Alt-right meant the new young hip online political youth that leaned right but also rejected the Neo-Cons and RINOs and the Bushes. Basically the same as “alternative rock” vs. “mainstream rock”. Not only was it not threatening, it was actually a very effective brand for conservatives and it was attracting a lot of young people.

The Democrats started freaking out about this and knew they couldn’t let conservativism or American traditionalism turn into the new counter-culture or youth alternative movement so they went into media destruction mode on the word “alt-right”. Non-stop slander, lies, FAKE NEWS, and false flags. Eventually the weaker political guys (or controlled opposition) abandoned and turned against the word - “I disavow the alt-right” turned into a magic phrase that would turn the eye of Sauron away from them (for now) - and eventually one by one they each disavowed, and the more people disavowed, the more others felt they had to also disavow, until finally the brand was dead and the Democrats got their way.

Of course what the Democrats didn’t realize is they didn’t actually change anyone’s mind. All they did was destroy a branding word. It probably helped them scatter us a little bit, but no matter what they do now, whenever we scatter, we reform a few weeks/months later and keep going. If they banned this place, nobody would change their mind about any of this and eventually we would all reconnect somewhere else online too.