Any group can and will be subject to this sort of thing, insular ones moreso. All it takes are people making "innocuous statements" that make others uncomfortable and cause them to leave. The percentage of Alt-Right speakers increase, and with it how accepted the statements they make are. With the abscence of opposition, the ideas slowly seep into other people as accepted - these are members of THEIR community, right?
As a result, boundaries of what can be said shift, so the Alt-Right statements grow even stronger, allowing for more rhetoric and more people who are made uncomfortable to leave. As the statements continue to be made, challenging them becomes harder and harder, with those doing so seen as disruptive or causing a problem.
It can happen with any ideology, but it is the Nazi and Alt-Right that make it a specific mission to do it intentionally. This is how 4chan's /b/ board became so bad - an intentional conversion campaign by Stormfront, seeing the Ironically Pro-Nazi mocking/edgy shock jokes as an opening.
Any group can and will be subject to this sort of thing, insular ones moreso. All it takes are people making "innocuous statements" that make others uncomfortable and cause them to leave. The percentage of Alt-Right speakers increase, and with it how accepted the statements they make are. With the abscence of opposition, the ideas slowly seep into other people as accepted - these are members of THEIR community, right?
As a result, boundaries of what can be said shift, so the Alt-Right statements grow even stronger, allowing for more rhetoric and more people who are made uncomfortable to leave. As the statements continue to be made, challenging them becomes harder and harder, with those doing so seen as disruptive or causing a problem.
It can happen with any ideology, but it is the Nazi and Alt-Right that make it a specific mission to do it intentionally. This is how 4chan's /b/ board became so bad - an intentional conversion campaign by Stormfront, seeing the Ironically Pro-Nazi mocking/edgy shock jokes as an opening.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.