TRUMP, THE ALT-RIGHT AND MODERN POPULISM IN AMERICA By CHOEETA CHAKRABARTI A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 Choeeta Chakrabarti To Baba and Hellobeta ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research would not have been possible without my advisor Christopher McCarty’s constant availability, support, encouragement, and guidance. Despite being the department chair, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) and an advisor to several students, he has always made himself available for the slightest of concerns. I am also indented to him for giving me the confidence when I doubted myself the most, and for opening up opportunities and resources at every point during this research. As department chair, his dedication to students and his unwavering stance on ethical practices in academia, are admirable. I am immensely grateful to H. Russell Bernard for the insights and encouragement at the most challenging turns in my PhD career. My research and completion stands on his invaluable suggestions. I am also grateful for the advise and mentorship my other committee members: Jeff Johnson, Peter Collings, and Raffaele Vacca. The training I received through classes with Jeff Johnson and Peter Collings have been crucial in the design and presentation of this research. Alyson Young, a dear friend and mentor’s advise and much needed help with statistics was pivotal in analyzing my data. My father, Sukhendu Chakrabarti’s unapologetic confidence and generosity made it possible for me to move to the U.S. Although he left this world before he could see me achieve this milestone, the person he raised me to be helped me through the worst parts of my PhD life, including his own demise. Dr. P.M. Bhargava, renowned scientist and fearless public intellectual to the world but "Hellobeta" to me, was the other pillar of support I lost less than a year back. His dedication to science and ethics, and his mentorship, will always guide me. His one wish- to live to see me graduate- was not granted, but the values he raised me with is why I am here today. I would also like to thank my mother Chandana Chakrabarti for her constant strength, rationality and support. She is the strongest woman I know, and her daughter is only one among 4 the thousands she continues to inspire. I hope I can one day be the person she is. My brother, Samrat Chakrabarti, a journalist, a terrific writer, and the wittiest man I know, has been my strongest advocate and critic. My constant attempt at bringing to light much-needed nuance in cultural research is thanks to his unrelenting prods and insights. I thank Joshua Crosby, my colleague and partner, for his intellectual engagement, his unwavering support and patience, and- most importantly- for keeping a sense of humor every time I lost mine. I am extremely fortunate to have Quynn and Kendyl, who are too little to realize their impact, but were a magical respite to “Chocho”. There are several people at the anthropology department that I am indebted to. Karen Jones, for the countless times she has gone above and beyond to help me through grant applications, job applications, and numerous other equally arduous paperwork that comes with being an international graduate student, Juanita, for all the last-minute registrations and administrative procedures, and Pat and Pam for their equally endless work for our students- be it filing out documents, working with HR, or organizing departmental parties. Without Karen, Nita, Pat and Pam, this department could not function. Finally, I would like to thank the Bureau of Economic and Business Research and the staff for conducting the survey, and Mark Girson for the initial cross-tabulations. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................................8 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................9 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................11 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................13 2 BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................18 Overview of Political Anthropology ......................................................................................18 Right-wing Populism and the Alt-right in America ...............................................................20 Central Tenets of the Alt-right ................................................................................................31 Race Realism ...................................................................................................................31 Political Correctness ........................................................................................................31 Common Sense Appeal, Red Pilling, Meme Magic and Slang ......................................33 Trolling ............................................................................................................................35 Fear Mongering and Victimhood Narratives ...................................................................36 Women's Roles ................................................................................................................38 Men’s Rights Movement .................................................................................................38 Identitarianism .................................................................................................................40 3 METHODS .............................................................................................................................42 Cognitive Anthropology .........................................................................................................42 Methods of Data Collection ....................................................................................................45 Ethnography ....................................................................................................................45 Interviews ........................................................................................................................45 Alt-right Adherence ..................................................................................................48 Alt-right Adherence Survey .....................................................................................49 Free Lists ..................................................................................................................51 Personal Network Analysis: ............................................................................................52 Florida Survey .................................................................................................................58 4 RESULTS I .............................................................................................................................60 In-Depth Interviews and Personal Networks ..........................................................................60 Participant Observation and Unstructured Interviews .....................................................60 Semi-structured Interviews ..............................................................................................61 Free Lists ................................................................................................................................61 6 What Would Make America Great Again? ............................................................................62 Interview Coding ....................................................................................................................68 White Victimhood, White Dispossession, and the Ethnostate ...............................................69 Race Realism and The Red Pill ..............................................................................................77 White Pride and Double Standards .........................................................................................81 Minority Appeasement, Free Handouts, and Political Correctness ........................................83 Women's roles .........................................................................................................................84 5 PERSONAL NETWORKS ....................................................................................................89 Media Exposure ....................................................................................................................102 Alt-right Adherence ..............................................................................................................107 6 FLORIDA SURVEY ............................................................................................................110 Demographics .......................................................................................................................112 Descriptive Statistics ............................................................................................................113