Alt-Lite on the 12 Axes

The term spread in 2016 and 2017 for internet personalities and audiences who backed Donald Trump and shared some themes with the alt-right but refused its white nationalism. Commentators such as Milo Yiannopoulos, Mike Cernovich, Paul Joseph Watson and Gavin McInnes built large followings on YouTube, Twitter and Breitbart with memes and provocation. After the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017, many of them publicly broke with figures such as Richard Spencer. The alt-lite stresses civic nationalism based on shared values rather than ethnicity, free speech, criticism of Islam and mass immigration, and hostility to feminism and identity politics. Compared with traditional conservatism, it is less religious and more irreverent. Compared with right-wing populism, it is an online culture more than a party program.

• Conservatism 78%Conservatism seeks to preserve traditional institutions, religion, family and national identity, supporting markets, strong defense and public order while resisting rapid social change.
• Right-Wing Populism 73%Right-wing populism presents politics as a struggle between ordinary people and a corrupt elite, combining nationalism, strict immigration control and protectionism with appeals to traditional values.
• Moderate Conservatism 68%Moderate conservatism values tradition, stability and markets but accepts gradual social change, the welfare state and international cooperation, preferring careful reform to sharp breaks.
• Neoconservatism 66%Neoconservatism is a hawkish strand of the right that supports free markets and a strong military, and believes in using national power abroad to defend and spread liberal democracy.