QOTW #2: How do you combat political radicalization?
Especially if a family member is attracted to white nationalism?
We’re opening up this week’s (due to travel, and Saoirse’s baptism this past Sunday, we’re running a bit late with this one) subscriber QOTW (Question of the Week) to all of our members because the question at hand is poignant, personal and relatable from a reader named Casey:
My dad has been on the right wing radio thing for 25 years and he's slowly been somewhat radicalized. Mom is adamantly conservative, but in a much more reasonable way and I get the impression from her that dad's radicalization concerns her. Do you have any book (resource?) suggestions that are specifically geared towards my mom's situation?
While this reader is asking about right-wing extremism, we’ve heard concerns as well about radicalization and political indoctrination on the left. Progressives should recognize they are not immune from indoctrination and irrational thought, of course. One striking stat reflects that Democrats became more likely to believe conspiracy theories following the inauguration of Donald Trump.
It’s also important to be clear here about our terms. In our response to this question, we’re going to cover terrain that we don’t necessarily believe is directly at stake in our reader’s question. It does not sound to us, from the background the reader provided, like this reader’s dad is about to join the KKK or take some kind of violent action. This sounds like the quiet kind of radicalization that affects most directly spouses, children, parents, friendships—those closest to the person who has gone down a political rabbit hole. The political and public expressions of this radicalization do matter: this reader’s father may vote, may advocate, may treat people differently because of his political views, may even show up at a rally like the teenage boy featured in this Washingtonian article we shared last week. We just want to be clear that there is a spectrum of both radicalization, and of capacity/desire to act out on radicalized political views, and that there is therefore a spectrum to potential responses.
Let’s first take a look at addressing the far-end of the spectrum. I (Melissa) have been working on examining the issue of “violent extremism” (a term which does not have a set definition but generally means violent acts committed to achieve political, social, ideological or religious ends - though even that definition is controversial) for a few years now in Europe and the US. Europe has been dealing with more organized and stronger forms of white nationalism for decades now, especially as the far-right has individual parties which control sizable parts of parliaments and government in many European countries. US white nationalist groups have existed for a long time as well - they haven’t gone away - but have been gaining ground again in terms of organizing strength and reach of their ideas.
White nationalism is extreme and it is insidious, full stop. The media and other sources that we consume from our culture shape us, and there are plenty of white nationalist sources out there lurking in normal forums - the radio, Reddit, comment boards, etc. These communities also exist on the dark web in places like 4chan. Over and over again, we see how consuming these forms of media changes a person from the accounts of those who fell in love with white nationalism (often termed the Alt-Right these days, but I’ll call it what it is). What may seem harmless at times - a joke here, or a passing judgement there - has become systemically and systematically crafted and turned into sound bites and simple arguments that contain kernels of truth and “common sense” statements that are widely available.
Radicalization, or at least defining it and pinning it down, is extremely difficult. Scholarship doesn’t have many of the answers yet. There is no one way to radicalize. There are patterns here and there, though, based on various contexts. Often, you’ll find those that are attracted to white nationalism have been exposed to the ideas over time, or if an individual is in a vulnerable mind-set (lost a job, lonely, identity crisis, etc.) then the kernels of truth and seemingly common-sense arguments make, well, sense. When you’re not exposed to diverse communities or ideas - when you can’t see the face of whom you’re hating or the face of the “comrade” you follow - it’s very easy to dive in deep and never come back up for air. Throw in fun discursive elements like the disaster metaphor (e.g. a “flood” of immigrants is threatening our borders) which dehumanizes the person or persons at hand, then you’ve got a recipe for radicalization. These aren’t all of the ingredients (again, no one way to radicalize), but the patterns exist. You see the evidence of this in this case and this case, both of which we’ve shared in the Top 5 articles in the last two weeks.
There aren’t a ton of resources out there for individuals to suddenly rehabilitate a family member who has been radicalized in this way. Much of the anti-radicalization work (or anti-racism work as it is termed by many organizations) focuses on youth, which is great, but there isn’t much available to help someone who might not be young. Additionally, much of the major funding in the US has gone towards efforts which prioritize or solely focus on Islamic extremism. But that’s a point and a term for another day.
Life After Hate is the most mainstream and well-funded group doing the work to help individuals leave behind white supremacist movements. Tony McAleer, the founder, is a former white supremacist. In Europe and elsewhere, some of the best anti-extremist work is coming from those who have actually been extremists. Because it is so hard to understand the psyche of a white supremacist, it is hard to do the work to rehabilitate someone or bring someone back from the brink. Tony has a book releasing soon, and it is definitely on my must-read list.
Some more books to consider:
There is the Inkblot Project Toolkit, which is supposed to help you gain insight into how you can help a friend or family member who may be on the path to radicalization. I’ve not gone through the toolkit myself, but I’ve heard good things.
ISD (Institute for Strategic Dialogue) is doing some of the best work anywhere in the world on countering extremism. One of their programs, “Extreme Dialogue” is especially good. They have some great tools and some great videos from former extremists that may provide you with greater insight into your friend or family member.
The CPRLV (located in Montreal) also has some tools for recognizing behavior.
Allow us to close with a word for cases that do not carry such explicit implications for the public, but are primarily manifested in personal relationships. It can be difficult living with someone whose blood pressure is always raised because they’ve been stewing in political trash for hours every day. It can be difficult to talk with family members or friends who are constantly trying to “open your eyes” to some conspiracy theory, or who litter their conversations with ill-founded claims driven by their politics. It can be difficult to feel as though a loved one’s political views are disrespectful and dishonoring of your very personhood.
In these cases, you may decide to let your loved one know that you do not like what their consumption of political news is doing to them. Politics is not entertainment, and yet so many around the country consume political news as if it is. What is a person who does not work in politics doing watching/reading/listening to hours and hours of political content every day?
C.S. Lewis spoke to this sickness when he wrote: “A sick society must think much about politics, as a sick man must think much about his digestion: to ignore the subject may be fatal cowardice for the one as for the other. But if either comes to regard it as the natural food of the mind–if either forgets that we think of such things only in order to be able to think of something else–then what was undertaken for the sake of health has become itself a new and deadly disease.”
As I (Michael) shared in my Q Talk, so many in our country, so many in our churches, are sick with that new and deadly disease. For Christians, we need to ask of ourselves—and with great care and love broach the subject with others, when necessary—whether our approach to politics, our over-investment of our emotions and our hopes in politics, amounts to a form of idolatry. The answer is not to ignore politics, but to think Christianly about politics.
Finally, know that much of political communications is designed to manipulate and win the allegiance of its consumers. Many people could benefit from professional help in the form of therapy or counseling to gain some perspective and tools for coping with the onslaught of media that we are subject to in this moment. This is a difficult piece of advice. Besides an unwillingness to attend a session, therapy and counseling costs time and money, and not all of us have great medical coverage or a lot of time. However, if it is possible, therapy or counseling may bring out some of the underlying things going on that will help your person cope and be less susceptible to the ideas, people and online forums they’re following. I’m afraid that mental health issues related specifically to political propaganda will increase in the future, and that we need to think as a country about how to address this challenge. Indeed, the toxic state of our political culture is not a threat that can or will be contained to our politics alone. This reader’s question, for which we are grateful, clearly illustrates this fundamental fact.
-Michael and Melissa
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