Lowry sees the work of violent racists as “the handiwork of a very small, violent fringe of the socially disconnected.” This is true, but I’d argue that the broader (nonviolent) wing of white supremacism is a larger part of that same fringe. And when the number of the socially disconnected rises, the size of the fringe will as well.
There’s something else at work also — a poison within the broader conservative movement. Hatred for political correctness has yielded an unhealthy fascination with and admiration for pure defiance. Young voices pride themselves on fearlessness and place attitude over thought in their words and deeds. They troll online and at school to “trigger the libs,” and nothing triggers the libs more than defiance on matters of race.
How could so many people flock to Yiannopoulos’s banner? Admiration for a man who never let anyone tell him what to say. How could any person embrace Paul Nehlen? He was ready to fight and didn’t care who he made angry. If the ethos of the defiant Right is never, ever to accede to either a leftist or (what is, arguably, more hated) an “establishment” or “elite” conservative critique, then it’s easy to see how bigots can flourish.