“alt-right” trolls…are not hard-right traditionalists so much as lapsed progressives rebelling ineffectually against what they see as the excesses of the “New Left”
This is half true. It is correct that the stereotypical internet alt-righter — I’m not broad-brushing them as trolls because, like beauty, trolling is in the eye of the beholder — isn’t a traditional conservative.
That said, it’s hardly correct to characterize them as ‘lapsed progressives’. Rather, they’re usually just bright Millennials who, despite their shitty public school indoctrination, have figured out that the entire SJW constellation of issues — PC language policing, identity-obsession, Big Government Uber Alles public policy, Share-the-Wealth socialism, the general uncoolness that comes with being a preachy busy-body, etc — are poison.
Granted, on account of the aforementioned shitty public school indoctrination they struggle to clearly describe coherent alternatives and instead focus more on inchoate mockery, but that can hardly be counted against them — their hearts are in the right place and, lest we forget, kids will be kids!
It’s only the filter-bubble of insular arrogance that leads the prog-left to presume all Millennials ought to be ‘progressives’.