I sat down at Vespr Craft Coffeebar in Orlando, preparing to read some books for a separate project, when I struck up conversation with one of the baristas, Michael Clevenger. I planned on interviewing Michael for this topic when he finished his final exams at Valencia State College, and he was very willing to share his viewpoint. However, school has taken priority, understandably. He did point me to another Vespr patron who I might be interested in interviewing in the meantime, though.
Pearson Bolt looked more like the bass player for a pop-punk band with a really intense name, like "Wooden Boat Fleet" or "The Lost and Found's" or something, than an English professor at UCF. He has a 4.8/5 star review on ratemyprofessor.com and cares deeply for his students, as his twitter account demonstrates. He is a pretty present activist in Orlando and considers himself a radical, favoring the independent news forums like Democracy Now! and the Intercept.
I had seen Pearson in this top-ranked coffee shop many times. As regulars of businesses such as Vespr tend to do, we started chatting over things like the DAPL, the new Star Wars movie, and writing styles. He had read a few of my blogposts so when I had first asked for his thoughts on the Alt-Right movement, he was hesitant, saying, "My language might be a little too colorful for a Christian blog."
That was roughly a month ago, but when I sat next to Professor Bolt on December 14th, he agreed to an interview. It was a short conversation, but his views are passionate, and whether you disagree or not, you have to credit his intelligence.
"What does the Alt-Right mean to you?" I asked him
He leaned closer to my phone so his voice could be caught over the sound of espresso machines and coffee beans grinding, "There is no such thing as an 'alternative right.' You could call it an 'alternative reich' if you are trying to be clever and funny and witty, which lots of anti-facist groups have taken a habit of calling it. But, there's no such thing as an 'alt-right.' There's not a conspiracy against white people, there's no group or group of people trying to steal whatever modicum of power white people think they have. Quite the contrary, you see a white nationalist response that's xenophobic, hyper-jingoistic, and very exclusive. Really, the best word for it is they are puerile. They're childish, they're like little 'man-boys' who are worried about feminism, are worried about people of color and are worried about their small modicum of power being taken away from them. And so, they are responding in a way that Internet trolls tend to, which is by lashing out at anyone and anything. I read an article today that Alt-Right is trying to boycott Star Wars, and the analysis gave an interesting conversation about how the KKK has had a history of boycotting Star Wars. The 'Alt-Right,'" he literally said this with air quotes, "is nothing more than a white nationalist, xenophobic, hate group. There's no 'and's, if's, or but's' about it. It's a very thin and ugly veneer of fascism and of white supremacy. "
His answer was satisfying; I thought out how to ask my next question.
"Is there any potential impact that the Alt-Right might have on future political perspectives?"
He leaned closer to the phone again, playing with one of his earbuds as he thought about the question. "I think we have all ready seen, to a certain degree, shifts in the way that the Alt-Right has, not overtly influenced, but have brought up a certain degree of negativity, hatred, bigotry and xenophobia that has been somewhat exacerbated by the campaign of a fascist like Donald Trump."
He paused for a moment, considering his next words. "They are so small, so fractured, so fragile, and so dumb and unorganized, that their ability to meaningfully create any type of political impact is almost entirely mitigated by their inability to organize themselves to have any centralized ideals. They are not as organized as the Golden Dawn in Greece, a fascist, far-right political party. I don't see it (the Alt-Right) organizing into an actual political party as much as I see it as being a trolling online hate group. But that does, because we live in the age of the Internet and age of social media, where Donald Trump can tweet something and have a Pepe the f*cking Frog bot retweet it to it's million followers instantaneously; we live in a world where the Internet has a big hold. I think the ability for that type of rhetoric to become infused within the popular consciousness has indeed taken hold within the United States, especially, but also within the rising hyper-far right extremist movements that you see popping up in Iceland, and popping in Germany, and popping up in Greece. There has been a resurgence in fascism and I think the 'Alt-Right' (again in air quotes) has been a part of that rising tide."
He had brought up valid points about the influence on the general mindset of the Right begotten by social media platforms, but I had to get to the roots, where he would be most frustrated (and most colorful).
"One last question: If you could say one thing to Richard Spencer, who popularized the Alt-Right movement, what would that be?"
He readjusted in his chair and smirked, rubbing his palms in his face and then looking back at me. "I would say," he paused, gathering his words, "your toxic ideology is not welcomed here or anywhere in the world. Crawl back to the dark hole from whence you came...and go f*** yourself."
He smiled at me and looked back at his laptop. This unconventional English teacher gave me 5 minutes and 44 seconds of his time to share his thoughts, without any preparation on the matter. I thanked him for the short time and he went back to his Twitter account, one facet of his voice.
