The love story between the alt-right and Orthodoxy.

I get why young alt-righters are attracted to what they perceive to be the Orthodox Church. The aesthetics are certainly powerful; all skulls and incense and ancient artwork, looking completely alien compared to the modern churches of mainstream Protestantism. It's an inherently conservative religion, in the sense that it seeks to continually maintain the ancient traditions established by the first Christians in places like Rome and Constantinople. The leaders of the Church are called "Patriarchs." The influence of Middle Eastern and Asian culture means many of the men grow beards and long hair, while many women wear some kind of head covering.

These are all things that delight the kind of people looking to "reject modernism" and "embrace (perceived) tradition," as well as trying to piss off the "godless blue-haired SJWs" with what appears (to them) to be the most patriarchal and "based" version of Christianity, one that takes a strong stance against "degeneracy."

Of course, this misapprehension of what Orthodoxy stands for is why so many of them wind up excommunicated after their hellspawned ideas attract the attention of the Church (I'm specifically thinking of Matthew Heimbach). The Orthodox Church does, in many ways, call for us to "reject modernity," but there is nothing so modern as the heresy of nationalism. We are likewise called to follow the order of St. Paul, to "hold fast" to these ancient traditions descended from the Apostles themselves, but you'll quite quickly find that these traditions involve an utter debasement of self in service to the Kingdom and the total rejection of anything close to what nationalists imagine as an ideal society. Indeed, the example of the early Church is the very degeneracy the alt-right tends to rail against: the rejection of private property, the callous ignoring of cultural norms, the rejection of power structures, the rejection of the rich, the uplifting of the poor and weak.

I'm yet to meet any sad, angry, misguided trolls who can explain how they are able to hate Mexican immigrants while still having the icon of Saint John Chrysostom as their profile picture. I'm yet to meet any crazed misogynist whose ideology matches up with their professed opinions on the Empress Theodora or the Mother of God or Saint Mary of The Desert. I'm yet to meet any who can tell me why they could possibly ask for the prayers and intercessions of Saint Alexander of Munich while espousing support for the Nazi regime that murdered him.

I've never met these people, and I never will. They don't choose Orthodoxy because they understand or believe what it has to say about the world. They ultimately choose Orthodoxy for the same reason reactionaries choose anything: because they think it will offend the sensibilities of the people they despise.