What Is The Alt-Left? Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Climate Science Cited By Right As Evidence Of Extreme Liberalism

The alt-right — the far-right faction of conservatism with deep ties to white supremacists — has seen its public profile boom alongside the rise of its chosen candidate, President-elect Donald Trump. But now a new, lesser-known "alt" group has entered the political lexicon: the alt-left.

Unlike the alt-right, there aren't many folks calling themselves a part of the alt-left. It's a term in direct response to the attention placed on the alt-right, a group with whom many Republicans would rather not be associated. In a move seemingly aimed at countering the bad press the alt-right brings, members of the GOP and others have taken to labeling Democrats "alt-left" if they consider them extremely liberal.

The conservative-leaning advocacy group One Nation, for instance, put out a statement this month slamming the "alt-left" politicians Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the Washington Post reported. The term originated with alt-right sites like World Net Daily, migrated to Fox News' Sean Hannity and eventually landed with the president-elect himself.

"This is a term that was just given that — frankly, there's no alt-right or alt-left. All I'm embracing is common sense," Trump said on CNN during the campaign.

Since Trump's election, the term has been used even more. Hannity slammed the "alt-left mainstream media," McGill University professor/columnist Gil Troy wrote a Time magazine piece titled, "The Bernie Sanders–fueled alt-left viciously attacked me," and Fox News ran a piece titled, "Liberals get hysterical over the 'alt-right' but we are living in their 'alt-left' world."

Troy detailed his experiences getting attacked online after he published an analysis that argued the so-called political revolution sparked by Sanders, a Democratic Socialist, had contributed to Hillary Clinton's loss in the general election. "If Barack Obama’s election in 2008 ultimately launched the alt-right, Donald Trump’s election in 2016 is launching the alt-left," Troy wrote.

The Fox News piece, however, argued the alt-left had long pushed a radical agenda on the U.S. It argued that since the 2011 "Occupy" movement, it had grown worse, citing everything from celebrities who push to stop climate change, to the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, to people bringing up decades-old accusations of racism against Trump Attorney General-designate Sen. Jeff Sessions.

"The progressive, far-left agenda has conquered the traditional left’s agenda," the piece read. "The alt-left is everything bad the left claims about the right. It is extreme and doesn’t want compromise. It wants to demonize or destroy opponents and intrude into every aspect of our lives."