Defining the Path to Radicalization

Introduction:

Many of us have lost family members to radicalized beliefs and conspiracy theories, including myself. It is so deeply saddening and elicits feelings of powerlessness when we encounter a loved one who has unwaveringly lost their self-identity to a radical group.

Losing loved ones to extremism can leave us wondering how someone who was once stable and rational can believe such blatantly false narratives. It leads to increased hostility, conflict, and dysfunction in the afflicted family. [26] My aim here is to provide an explanation for how individuals fall victim to such extreme and delusional beliefs.

How are People Radicalized?

       Radicalization happens when an individual experiences destabilization thru various environmental factors (e.g., job loss, interpersonal hardship, isolation), experiences extremist rhetoric, and the extremism is then reinforced by members of the individual’s group/community. [24]

       Radicalization spreads through a complex social contagion effect, in which it requires multiple exposures before the individual adopts the extreme belief(s), and this concept has been documented in political movements in a broad application. [24] Political propaganda utilizes a similar approach as well.

       Group membership and social media usage are catalysts that enhance the spread of radical beliefs. [24] However, evidence suggests that despite encountering the misinformation online, there are still geographical factors that suggest local organizing plays an important role in the development of Far-Right extremist groups. [24]

3 Key Ingredients for Radicalization: [10]

Identity Fusion: allegiance to a social group is prioritized above one’s own well-being and identity.
Obsessive Passions: one compulsively and relentlessly pursues a passion to the point of dysfunction, marked by loss of self-control and inability to cease activity that causes harm, guilt, shame, or burn-out. [14]
Past Incarceration

Another critical factor in one’s susceptibility to radicalization, as concisely stated by Psychology Today, is that: “people who had been threatened, dehumanized, and perceived that they were discriminated against were more likely to become radicalized.” [10] This statement is key in examining the political extremism that has permeated our country, as the movements promoting radicalization prey on people by exploiting these very components.

Specific ideologies are also found to be more susceptible to specific components of radicalization:

Right-Wing Extremism: specifically vulnerable when socially isolated and holding strong religious beliefs.

Left-Wing Extremism: specifically vulnerable if receiving welfare and experiencing moral neutralization (the elimination of moral dissonance through rationalization, such as viewing that “there are no other options”). [10]

Both Sides Are Not Alike – Far-Right Violence

When evaluating evidence from an objective perspective, the facts may paint one side more poorly than the other. That is certainly the case when comparing Right-Wing vs Left-Wing extremism in the US. It would be blatantly dishonest to claim that there is no radicalism or acts of extremism committed by Left-Wing extremists. Modern day “Tankies” are a prime example of Left-Wing extremism. [23]

       However, there is a stark difference in the means with which the two groups engage in acts of extremism. In a study evaluating Left-Wing and Right-Wing domestic extremism between 1994 and 2020, there was one fatality as the result of Left-Wing extremism, versus 329 fatalities resulting from Far Right extremism in that 25 year period. [5]

       The Far-Right movement is the oldest and most deadly form of domestic terrorism in the United States, and The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism found that the Far-Right is responsible for 98% of extremist murders in the U.S. [24] Furthermore, for nearly every year since 2011, Far-Right terrorist attacks/plots have accounted for over half of all terror attacks/plots in the United States. [21]

       In the U.S., Right-Wing extremism was responsible for two-thirds of all failed, foiled, or successful terror attacks in 2019, and was responsible for 90% of attacks in the first half of 2020 alone. [21] Since 2013, Far-Right extremism has been responsible for more terror attacks/plots than the Left-Wing, ethnonationalism, or religiously motivated attacks/plots. [21]

       One study explains possible causality for these extremely disproportionate rates of violence between Left and Right-Wing radicals:

In comparison to left-wing supporters, right-wing individuals are more often characterized by closed-mindedness and dogmatism and a heightened need for order, structure, and cognitive closure. Because such characteristics have been found to increase in-group bias and lead to greater out-group hostility, violence for a cause may be more likely among proponents of right-wing ideologies. [9]

From a study in which Stanford partnered with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to study domestic terrorism, they describe the Right-Wing extremist methods as follows:

When the far-right employs violence, it is typically more open than conspiratorial terrorist attacks and includes activities such as street fighting, brawling, confrontations with counter-protesters, and stand-offs with law enforcement.

Members of the far-right often threaten or try to provoke violence to intimidate opponents. These groups also endorse or praise violence conducted by members, even if there is little explicit coordination. The far-right ideology may inspire escalation to terrorism even if not directly ordered (e.g., the Oklahoma City bombing carried out by Timothy McVeigh). [21]

A more relatable modern example of Far-Right domestic terrorism is when QAnon, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and MAGA radicals attempted to overthrow the 2020 election on January 6th by attempting to stage an insurrection at the Capital. [27]

Mass Shootings and Incels

Mass shootings are marked by components of anti-social behavior, social isolation, feelings of rejection, perceived victimization/threat, and a similar type of reactive violence as displayed in those with Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD). [16]

These are the same components that contribute to the development of extremist ideologies and actions, such as those perpetrated by the “Incel” (meaning “involuntary celibacy”) community, who have been responsible for acts of violence, murder, and domestic terrorism, particularly focused on women and couples. [22]

Incels were a group that originated on reddit, and became radicalized through the online echo-chamber that was their ‘subreddit,’ in which extremist ideology was repeatedly reinforced. It is important to remember that radicalization occurs through a social contagion effect caused by repeated reinforcement of extreme ideology. [24]

       This type of encouragement of extremism has also been very present surrounding 4Chan/8Chan users and multiple mass shooters, some of whom posted prior to their murder sprees and were encouraged by the 4Chan/8Chan users. [3]

       A statistic that I believe comes as a surprise to most people is that only 1% of radicalized individuals end up engaging in a violent act. [4] It is also important to note that mass shooters and Incels cannot be labeled as having severe/serious mental illness (SMI), but rather they have characteristics of or are diagnosed with ASPD (psychopathy/sociopathy). I encourage you to read my article on violence and mental illness.

       That statistic of 1% also applies to individuals who have fallen victim to the QAnon group. However, when that 1% chance of acting violently on their extremism manifests, the results can be utterly tragic. The multiple fathers who have become radicalized and killed their families serve as prime examples. [8] [2] I remember that poor daughter’s reddit post when she made it. Those fathers believed their delusions to be a worse fate than executing their family.

QAnon Failed Predictions

QAnon is plagued by demonstrably false claims, from baseless claims of election fraud and interference to absurd conspiracy theories like “Pizza Gate;” where the conspiracy theory boiled over into real-world Right-Wing violent extremism when an armed and disillusioned QAnon follower stormed the pizzeria demanding they free the (nonexistent) captive children from the basement, which also did not even exist. [6]

At this point, a rational individual would reorganize their beliefs in the face of the new evidence that they were wrong (that is how we maintain a reflective equilibrium). However, the QAnon believers do not reorganize their beliefs in the face of being proven wrong.

The heartbreakingly hilarious QAnon conspiracy that JFK Jr. is still secretly alive, and that he will be trump’s VP nomination in the next election cycle is another example. [15] Just like religious “End Times” cults, they have repeatedly made false predictions of his return and gathered to await his address that will never come.

There is also "the storm" and many other false QAnon predictions that never came to fruition, but I won't waste time discussing all of them here. The point is that no matter how many times they are proven wrong, many radicalized individuals will continue to believe the same delusions.

Debunking MAGA Election Fraud Claims

       False claims of 2020 election fraud and interference continue to be perpetuated by QAnon and the radical MAGA movement [15], despite the fact that it was the most secure election in history [7], there was no actual evidence of mass election fraud [20], and trump’s own appointees and advisors [25], and even his prized daughter [17], all have stated that there was no real evidence of fraud, and that trump definitively lost the election. [17]

       Multiple trump lawyers arguing the false election fraud claims have been arrested, accepted plea deals, and provided testimony under oath that there was no election interference, and that trump lost the election. [13] [1]

       If you pay attention to trump and his circle, they make many strong claims on social/media outlets but immediately clam up or admit they were lying when under oath, and instead take plea deals to testify against trump for the crimes he has been arrested for. [11] Just watch the confidential videos a defense lawyer leaked, in which trump’s fomer lawyers provide testimony that he knew he lost the election and planned to remain in power. [19]

       The QAnon and MAGA followers will cite some of these individuals one moment, and then claim that they are not worthwhile authorities of the truth when the individuals’ claims don’t support the current wild conspiracy theory. These radicals/conspiracy theorists don’t actually hold any sort of consistent value of the truth; they merely parrot talking points that are fun and exciting to believe.

Every time they are blatantly proven wrong, instead of reevaluating their beliefs to be accurate, they instead shift the goalpoasts and engage in rationalizing in an attempt to subvert their cognitive dissonance and maintain their delusions.

Why False Beliefs Persist Despite Counterevidence

There is a serious and pervasive dysfunction in Far-Right/QAnon followers’ ability to scrutinize the validity of the information they receive. It makes them highly resistant to fact-checking and significantly narrows their scope of perspectives.

Radicalized group members, such as QAnon, are highly invested in their beliefs. This is not due to the beliefs themselves, but the feelings the beliefs ellicit as well as their in-group status, especially when the individual has given up/lost family, friends, their career, etc. due to their radical beliefs. [12]

This is similar to the sunken cost fallacy, in which an individual feels motivated by the fact that they have already invested/lost something of value (e.g., family relationships, employement) and therefore don’t want to give-up their current beliefs/group membership since it has already cost them something of significance.

Despite their clear inability to maintain open-mindedness and rational interpretation of information, the radical/conspiracy theorist typically believes themselves to be critical freethinkers. [12] They couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Radical conspiracy theory groups like QAnon are typically skeptical of knowledge-founding institutions like academia and journalism. [12] These groups often prefer alternative knowledge claims from unscrupulous sources, such as personal anecdotes, mysticism, the Bible, and the occult. [12]

Going back to the identity fusion of radical groups like QAnon, when you challenge one of their beliefs, they tend to register this as an attack on themselves. This is because they have fused their political/social beliefs with their personal identity.

So, any time a belief is challenged, they perceive it as a challenge against themselves on a personal attack level. This is one of the challenges with the disordered type of thinking deeply present in such groups. This is part of the reason they are so emotionally charged and vulnerable to criticism.

When considering that many QAnon followers find the lifestyle exciting and feel a sense of community, it should come as no surprise that some do not want to climb out of their cult-like group. There is a behavioral addiction component like that of gambling or gaming. [18]

Can We Intervene with Our Family?

We can feel so driven to pull someone we care about out of a radicalized group, but confrontation is typically not effective and will likely strain the relationship more. The best approach is to avoid speaking about the subject by stating something like: “I understand you are very passionate and want to share, but I would like to talk about something else.” Try to redirect the conversation onto a topic of shared interest. [18]

Since you cannot effectively reason with the radicalized family member, it is best to instead try to be a supportive figure in their lives. If they lose family members due to their radical beliefs, it can drive them to further lose themselves to the group they feel “gets them.” [18]

You can also refer them to websites like:

Conclusion:

       Radicalization occurs when an individual experiences distressing life events and are repeatedly exposed to extremism from a group or community in which they hold membership. [24] The extremism plays off of the individual/group’s fears and perception of threat, persecution, or mistreatment. [10] Far-Right radicalism is objectively responsible for vastly more violence and murder than Left-Wing extremism [5], and it is the oldest and most deadly form of domestic terrorism in the US. [24]

       It is truly a tragedy when those we care about fall victim to radicalization/extremism. Despite the fact that we can see the dysfunction and danger of their beliefs and may desperately want to intervene, we typically cannot reason with them and talk them out of their beliefs. [18]

       Confrontation will more likely drive them away from you and further into their radicalized group who they feel “gets them.” The most we can do is encourage them to view resources and accounts of other people who have managed to pull themselves out of their extremism and radical beliefs. We can try to remain present and serve as a stable alternative source of support, but we cannot change them; they must desire to change themselves.

References:

[1] AP News. (2023, December 15). Apology letters by Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro in Georgia election case are one sentence long. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/georgia-election-case-apology-letters-powell-chesebro-15a8facccf0ee6f1f25b70af6bed8801

[2] Bellware, Ki. (2022, September 12). Michigan father shot his family, police say. his ... - The Washington Post. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/12/igor-lanis-murder/

[3] CBS News. (2020, May 21). How 8chan became a platform for mass shooters. https://www.cbsnews.com/video/how-8chan-became-a-platform-for-mass-shooters/

[4] Cornell University. (n.d.). What we know about radicalization. Evidence Based Living. https://evidencebasedliving.human.cornell.edu/blog/what-we-know-about-radicalization/

[5] Far-left extremist groups in the United States. Counter Extremism Project. (n.d.). https://www.counterextremism.com/content/far-left-extremist-groups-united-states

[6] Gresko, J. (2021, August 12). “Pizzagate” gunman in DC sentenced to 4 years in prison. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/united-states-presidential-election-e0d30f6da17348ce9f354bfd6cb5cd9a

[7] Heim, M. (2020, November 17). Politifact - yes, Department of Homeland Security declared Nov. 3 election most secure in American history. Politifact. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/nov/17/tammy-baldwin/yes-department-homeland-security-declared-nov-3-el/

[8] Hernandez, J. (2021, August 13). A California father claims Qanon conspiracy led him to kill his 2 children, FBI says. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/08/13/1027133867/children-dead-father-claims-qanon-conspiracy-led-him-to-kill

[9] Jasko, K., LaFree, G., Piazza, J., & Becker, M. H. (2022, July 26). A comparison of political violence by left-wing, right-wing, and Islamist extremists in the United States and the world. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9335287/

[10] Lancaster, V. (2022, January 24). What we know about radicalization | psychology Today. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evidence-based-living/202201/what-we-know-about-radicalization

[11] Mangan, D., & Breuninger, K. (2023, August 25). Trump arrest full recap: Mugshot, surrender, what’s next in Georgia election case. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/24/donald-trump-to-be-arrested-in-georgia-live-updates.html

[12] Marwick, A. E., & Partin, W. C. (2023, January 12). Constructing alternative facts: Populist expertise and the QAnon conspiracy. Carolina Digital Repository. https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/parent/h415pm364/file_sets/x920g6703

[13] Miller, H. (2023, December 14). Read: Apology letters from Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro in Trump’s georgia case. MSNBC. https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/read-trump-georgia-sidney-powell-kenneth-chesebro-apology-pdf-rcna129858

[14] Morales, J. I. (2020, August 8). Two types of passion: Harmonious vs. obsessive | psychology Today. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/building-the-habit-hero/202008/two-types-passion-harmonious-vs-obsessive

[15] Palmer, E. (2021, March 4). These QAnon predictions all failed to come true. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/qanon-trump-march4-predictions-failed-1573739

[16] Patrick, C. J., & Verona, E. (2015, March 25). Psychobiological aspects of antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy, and violence. Psychiatric Times. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychobiological-aspects-antisocial-personality-disorder-psychopathy-and-violence

[17] PBS NewsHour. (2022, June 10). Watch: Barr, ivanka trump say they knew there was no voter fraud in 2020 election. YouTube. https://youtu.be/FMXMaHtr218?si=5oLsp_MzZN4LOHcN

[18] Pierre, J. (2020, September 1). 4 keys to help someone climb out of the Qanon Rabbit Hole. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-unseen/202009/4-keys-help-someone-climb-out-the-qanon-rabbit-hole

[19] Rubin, O., & Steakin, W. (2023, November 13). “The boss is not going to leave”: Proffer videos show ex-Trump lawyers telling Georgia prosecutors about efforts to overturn 2020 election . ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/boss-leave-proffer-videos-show-trump-lawyers-telling/story?id=104831939

[20] Spencer, S. H. (2020, December 11). Nine election fraud claims, none credible. FactCheck.org.

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/12/nine-election-fraud-claims-none-credible/

[21] Stanford. (n.d.). MMP: Mapping the global far-right. CISAC. https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/mappingmilitants/far-right-extremism#page_title_35057

[22] Wang, M. (2022, March 16). “incels” are a rising threat in the US, Secret Service report finds. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/16/involuntary-celibates-incels-threat-us-secret-service

[23] Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, December 6). Tankie. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie

[24] Youngblood, M. (2020, July 31). Extremist ideology as a complex contagion: The spread of far-right radicalization in the United States between 2005 and 2017. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00546-3

[25] Yousif, N. (2023, August 3). Bill Barr says Donald Trump “knew well he lost the election.” BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66388176

[26] Frazee, G., & Hastings, D. (2021, May 28). Their loved ones are “obsessed” with QAnon conspiracies. it’s tearing their families apart. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/their-loved-ones-are-obsessed-with-qanon-conspiracies-its-tearing-their-families-apart

[27] Shivaram, D. (2022, December 23). After 18 months of investigations, the Jan. 6 report is out. here are the toplines. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/23/1145209559/jan-6-committee-final-report

*Last two sources are out of order because I was too lazy to reformat all of the existing citations' in-text counterparts...

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