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| The two-faced Roman god Janus |
by Andy Nowicki
As we reach the end of an old year and anticipate the start of a new one, it is appropriate to reflect on what has come to pass and to look ahead at what’s likely to come.
We find ourselves at a temporary virtual home right now, there being no room at the proverbial inn following the events of the “Christmas Day Purge,” described in an Alternative Right Facebook status update (account deleted by FB, 2019) that I authored, which was posted on December 26:
Richard Spencer has since responded with a post of his own at the Radix Journal Facebook page (also deleted by FB), which, while true in its general assertions, is misleading when it comes to certain crucial particulars. Richard did, on a couple of occasions, tell us that he thought it was time for Alternative Right to be put out to pasture. It seems that he’d lost interest in the venture a long time ago, and had long wished to rebrand in one form or another. We always recognized his right to do this, as the originator of the Alternative Right site and its editor until mid-2012, when he gave editorship duties to Colin and me, but having never heard anything definitive, we assumed that things would be business as usual until we were definitively told otherwise.
Richard implies in his Radix reply that we ought to have known that the end of Alternative Right was coming, and in fact we did perceive that a change might be imminent. Colin and I never really understood why Richard felt tempted to pull the plug on a venture that continued to be successful within a niche market, drawing a significant following in the process and even gaining national exposure upon one occasion. Even now I can only speculate about Richard’s lack of enthusiasm for the project he had started but seemed disinclined to keep going, even as it kept going from strength to strength, meeting success after success.
Still, I always figured that, should Richard indeed decide to make this move, he would give Colin and me adequate notice, and granted us an opportunity to archive our past work, so it could continue to be accessed and read. That the Alternative Right link (www.alternativeright.com) would suddenly become non-operational, that all of the posted material would vanish, and that all traffic would be automatically rerouted to Radixjournal.com on December 25, 2013 was absolutely never imparted to us. Thus, it is not in the least inaccurate to say that we were caught off guard by what Richard did, or that the move was abrupt and unannounced.
Though I remain disappointed by the manner with which this transition was handled, I don’t wish to engage in a feud or a war of words over the matter. Moreover, I remain deeply grateful to Richard Spencer for the many kindnesses he has paid me over the past few years. None of us should be judged solely by our more dubious acts, but rather we should be taken for all-in-all, the good with the bad. All in all, Richard has been very good to me, and I won’t forget that.
Both Colin and I would like to keep this site going, because, unlike Richard, we see absolutely no reason why it ought to be put out to pasture. We thank you, our readers, for your loyalty and support over this past year, and we hope that you will stick with us as we forge forward into 2014 and beyond.
We find ourselves at a temporary virtual home right now, there being no room at the proverbial inn following the events of the “Christmas Day Purge,” described in an Alternative Right Facebook status update (account deleted by FB, 2019) that I authored, which was posted on December 26:
"To those of you still wondering, here's what happened: on Christmas Day, we discovered that Richard Spencer, the originator and former editor-in-chief of Alternative Right, had fixed the web address of alternativeright.com so that it automatically reroutes to his new magazine, Radix Journal. This unannounced move caught us by surprise. Although Richard owns the URL for Alternative Right, and thus had every legal right to do what he did, we were still taken aback by the way this transition was handled.
That said, we forge forward, without acrimony. We wish Richard Spencer and his new venture the best, and recommend that all Alternative Right readers check it out for themselves. (The more thought-crime, the merrier!) At the same time, we plan to continue bringing you, our loyal Alternative Right-ists, the same hard-hitting, hilarious, provocative fare you have come to love, crave, and expect from us.
Just be sure to bookmark our new, temporary link, which is where we'll post articles, podcasts, and other nuggets of glory until we alight upon a more permanent home: www.alternative-right.blogspot.co.uk/
Thank you for staying tuned! --Andy and Colin"
Richard Spencer has since responded with a post of his own at the Radix Journal Facebook page (also deleted by FB), which, while true in its general assertions, is misleading when it comes to certain crucial particulars. Richard did, on a couple of occasions, tell us that he thought it was time for Alternative Right to be put out to pasture. It seems that he’d lost interest in the venture a long time ago, and had long wished to rebrand in one form or another. We always recognized his right to do this, as the originator of the Alternative Right site and its editor until mid-2012, when he gave editorship duties to Colin and me, but having never heard anything definitive, we assumed that things would be business as usual until we were definitively told otherwise.
Richard implies in his Radix reply that we ought to have known that the end of Alternative Right was coming, and in fact we did perceive that a change might be imminent. Colin and I never really understood why Richard felt tempted to pull the plug on a venture that continued to be successful within a niche market, drawing a significant following in the process and even gaining national exposure upon one occasion. Even now I can only speculate about Richard’s lack of enthusiasm for the project he had started but seemed disinclined to keep going, even as it kept going from strength to strength, meeting success after success.
Still, I always figured that, should Richard indeed decide to make this move, he would give Colin and me adequate notice, and granted us an opportunity to archive our past work, so it could continue to be accessed and read. That the Alternative Right link (www.alternativeright.com) would suddenly become non-operational, that all of the posted material would vanish, and that all traffic would be automatically rerouted to Radixjournal.com on December 25, 2013 was absolutely never imparted to us. Thus, it is not in the least inaccurate to say that we were caught off guard by what Richard did, or that the move was abrupt and unannounced.
Though I remain disappointed by the manner with which this transition was handled, I don’t wish to engage in a feud or a war of words over the matter. Moreover, I remain deeply grateful to Richard Spencer for the many kindnesses he has paid me over the past few years. None of us should be judged solely by our more dubious acts, but rather we should be taken for all-in-all, the good with the bad. All in all, Richard has been very good to me, and I won’t forget that.
Both Colin and I would like to keep this site going, because, unlike Richard, we see absolutely no reason why it ought to be put out to pasture. We thank you, our readers, for your loyalty and support over this past year, and we hope that you will stick with us as we forge forward into 2014 and beyond.
I have a renewed curiosity (no homo) about the claims of that twink boy-diddler from Frum Forum who accused Richard of bullying him.
ReplyDeleteSpencer's move doesn't make any sense to me. There doesn't seem to be an upside for him. Regular Alt-Right readers who are unexpectedly shunted to Radix without explanation aren't likely to become big fans of that site--especially not when they find out the backstory on how it all went down. And from the outside it's seemed to me that Alt-Right's already solid readership was growing, if the active discussions in the comments were an accurate barometer of traffic trends. Very puzzling.
ReplyDeleteToo bad. It was a curious .. coincidence? ... that one of the commentators noted that Richard never seems to see things through just a few days before this happened. Worthy foresight. Either way, I wish you fellas the best in keeping with the spirit of Alternative Right as it existed. Keep going and I'll keep reading.
ReplyDelete