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The #AltRightPoetry they won’t teach you in cuckservative English class

Shall I compare thee to a summer's Trump?

 

Miles Klee

Internet Culture

Posted on May 13, 2016   Updated on May 26, 2021, 7:02 pm CDT

If it has often seemed to you that the Donald Trump phenomenon is less about ideology than some ineffable mix of betrayal, loss, fear, insecurity, and anger, you’re not alone. It’s hard getting a handle on a voter base whose platform rests on truths deeply felt rather than, say, baseline reality.

Which means, among other things, that the Trump candidacy—bizarrely outflanking so-called “cuckservatives” with xenophobic proclamations while remaining unapologetically liberal on issues like abortion—is perhaps best expressed in art, not stump speeches. Specifically: poetry.

This phenomenon kicked off in part because a Trump booster said that the #AltRight comprises a new, important generation of artists and thinkers.

Then, the inevitable.

What followed was a slew of the finest Twitter verse the Twitterverse has ever seen.

https://twitter.com/LunaticRex/status/730217255653384192

https://twitter.com/cmdeb/status/730210268945522688

And yet, the school of #AltRightPoetry did not begin with @Popehat. “Right Wing Comedian” @ConComedy16 created the hashtag in April.

https://twitter.com/ConComedy16/status/718407105468854273

Only to later have it adopted by one of his many targets.

Now it’s impossible to tell which #AltRightPoetry is satirical and which falls into the non-ironic camp. (Just kidding—the racist ones are earnest.)

https://twitter.com/ConComedy16/status/730383302071300096

https://twitter.com/SeppTruthTeller/status/730210893477351424

https://twitter.com/cuckservative/status/730227072443006976

https://twitter.com/Thorrison/status/730865491447844864

https://twitter.com/UngeheuerDarin/status/730952969299038208

https://twitter.com/torriangray/status/730857662921904129

https://twitter.com/wildcatlh/status/730192912336609280

https://twitter.com/villainial/status/730308394591064064

https://twitter.com/amcynic/status/730202411642421248

But what medium is complete without its scholar?

https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/730188261700849665

Anyway, have fun imagining a post-apocalyptic future in which this is the only surviving literature. I know I am! 

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*First Published: May 13, 2016, 2:55 pm CDT