The Rabbithole Goes Both Ways

Why the media's focus on people's nefarious associations with other bad people is nonsense. Also, detailing my nefarious associations.

Many years ago, I watched a video from a fellow called Xanderhal about how he “Fell Down The Alt Right Pipeline And Escaped.” He talks about how he became “alt-right” and then stopped being alt-right. The basic story is pretty simple: it began by watching YouTube videos of purple-haired feminists getting DESTROYED with FACTS and LOGIC. Over time, he began watching, on YouTube, further and further right people, each of whom associated with people slightly to the right of them. By the end, he had some pretty crazy views! He then stopped being far right when he watched those people argue with some left-wing people, and the left-wing people won the debates convincingly.

Lots of people make a big deal about such stories, of people getting “sucked down the alt right rabbit hole.” There are about a billion videos on YouTube of people talking about the dangers of this, and how it indicts those of the conservative movement willing to associate in a friendly way with others further to the right. For example, Ben Shapiro might associated with Steven Crowder (well, they recenlty had a big falling out) who associates with Gavin McInnes who associates with Richard Spencer. As a result, some people who start out as generic conservatives might get “sucked down the rabbithole” and start viewing Richard Spencer favorably.

This scenario is certainly possible, but I think this misses a crucial dimension of how this works. You see, fellow readers, while I was never anything like alt-right, I used to have some pretty odd political views.