Lecture: Klaus Walter “The Kids are Alt Right? Porn, pop and the culture wars of the New Right”

"The Kids Are Alt-Right" is the title of the latest song by the US band Bad Religion. The musicians aren't kids any longer, more like geezer punks, and they lament that kids nowadays aren't left-wing anymore but right-wing – alt right to be precise. In the USA, the New Right, or the alternative right, attracts those who want to set themselves apart from the so-called mainstream; young, white men, in particular. The – mostly male – protagonists of the Alt-Right are familiar with pop culture and use this knowledge for their strategic use of media.

"If you want to shock your parents nowadays, then you should vote for Donald Trump," was one recommendation by leading figures in of the US Alt Right movement. One of them is Gavin McInnes, once the founder of Vice magazine. He says: "I'm still the punk I was 20 years ago. It's just that my target is no longer the petty bourgeoise from the suburbs but the politically correct left-wing elite." In his video/music talk, Klaus Walter speaks about the new coordinators of this pop rebellion and the significance of pornography in the rhetoric of the New Right: "You can grab 'em by the pussy." The New Right counters the politicisation of sexuality by the feminist and anti-authoritarian, anti-patriarchal emancipation movements with a sexualisation of politics that we are familiar with from fascist and authoritarian regimes.

Klaus Walter, born in 1955, has been working as an author and radio producer on pop culture, football and politics since the mid-1970s. From 1984 to 2008 he was moderator and designer of the program "Der Ball ist rund" (The Ball is Round) at Hessischer Rundfunk, since 2008 Walter works as an editor and moderator at the internet radio ByteFM. With Frank Witzel and Thomas Meinecke he published the books "Plattenspieler" (2005) and "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" (2009).