As the older sister to school-aged boys, I lay awake at night, plagued by the fear of all the accidental ways the internet lures young boys down the alt-right pipeline, an ultra nationalist community that consists of xenophobia, racism, and misogyny under the guise of traditionalist values.
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Basically, if you can even imagine something having the potential to lead people down the alt-right pipeline, it probably does.
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This conversation about how to lead people away from the alt-right pipeline is an ongoing one happening amongst progressives and leftists online.
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In his video, the sports content creator proclaimed that he is starting the alt-left pipeline and ends the video saying, “If you like football — ‘Hey, what’s up!’ Also, everyone should have healthcare.”
The alt-left pipeline can best be described as a response to its inverse, the alt-right pipeline. Pundits of the alt-right pipeline usually believe in white nationalism, anti-gay ideology, and rigid gender roles. The alt-left pipeliners believe in gender equality, universal healthcare, empathy, multiculturalism, and gun reform.
According to Strez, the idea of the alt-left pipeline is not to start hosting online Socratic seminars about leftism, but rather to be a leftist voice online engaging with a community that tends to be right-leaning.
“The impact isn’t necessarily trying to be overtly political. That’s the thing about the alt-right pipeline: The initial interactions aren’t political in nature,” he told BuzzFeed. “My goal is really just to share my perspective on things like sports and pop culture while also sharing my opinions in a not-so-in-your-face way with some leftist political views, sports, and athletics.”
Strez’s initial video found its audience fairly quickly, and fellow “alt-left” bros began to voice their own opinions on sports and human rights (spoiler alert: they like them!) in the comments.
But, for some men commenting wasn’t enough. They wanted to hop on the trend and make their own, #altleftpipeline videos, too.
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These #altleftpipeline posters start by stating their intention to apply for the alt-left pipeline, then outline their interests: working out, abortion rights, sports, Black liberation, working on cars, universal healthcare, etc.
“My mustache is as strong as my advocacy for the working class,” a creator named Tanner says in his video.
According to Strez, this movement was kind of an accidental one. His video was initially a riff on the alt-right pipeline discourse he’d been seeing and witnessing, as a “masculine white Christian man with a background in sports and athletics.” The response to his initial video has exceeded his expectations, which were nonexistent at the beginning.
“I didn’t even put any effort or time into it, and then it just blew up into this bigger thing, and now I’m having people reach out to have conversations with me,” Strez told BuzzFeed. “I think it’s a great opportunity for people like me, specifically men, to start not just posting straight-up political videos, but also posting their own videos where they talk about the things that they’re interested in. If the left wants to create its own version of this, there has to be a top of the funnel that isn’t overtly political.”
There are hundreds of videos under the #altleftpipeline tag, and most of them share a commonality in who the posters are. Or, rather, how they look — masculine looking white guys.
“There’s this stigma about men on the left being less masculine than men on the right, which, if you just look at this trend, is completely false,” Strez told BuzzFeed. “And I do think it’s a good thing as well for women to see that there are men out there who are in favor of pushing and fighting for reproductive rights, reproductive healthcare, and the advancement of women in America.”
Another thing that many of the #altleftpipeline guys have in common is that they’re hot. Like, very hot, and not just because they use the word “women” instead of “females.”
“I don’t think this alt-left pipeline thing should be a joke,” viral TikToker user Saron Olkaba says in her video. “I’m seeing all these videos, but the thing is, ours are good-looking! I’ve seen some baddies. Like, rugged men!”
“The comment section has turned into some kind of lefty singles-mixer, it’s a beautiful thing,” Olkaba told BuzzFeed. “That comment section is proof that feminist women don’t ‘hate men.’ So many women said they had given up on finding a man who shares their values and is also their type physically until they stumbled upon the men of the alt-left pipeline who run on conservative hardware but lefty software.”
And, if you take a peek at Olkaba’s comment section, or any of the comment sections of the alt-left pipeline videos, it’s clear that feminist women do not hate men.
The comments range from genuine conversations about how refreshing it is to see men with empathy on the internet for a change, to leftist women straight-up in heat. And, honestly? I’m here for it.
Is the bar in hell? Maybe! But, usually men find a way to somehow dig deeper below the aforementioned bar and find new, innovative ways to be disappointing, so this is honestly a really nice change!
Nobody knows what the future holds for any part of America, much less the hotties of the alt-left pipeline of TikTok, but if enough people pray to the hot-leftist-lords every night that this movement has staying power, they might just stand a chance. Either way, these alt-left pipeliners have hope for the future of their new online community.
“I think the alt-left pipeline will continue to be more of an amorphous movement of hot men on the left speaking up and making themselves more visible across the board — on social media, podcasting, punditry, comedy,” Olkaba told BuzzFeed. “My hope for this trend is that young men who will consume this content will understand there is a community waiting for them on the left. And that they shouldn’t turn to the left because being a leftist gets you laid, but getting laid is a side effect of being a decent person who views women as equals who deserve bodily autonomy.”
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