Viral
Jessica Brown
Nov 29, 2016
www.stopnormalizing.com
‘Alt-right’ has become a much-contested phrase since the rise of Donald Trump. It's been coined by his white nationalist supporters as a description of their views. Many argue that the term simply sugar-coats neo-Nazism.
But people are fighting back.
An advertising professional using the pseudonym George Zola has created a Google Chrome extension which automatically replaces all mentions of ‘alt-right’ with ‘white supremacy’ as you browse the internet. There is also an option to change it to ‘neo-Nazi’.
The extension, called Stop Normalising The Alt Right has had around 1,700 downloads so far.
Zola told the Huffington Post:
I don’t want this term to be sugar coated, I want it to instantly make [people] recoil in the same way most recoil when thinking of white supremacists or white nationalists groups.
They’re scary, dangerous, and it’s important we stop the normalisation of this before it gets out of hand. History shows us how quickly these movements can spiral out of control.
Zola says the app can be used as a way to ‘defy’ the phrase’s rebranding.
The app’s website states:
Don't make this language of hate part of your vocabulary
The Associated Press (AP) wrote last week that journalists should avoid using the term ‘alt right’ without context because:
The term may exist primarily as a public-relations device to make its supporters’ actual beliefs less clear and more acceptable to a broader audience.
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