You interpreted that tweet–and everything else–incorrectly. When you more properly understand that tweet, actually, you more properly understand the #AltRight,

What that tweet means isn’t that the speaker embraces any sort of Nazi-related ideology, or has an incomplete/juvenile understanding of history; it just means that the speaker isn’t going to let the Left’s inevitable, constant barrage of accusations of racism/sexism/Nazism/whateverism make him back down*. It’s a statement of ideological defiance that, “You can call us Nazis all you want; we don’t care, that doesn’t work to marginalize us anymore–we’re winning.” It’s a defiant embrace of terminology and iconography used to humiliate and demean and cow Republicans and conservatives–exactly the same principle behind Black Americans’ embrace of the n-word. Now, you can disagree on whether that’s a desirable strategy–but it isn’t one driven by immaturity, a poor understanding of history, hate, or any -ism.

It’s driven by the fact that the older generations of Republicans/conservatives have utterly failed these young ones. We allowed the Left to have full control of the culture and its institutions–and they savage these young people as a result. Where were the conservative movements to fight back against the ideological homogeneity of our education system–to leave breathing room for young people to flirt with conservative ideology, without being berated and abused by progressive “educators” and indoctrinated peers? The push for charter schools etc. was always half-hearted & underfunded at the national level, because the neocons etc. set agendas which put all the effort and funds elsewhere into failed foreign adventurism, crony capitalism, tax breaks for the people who least needed them, and other misbegotten priorities. Where have we invested in quality conservative cultural alternatives to the mainstream liberal agitprop? A quarter-century of Republicans/”conservatives” completely dropped the ball on all everything of fundamental importance, from the superstructure of culture at the top, down to the foundation of respect for laws and borders and basic economic feasibility. And we’ve reaped a whirlwind as a result: in today’s mainstream liberal-dominated culture, every last Republican is demonized as a Nazi, and every last conservative is ridiculed as a Westboro Baptist crazy.

There is a whole generation of young people who’ve almost literally grown up in an Orwellian newspeak nightmare. They live surrounded by propaganda–especially on social media and online media, but even pervading MSM entertainment like the Ghostbusters reboot. For many of the younger folks who became alt-right, the culture war sparked by #Gamergate–where online media basically barraged them all at once in a coordinated agitprop attack across every mainstream tech and gaming website about the evils of white males and cultural conservatives–was a Pearl Harbor moment. They cried out–and were piled on by the hordes of organized SJWs who patrolled online spaces, quashing dissent with -ism accusations. They regrouped, forming their own spaces. They defied, organizing their own hordes. It was self-defense. And just as the SJWs reveled in enforcing a PC cultural-Marxist orthodoxy, the nascent alt-right reveled in breaking all those same PC cultural-Marxist taboos.

In context, it’s understandable. And frankly, establishment Republicans/conservatives have lost any moral high ground to condemn it, because those older generations are completely responsible for allowing our culture and polity to degenerate to this point, where the progressives have been manipulating all the levers of cultural power for a generation while stupid, deluded “cuckservatives” sat oblivious to the Orwellian nightmare they allowed to reign while they were busy circle-jerking over neocon fantasies and a nominal control of Congress’ “power of the purse” with which they never accomplished a single worthwhile thing. Democrats/progressives got things done. Establishment Republicans/conservatives didn’t.

The real bedrock foundation of the alt-right is with these younger people who were roundly abused during #Gamergate and loosely organized around defiance of PC cultural orthodoxy as a result. On top of that foundation a superstructure of the older generations previously “purged” from “establishment” conservatism has gathered, along with some new movements under construction Some aren’t very desirable, like the old-guard “white nationalists” who’ve become hangers-on to the alt-right movement–they’re nowhere near its core, it must be stressed; they’re hangers-on.** Others, more intellectual and realistic, have been embraced or adopted. The old-guard Pat Buchanan type of America First conservatism (which is closer to a true reified Reagan conservatism than the abstract generalization commonly promoted as such today) finds a home it hasn’t had since the Buchanan types were purged in the 90s by the neocons–and it’s making new, young converts. The “Neoreactionary” movement has set up shop on the ground floor, though again not all or even most alt-righters are neoreactionaries. The alt-right’s foundation is pretty clear and established, but the superstructure is an evolving and vibrant “Sagrada Familia” with no final form.

*: It does make “establishment” Republicans/conservatives back down, to chilling effect. I cannot tell you how often I see spineless establishment elites–“cuckservatives” in alt-right patois–on left-leaning MSM talk shows, sitting silently as progressive attack dogs accuse Republicans of racism/sexism/whateverism. No defense, ever. They’re like beaten dogs who cower in the corner whenever their abusive masters raise their voices. Hence alt-right disdain for these “cucks” and defiance of the progressive cultural “masters.”

**: I.e., the alt-right is compatible with their beliefs–though not all their beliefs are compatible with the alt-right. It is in most respects a one-way non-mutual attraction. E.g., just because David Duke supports Trump and the Orlando terrorist’s father supports Hillary, doesn’t mean that Trump supports David Duke or Hillary supports the Orlando terrorist’s father.