campaign?
Guests:
Beth Reinhard, National politics reporter, WSJ who recently wrote about the Alt-Right movement; she tweets from
Jared Taylor, Alt-Right member and editor of the online magazine American Renaissance, which he has described as a white advocacy organization; he tweets from
Paris Dennard, Republican political analyst and former staffer for President George W. Bush and the Republican National Committee; he tweets from
John Nichols, National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation; he tweets from
University of Chicago says 'no' to trigger warnings and safe spaces
A letter outlining the University of Chicago’s freedom of expression policy went out to incoming freshman this week.
The Dean of Students, John Ellison, announced the school does “not support so-called ‘trigger warnings’” nor does it “condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’”.
Trigger warnings are content notifications that alert the reader of sensitive material. Safe spaces are places or forums for marginalized groups to convene and share without the risk of judgement from others.
Supporters of the school’s decision say those tactics can function as censorship, stymying the free exchange of diverse ideas on campus. Critics of the University of Chicago’s decision say students need to feel safe and comfortable before they can truly contribute to a debate and universities need to be more welcoming towards the needs of an increasingly diverse student body.
Will this elite school set a trend or lead other universities to distance themselves?
Guests:
Greg Lukianoff, President and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE); he co-authored The Atlantic’s September cover story, “The Coddling of the American Mind”
Nolan Cabrera, Ph.D.,assistant professor of education in the Center for the Study of Higher Education, University of Arizona; Cabrera's primary research interests include race/racism in higher education
FilmWeek: ‘Don’t Breathe,’ ‘Southside with You’ and more
Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Christy Lemire and Wade Major review this week’s new movie releases including a wide release horror called “Don’t Breathe;” a fictional portrayal of the early romance between Barack Obama and Michelle Obama nee Robinson back in 1989 called “Southside with You;” plus Jason Statham to the rescue of Jessica Alba in “Mechanic: Resurrection; and more.
TGI-FilmWeek!
Wade Major's Hits
- "The Intervention"
- "Floyd Norman: An Animated Life"
- "Mia Madre"
- "In Order of Disappearance"
- "My King"
Christy's Hits
Mixed Reviews
- Wade: "Southside with You"
- Wade: "The Hollars"
This Week's Misses
- Wade: "Don't Breathe"
- Christy and Wade: "Hands of Stone"
- Wade and Christy: "Mechanic: Resurrection"
- Christy: "The Hollars"
- Christy: "My King"
Guests:
Wade Major, Film Critic for KPCC and host for IGN’s DigiGods.com
Christy Lemire, Film Critic for KPCC and Host of YouTube’s “What the Flick?!”
Silicon Valley vs. Hollywood: California bill targets publicizing actors' birth dates
Two massive California industries are at odds over a proposed law awaiting the final signature of Governor Jerry Brown.
Assembly Bill 1687 would empower actors to force websites such as the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com) to remove performers’ dates of birth.
The actors’ union sponsoring the bill said age discrimination in Hollywood is made worse by websites publishing the information. Opponents of the bill include the Internet Association, representing tech heavyweights such as Amazon (parent company of IMDb), Google and Facebook. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also opposes the bill.
If casting agents using IMDb are influenced by seeing the ages of performers, what are the consequences of that? What other solutions could help avoid age discrimination in Hollywood? If Sacramento and the courts, by way of this legislation, force websites to remove ages of performers, would that violate the companies’ Constitutional right to free speech?
Guests:
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer, SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists); SAG-AFTRA is the official sponsor of the bill
Lee Tien, Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation; EFF is formally opposing the bill