00:00:04
Say, for the sake of argument,
your friend Gabe is starting to worry you.
00:00:09
Gabe’s always been just,
you know, a regular guy.
00:00:12
Not very political.
00:00:13
He likes video games, sci-fi,
comics, Star Wars, and anime.
00:00:18
White guy shit.
00:00:19
The only offbeat thing about him is you
suspect there’s like a 20% chance he’s a furry.
00:00:25
For all intents and purposes,
Gabe is a normie.
00:00:28
But recently Gabe’s been spending a lot of
time on some radically conservative forums,
00:00:33
and listening to radically conservative
podcasts, and picking some radically
00:00:37
conservative arguments
with you and your friends.
00:00:39
You never would have expected this,
not from Gabe, and, given the speed
00:00:42
it’s happened, it’s worrying to
think where it might be headed.
00:00:45
How have the Alt-Right gotten
their hooks into your friend?
00:00:49
If you’ve ever known a Gabe,
this video is for you.
00:00:52
Here’s How to Radicalize a Normie.
00:00:55
Step 1: Identify the Audience
00:00:58
What you need to know before we begin
is: around 2013, the Nazis went online.
00:01:04
Hate groups in the US, as tracked
by the Southern Poverty Law Center,
00:01:07
had been growing in number since the
noughts, but, between 2012 and 2014,
00:01:12
they dropped by almost a quarter.
00:01:14
Patriot groups dropped by over a third.
00:01:16
However, hate crimes
stayed about the same.
00:01:20
Radical conservatism was not
shrinking, but decentralizing.
00:01:24
Still radical, still often violent, but
now full of white nationalist nomads
00:01:29
unlikely to join a formal organization.
00:01:32
This didn’t make them harmless.
00:01:33
What it did was protect their asses
from the typical hate group cycle of
00:01:38
getting the public’s attention,
making allies in conservative media,
00:01:42
swelling their numbers, and then
eventually disgracing themselves
00:01:45
with failures, infighting, and,
often enough, members committing
00:01:49
horrific acts of violence,
which come with social
00:01:52
and sometimes legal consequences
for all the other members.
00:01:56
So the Alt-Right and their fellow travelers
these days don’t so much have members.
00:02:02
They have hashtags, followers,
viewers, and subscribers.
00:02:05
This insulates them from their own audience.
00:02:08
If Gabe, as a member of that audience,
00:02:09
were to go out and commit a crime on
their behalf, there’d be little doubt
00:02:13
they had a hand in radicalizing him, but it’d
be very hard to claim they told him to do it.
00:02:18
On some of these sites, where Gabe
spends hours and hours of his day,
00:02:22
he’s never created an account or left
a comment; the people radicalizing him
00:02:27
don’t even know he’s there.
00:02:29
This distributed nature is what makes the Alt-Right,
and the movements connected to it, unique.
00:02:34
(You may remember a notable
proof-of-concept for this strategy.)
00:02:38
Doing almost everything online has,
as compared with traditional hate movements
00:02:42
dramatically increased their reach and
inoculated them from consequence.
00:02:47
The trade-off, as we will see, is a lack of control.
00:02:49
And so we come to Gabe.
00:02:51
Gabe exists at the intersection of the
kinds of people the Alt-Right is looking for
00:02:56
-- straight white cis men who feel
emasculated by modern society,
00:02:59
primarily, though they do make exceptions –
00:03:02
and the kinds of people who
are vulnerable to recruitment.
00:03:05
Gabe fits the first profile in
that he got bullied in high school,
00:03:09
and often feels he has to hide his
nerdy side for fear of getting ridiculed.
00:03:13
The Alt-Right also has success
with men who can’t get laid
00:03:16
or recently got divorced or feel anxious about
an influx of non-white people in their community.
00:03:22
These things can make one feel like less than
the confident white man they’re “supposed” to be.
00:03:27
And it’s the closest they will
ever come to being minoritized.
00:03:31
Regarding the second profile,
00:03:33
it’s important to know that Gabe is not
categorically different from you or me.
00:03:38
He’s a cishet white dude -
his problems are not unique.
00:03:42
There's not a ton of research into
the demography of the Alt-Right,
00:03:45
but there may be a higher-than-average
00:03:46
chance Gabe has a history of being
abused or comes from a broken home.
00:03:50
You don’t know if it’s true
of Gabe, he’s never said.
00:03:53
But most abuse survivors
don’t become Nazis.
00:03:56
The things that make people like Gabe
recruitable tend to be situational:
00:04:00
it happens often during periods of
transition, as dramatic as the death
00:04:04
of a loved one, or as benign
as moving to a new city.
00:04:08
Things that make people ask big life questions.
00:04:11
Gabe has concerns like economic
precarity, not knowing his place
00:04:15
in a changing world,
stressful working conditions.
00:04:18
In other words, Gabe is suffering under
late capitalism, same as everyone,
00:04:23
and it’s entirely plausible he could have
gone down the path to becoming a Leftist.
00:04:27
Now, this is not to make an “economic
anxiety” argument; the animating force
00:04:32
of the Far Right is and always has been bigotry.
00:04:35
But the Alt-Right targets Gabe by
treating his economic anxiety
00:04:40
as one of many things bigotry
can be sold as a solution to.
00:04:45
It is their aim that, when dissatisfied
white men go looking for answers,
00:04:49
they find the Alt-Right before they find us.
00:04:54
Step Two: Establish a Community
00:04:56
Were Gabe pledging an old-school
hate movement, there would probably
00:05:00
be a recruiter to usher him
into an existing community.
00:05:03
But that’s the kind of formalized interaction
modern extremists try to avoid.
00:05:07
Online extremism has many points
of entry, and everybody’s journey
00:05:11
is unique, so rather than be
comprehensive we will focus on
00:05:15
what are, in my estimation,
the two most common pathways:
00:05:18
the Far Right creates a community
Gabe is likely to stumble into,
00:05:22
or infiltrates a community Gabe is already in.
00:05:26
The stumble-upon method has two
main branches, one of which is just
00:05:30
“Gabe ends up on a chan board,” which
we’ve already done a video about!
00:05:33
The other is kind of the polar
opposite of 4chan’s cult of anonymity:
00:05:37
Gabe ends up in the fandom
of a Far Right thought leader.
00:05:41
These folks are charismatic media personalities
00:05:44
(that’s "charismatic" according to Gabe’s
tastes, not ours -- I don’t understand it, either).
00:05:49
And these personalities may gain
traction on any number of platforms,
00:05:53
from podcasts to reportage to blogging,
00:05:56
though the most effective platform
for redpilling is, and yes I am biting
00:06:00
the hand that feeds me, YouTube.
00:06:02
They may get Gabe’s attention
through fairly conventional means,
00:06:05
like talking about or even generating
controversy to get themselves trending,
00:06:10
while some of the more committed
will employ dubious SEO tactics
00:06:14
like clickbait, google bombing, and data voids.
00:06:18
But, what they tend to have in common,
especially the most accessible ones,
00:06:21
is that they don’t present themselves
as entry points to the radical Right.
00:06:25
In fact, many did not set out
to be Far Right thought leaders,
00:06:28
and may not think of themselves as such.
00:06:30
Though they are often selling
products, of which the Alt-Right
00:06:33
are among their biggest purchasers, and
it’s not like they’re turning the money away.
00:06:37
So, there's that.
00:06:39
How they present is the same
way anyone presents who wants
00:06:42
to be successful on social media:
accessible, approachable, authentic.
00:06:47
The face-to-face relationship a budding
extremist forms with their recruiter
00:06:51
or the leader of their hate group’s
local chapter are here folded into one
00:06:56
parasocial relationship
with a complete stranger.
00:06:59
Why this person appeals to Gabe
is they’re not selling politics
00:07:04
as politics, but conservatism
as a kind of lifestyle brand.
00:07:10
They rely heavily on critiquing
or ridiculing the Left:
00:07:13
feminists are oversensitive,
Black people unintelligent,
00:07:16
queer folks doomed to loneliness,
and trans people insane.
00:07:20
I dunno if it’s a coincidence
that these are all things
00:07:23
Gabe thinks about himself
in his low moments.
00:07:26
By contrast, they don’t sell
conservatism as having sounder policies
00:07:30
or a more coherent moral framework,
but that abandoning progressive
00:07:34
principles and embracing conservative
ones will make Gabe happier.
00:07:39
Remember, Gabe isn’t looking for
white nationalism or misogyny,
00:07:44
what he wants is the cure to his
soul-sickness, and these friendly
00:07:48
micro-celebs are here to offer a shot of
life advice with politics as the chaser.
00:07:53
It is extremely important that politics be
presented as a set of affects, not a set of beliefs.
00:08:00
The second pathway is infiltration,
which is its own beast.
00:08:04
Media personalities sometimes
become gateways to the Right
00:08:07
almost by accident: they do something
edgy, a part of their audience reacts
00:08:12
positively, and, facing no real
consequence, they do it more;
00:08:15
this leads to further positive
reinforcement from conservative fans,
00:08:18
the rest of the audience acclimates,
00:08:20
and the cycle repeats, the personality
pushing the envelope further and
00:08:24
further based on what flies with their
increasingly conservative audience.
00:08:28
In this way, they become a right-wing
figure by both radicalizing and
00:08:32
being radicalized by their audience.
00:08:35
Infiltration is deliberate.
00:08:38
The Far Right will reliably
target any community that has:
00:08:42
1) a large, white, male population,
00:08:45
2) whose niche interests allow
them to feel vaguely marginalized,
00:08:50
and 3) who are not used to
progressive critique of said interests.
00:08:55
This isn’t to say progressive critique
doesn’t exist, or hasn’t been baked
00:09:00
into the property from the beginning, but that it
has been, so far, easy for white guys to ignore.
00:09:07
As such, progressives within
that community probably don’t talk
00:09:11
politics much, and women and minorities
are perfectly welcome to post,
00:09:15
same as anyone, but just, you know, don’t,
00:09:18
don’t make identity politics,
you know, like, a thing.
00:09:22
Given Gabe’s proclivities, he’s
probably already in a number
00:09:25
of fan communities where he can
geek out and not get teased.
00:09:29
And this is where the Far-Right
will go looking for him.
00:09:32
Communities are at their most vulnerable
to infiltration at times of political discord.
00:09:36
This can happen naturally –
say, a new property in the fandom
00:09:40
has a Black protagonist –
or it can be provoked –
00:09:43
say, a bunch of channers join the forum
and say provocative things about race
00:09:47
to get people arguing - or both.
00:09:49
Left to its own devices, the community
might sort out its differences
00:09:53
and maybe even come out more
progressive than they started.
00:09:56
But, with the right pressure applied in
the right moment, these communities can
00:10:00
devolve into arguments about the need
00:10:03
to remove a nebulously-defined
“politics” from the conversation.
00:10:08
The adage about bros on the internet is
00:10:10
“‘political’ means anything I disagree
with,” but it’d be more accurate to
00:10:14
say, here, “‘political’ means anything
on which the community disagrees.”
00:10:19
For instance, “Nazis are bad”
is an apolitical statement
00:10:24
because everyone in
the community agrees.
00:10:26
It’s common sense, and therefore neutral.
00:10:29
But, paradoxically, “Nazis are good” is also apolitical;
because “Nazis are bad” is the consensus,
00:10:37
“Nazis are good” must be just an edgy
joke, and, even if not, the community
00:10:43
already believes the opposite,
so the statement is harmless.
00:10:46
Tolerable.
00:10:48
However, “feminism is good”
is a political statement,
00:10:52
because the community
hasn’t reached consensus.
00:10:55
It is debatable, and therefore political,
and you should stop talking about it.
00:11:00
And making political arguments,
no matter how rational,
00:11:04
is having an agenda, and having an
agenda is ruining the community.
00:11:08
(Now, it is curious how the things
that provoke the most disagreement
00:11:11
tend to be whichever ones make
white dudes uncomfortable.
00:11:14
One of life’s great, unanswerable mysteries.)
00:11:17
You can gather where this is going:
a community that doesn’t tolerate
00:11:20
progressivism but does tolerate Nazism
is going to start collecting Nazis,
00:11:25
Nazis whose goal is to drive a wedge
between the community and the Left.
00:11:29
Once the Left acknowledges, “Hey, your
community’s developing a Nazi problem,”
00:11:34
the Nazis - who are, remember, trusted,
apolitical members of the community
00:11:38
who might just be kidding
about all the Nazi shit –
00:11:41
say, “Did you hear that, guys?!
00:11:43
Those cultural Marxists
just called all of us Nazis!”
00:11:47
Wedge.
00:11:48
Similarly, any community members
who say, “but Nazis though” are framed
00:11:53
as infiltrators pushing an agenda, even if
they’ve been there longer than the Nazis have.
00:11:58
They get the wedge, too.
This is how fandoms radicalize.
00:12:02
They are built as - yeah, I’ll say it -
safe spaces for nerds, weebs,
00:12:07
and furries, and are told that the
Left is a threat to their safety.
00:12:12
Given a choice between leaving a
community that has mattered to him
00:12:16
for years and simply adjusting to
the community’s shifting politics,
00:12:20
the assumption is that Gabe will stay.
00:12:23
This assumption is right often enough that
a lot of fandoms have been colonized.
00:12:27
What is true of both of these methods –
00:12:29
Gabe finding the Right or the Right finding him –
00:12:32
is that Gabe does not come
nor stay for the ideology.
00:12:36
He’s here for the community, the sense
of being with his people,
00:12:39
of having his fears validated
and his enjoyment shared.
00:12:42
The ideology is simply
the price of admission.
00:12:47
Step Three: Isolate
00:12:50
There is a vast, interconnected network
of Far Right communities out there,
00:12:54
and Gabe is, at this point,
only on the periphery.
00:12:56
In order to keep him in, they need
to disrupt his relationships to other
00:13:01
communities, and become, more and
more, his primary online social space.
00:13:06
Having made this space hostile to
the Left, they now seek to break
00:13:10
his connections to progressives
elsewhere in his life.
00:13:13
This is hard to do online.
00:13:15
The whole appeal of moving
radicalism to the internet
00:13:17
is that your away-from-keyboard
life doesn’t have to change.
00:13:21
You are crypto the moment you log off.
00:13:23
Some thought leaders will
encourage their audience
00:13:25
to cut ties with Family of Origin,
or “deFOO,” but, even then,
00:13:30
they can’t monitor whether the audience has actually
done it in the way an in-person movement could.
00:13:35
And so alienating Gabe from the Left is less
controlled, and, consequently, may be less total.
00:13:41
How much Gabe isolates is up to him.
00:13:44
But the vast majority of Far Right media
presumes an alienation from the Left.
00:13:49
Part of conservative bloggers
and YouTubers making the Left
00:13:52
look pathetic is doing a lot
take-downs and responses.
00:13:56
This is a constant repetition of
the Left’s arguments for the purpose
00:14:00
of mockery, and, for Gabe, it starts to replace any
engagement with progressive media directly.
00:14:06
He soon knows the Left
only through caricature.
00:14:09
It also trains him, if he does directly
engage, to approach the Left
00:14:14
with the same combative
stance as his role models.
00:14:17
(For reference, see my comment section.)
00:14:19
And this is only if he doesn’t partake in one
of the many active boycotts of “SJW media.”
00:14:26
In addition to mocking the Left’s arguments,
they also, curiously, appropriate them.
00:14:31
This is one part sanitization: liberal
centrism is more socially acceptable;
00:14:36
indeed, many figures on the
outer layers think of themselves
00:14:39
as moderates, even as they
serve as gateways to radicalism.
00:14:43
But, also, many of Gabe’s problems
could be addressed by progressive leftism,
00:14:49
so they sell him racist and
sexist versions of it.
00:14:53
Yes, there is a problem with workers
being underpaid and overextended,
00:14:57
but the solution isn’t unions,
it’s deporting immigrants;
00:15:01
yes, there is a chronic loneliness and
anger to being a man in the modern age,
00:15:05
but it’s not because of the toxic
masculine expectations placed on you
00:15:08
by the patriarchy, it’s women being
slutty; yes, wealth disparity does mean
00:15:13
a tiny percentage of elites have more
influence over culture and politics
00:15:17
than the rest of us combined,
but the problem isn’t capitalism,
00:15:20
it’s the Jews.
00:15:22
And it’s hard for Gabe to reject
these ideas without, in the process,
00:15:27
rejecting the progressive
ideas they’re copied from.
00:15:29
The Right’s “take the red pill” is, to the
untrained eye, similar to the Left’s “get woke.”
00:15:36
(Or, at least, the bowdlerized version
of “get woke” that is no longer
00:15:39
specifically about race which came to fashion when
white people started saying it, grumble grumble.)
00:15:44
Take the red pill or reject them both;
either is a step to the right.
00:15:50
As this rhetoric slips into
his day-to-day conversation,
00:15:53
even as seemingly harmless
“irreverence,” it may strain
00:15:56
relationships with people who
are not entertained by this shit.
00:16:00
Off-color comments about race and
gender can certainly be wearying for
00:16:03
female and non-white friends which can lead to
a passive distance or an eventual confrontation
00:16:09
which only seem to confirm what his reactionary
community says about liberal snowflakes.
00:16:14
If he says these things on social
media, he may get his account
00:16:17
suspended, and, if he comes back under
an alt, you can bet his new reactionary
00:16:21
friends will be the first to reconnect,
applaud the behavior that got him banned,
00:16:25
and repeat should he get banned again.
00:16:28
A few cycles of this and he’s
lost touch with everyone else.
00:16:31
Also, his adoption of the insular,
00:16:33
meme-laden terminology of this community makes
him less and less comprehensible to outsiders.
00:16:39
Over time, sources of information get
replaced with community-approved ones:
00:16:44
conservative news, conservative YouTube,
conservative Wikipedia if he’s really committed.
00:16:50
The Algorithm soon takes note and
stops recommending media from the Left.
00:16:54
He stops watching shows with a “liberal
agenda,” which usually means shows
00:16:59
starring women and people of color.
00:17:00
Now, there is evidence that the human
mind responds to fictional characters
00:17:04
similarly to real people, and that
consuming diverse media can decrease
00:17:08
bigotry in ways roughly analogous to
having a diverse group of friends,
00:17:12
which is one of many reasons
we say representation matters.
00:17:15
By consuming a homogenous media diet,
00:17:18
Gabe stymies his ability to have even
parasocial relationships with anyone
00:17:23
who isn’t a cishet conservative white
dude or one of their approved exceptions.
00:17:29
To the extent that any of this happens,
00:17:32
it happens at Gabe’s discretion
and at his own chosen pace.
00:17:36
It has not been forced on him,
only encouraged and rewarded.
00:17:40
But the fact that it hasn’t been
forced can make him all the more
00:17:43
willing to accept it, because it seems
safe to consider; even though his life
00:17:49
and social circle are changing to
accommodate, he does not feel committed.
00:17:54
But many Gabes have walked these halls,
00:17:56
and, if they close the door behind them,
there’s nowhere left to go but down.
00:18:03
Step Four: Raise their Power Level
00:18:06
(…and they say we ruined anime.)
00:18:09
Consider the ecosystem of the
Alt-Right as layers of an onion,
00:18:13
with Gabe sitting at the edge and
ready to traverse towards the center.
00:18:16
(No, I’m not just going to reiterate the PewDiePipeline,
though, if you haven’t seen it, I recommend that you do.)
00:18:22
The outer layer of the onion is extremism
at its most plausibly deniable.
00:18:27
Without careful scrutiny, the public-facing
figureheads could pass as dispassionate,
00:18:32
and the websites as merely
problematic rather than softly fascist.
00:18:36
It is valuable if Gabe believes
this as well; that, at this stage,
00:18:41
he believe the bigotry is
simply trolling, the extremists
00:18:45
an insignificant minority,
and any report of harassment faked.
00:18:49
That he believe where he is
is as deep as the rabbit hole goes.
00:18:53
And that he continue to believe
this at each successive layer.
00:18:58
People in the deepest crevices of the
Alt-Right self-report getting redpilled
00:19:03
on multiple issues at different times in
their journey to the center of the onion.
00:19:07
If Gabe’s first red pill is about
the SJWs coming for his free speech,
00:19:11
he’ll think that’s all anyone
in his community believes;
00:19:14
there’s no racism here, people are just making
a point about their right to offend people.
00:19:19
Then, when he gets redpilled
on the white genocide,
00:19:22
he’ll laugh at those Alt-Lite cucks
who tried to sweep the race realists
00:19:26
under the rug, and at himself
for having once been one,
00:19:29
but acknowledge that those channels
and websites are still useful
00:19:31
for onboarding people,
so he won’t denounce them.
00:19:33
At the same time, nobody takes
those manosphere betas seriously.
00:19:38
And this process is reiterated
with every pill swallowed:
00:19:42
gender essentialism, autogynephilia,
birtherism, Sandy Hook truth,
00:19:46
pizzagate, QAnon if he’s really out there.
00:19:50
The heart of the onion is typically the
Jewish Question, but these can happen
00:19:56
in any order, and in any number.
00:19:58
But each layer sells itself as being,
finally, the ultimate truth.
00:20:03
Each denies the validity of the others;
the layers ahead don’t exist,
00:20:08
and you are certainly not being
directed towards them.
00:20:10
They’re just the fevered
imaginations of over-reacting liberals,
00:20:13
while the people behind are
asleep where you are now awake.
00:20:17
That’s why they chose “the red pill”
as their metaphor: take it,
00:20:22
and everything will be revealed.
00:20:24
That’s why it cozies up with conspiracism.
00:20:27
But what’s supposed to follow is that this
knowledge help Gabe in some way, and it doesn’t.
00:20:35
Blaming immigrants doesn’t actually
fix the economy, and hating women
00:20:39
doesn’t make men less lonely.
00:20:41
But, having been alienated from
everything outside the onion,
00:20:45
once that sinks in, the only recourse
on offer is to seek out the next pill.
00:20:50
And pills are easy to find.
00:20:53
Those within the network have
laissez-faire relationships,
00:20:56
even as they, on paper,
disavow one another.
00:20:59
When they need a source or a guest host,
00:21:01
they aren’t going to go to the Left,
they’re going to feature each other.
00:21:04
The Left is the enemy: their
ideas are beneath consideration,
00:21:08
and the only reason to engage
them is for public humiliation.
00:21:12
But you can interview a
“western chauvinist”
00:21:14
and that doesn’t mean you’re endorsing
him, just, you know, it’s fine to hear
00:21:17
‘em out, nothing should be off-limits
in the marketplace of ideas.
00:21:20
Besides, Nazis are apolitical.
00:21:22
And because these folks keep showing
up in each others’ metadata,
00:21:26
regardless of what they say,
00:21:27
Google thinks there is definitely
a relationship between the guy
00:21:31
“just asking questions”
and the guy denying the Holocaust.
00:21:35
Gabe is softly exposed to many flavors
of conservatism just slightly more
00:21:40
radical than he is now, and is expected,
at the very least, to not question their presence.
00:21:45
This is an environment where deradicalizing
00:21:48
-- listening to the Left –
00:21:49
would be sleeping with the enemy,
but radicalizing further?
00:21:53
Eh! You do you, buddy.
00:21:55
Gabe’s emotional journey,
however, is somewhat more complex.
00:21:59
If you’ve spent any time reading
or watching reactionary media
00:22:03
you’ve probably noticed it’s really.
00:22:05
fucking.
00:22:06
repetitive.
00:22:08
It’s a few thousand phrasings of
the same handful of arguments.
00:22:11
Like, there’s only so many
jokes about attack helicopters!
00:22:14
But these people just crank out
content, and most of it’s derivative.
00:22:20
The reason to pick one personality
over another isn’t because they say
00:22:23
something different, but because
they say it differently.
00:22:27
Gabe just picks the
affect it’s delivered in.
00:22:30
Repetition dulls the shock of
the most egregious statements,
00:22:35
making them appear normal and
prepping him for more extreme ideas.
00:22:39
Meanwhile, the arguments themselves?
00:22:42
They’re not good.
00:22:44
(Like, BreadTube will never
run out of shit to debunk.)
00:22:48
They are repetitive because they’re not good.
00:22:52
They’re mantric.
00:22:53
A good argument you only need to
hear one time; if you can follow it,
00:22:58
internalize it, and explain it to someone
else, you know you’ve understood it.
00:23:02
But a bad argument can’t convince you on
its own merits, so it will often rely on affect.
00:23:09
This can be the snappy, thought-
terminating cliche, or the long,
00:23:13
winding diatribe that sounds really
sensible while you’re hearing it
00:23:17
but when someone asks you for
the gist you can only say
00:23:20
“go watch these 17 videos
and it’ll all make sense.”
00:23:23
Both these approaches are
largely devoid of content,
00:23:28
but, gosh, if they don’t
sound sure of themselves.
00:23:32
And that mode can be very persuasive,
00:23:35
but it doesn’t stick the
way a coherent argument does.
00:23:39
It needs to be repeated, the affect replenished,
because the words matter less than the delivery.
00:23:46
There needs to be a steady stream
of confident voices saying,
00:23:50
“We’ve got this shit figured out
and everyone else is stupid,”
00:23:54
or Gabe’s gonna notice the flaws.
00:23:56
They are not well-hidden.
00:23:58
And the catch-22 of returning
to that stream over
00:24:02
and over is that these communities
are stressful even as they are calming.
00:24:07
People afraid they will die virgins
go to forums with people who share
00:24:12
and validate that fear, and also say,
“Yes, you will die a virgin.”
00:24:16
People afraid Syrians are coming to
kill us all watch videos by people
00:24:20
who share and validate
that fear, and also say,
00:24:23
“Yes, Syrians are coming to kill us all.”
00:24:26
Others have already pointed
out that rubbing your face
00:24:28
in your worst anxieties is a form of
digital self-harm, but I need to you
00:24:32
understand the toxic recursion of it:
00:24:35
Gabe is going to these
communities to get upset.
00:24:40
Every emotion is converted into anger,
00:24:42
because sadness, fear, and despair are
paralyzing but anger is motivating.
00:24:49
Whatever his problems, there is always
someone he can scapegoat for them,
00:24:53
and Gabe feels less helpless
when he’s pissed off.
00:24:57
And so, while he’s topping up on reassuring
nonsense, he’s also topping up on stress.
00:25:03
And being cut off from
everything outside the network,
00:25:06
the only place he knows to go to release that
stress is back to the place that gives it to him.
00:25:12
It’s a feedback loop, pulling him deeper and deeper
on the promise that, at some point, relief will come.
00:25:20
It is a similar dynamic that keeps
people in abusive relationships.
00:25:24
When someone in Gabe’s community makes
a racist joke, they are presenting Gabe
00:25:29
with a choice between the human
interaction of laughing with his friends
00:25:33
and his societal responsibility
not to be a fuckin’ racist.
00:25:37
And not laughing seems ridiculous;
00:25:40
everybody’s friends here; no one’s
getting hurt; this is harmless.
00:25:44
And so the irreverent race joke
draws a line between the personal
00:25:49
and the political, and suggests that one
can be safely prioritized over the other.
00:25:55
One way to look at radicalization
is being asked to stick with that
00:25:59
seemingly innocuous decision as the
stakes are raised incrementally:
00:26:04
first with edgier humor, and then
comments that are funny because
00:26:09
they’re shocking but you
couldn’t really call them jokes,
00:26:12
and then “funny” comments that are also
sincerely angry, but, in each instance,
00:26:18
since he laughed with his bros the last
time, it stands to reason he should
00:26:22
keep favoring the personal over some
abstracted notion of “politics.”
00:26:27
This is why the progressive adage
“the personal is political”
00:26:31
is among the most threatening
things you can say in these spaces.
00:26:34
Now, I’m not trying to make
a slippery slope argument.
00:26:37
Most of us who laughed at edgy jokes when
we were teenagers didn’t grow up to be Nazis.
00:26:42
It is a slippery slope in the specific
context of being in community with
00:26:47
people trying to radicalize you.
00:26:49
Gabe is a lonely white boy in need of
friends, and laughing at a racist joke
00:26:54
is personal, while not laughing is political.
00:26:57
Staying in a community that has Nazis
in it is personal, and leaving is political.
00:27:02
The personal is what brings people together
and the political drives them apart.
00:27:07
(The “only if some of them are bigots”
part of that sentence is usually lopped off).
00:27:11
There’s this joke on the internet that nerds
perceive only two races: white and political.
00:27:16
Following that logic, what could be
more apolitical than an ethnostate?
00:27:22
They are banking on his willingness
00:27:25
to adapt his beliefs to suit an
environment that meets a need.
00:27:30
That same need can be satisfied
by white nationalism.
00:27:34
There are few things more seductive
to people who doubt their own worth
00:27:37
than being told you are valuable
simply for being white.
00:27:41
And you can sub in male, cis,
straight, allosexual, or able-bodied.
00:27:46
It just takes priming: by the time
Gabe officially embraces bigotry,
00:27:51
he’s already been acting
like a bigot for months.
00:27:55
The red pill is just the
moment he says it out loud.
00:27:59
Change Gabe’s surroundings,
and you change Gabe.
00:28:03
Step Five: ???
00:28:04
The final step in a traditional extremist
group would be getting a mission.
00:28:09
But that is one thing the Alt-Right can’t do.
00:28:11
Once you start giving clear directives,
00:28:13
you can’t play yourselves off as
a bunch of unaffiliated hashtags
00:28:16
and think tanks; you are now a
formalized movement accountable
00:28:19
to its followers, and can
be judged and policed as such.
00:28:24
To my mind, Charlottesville was an
attempt to become such a movement,
00:28:28
taking things offline and getting all
the different groups working collectively.
00:28:32
And, as so often happens when
these people get in the same space
00:28:35
– especially with no official leaders or
means of control over their members –
00:28:40
it backfired.
00:28:41
Their true colors came out
before they were ready
00:28:44
and a counter-protester lost her life.
00:28:47
This would be the point where, historically,
an extremist group starts to disintegrate.
00:28:51
Their veneer of respectability gone,
they are now hated by the public,
00:28:55
the media wants nothing more to do with
them, and everyone not in jail turns on
00:28:59
each other or goes underground.
00:29:01
This is also the point where the liberal
establishment says, “My job here is done,”
00:29:04
and utterly fails to retake control of
the narrative, allowing the next batch
00:29:09
of radicals to pick up more or
less where the last one left off.
00:29:12
But to an already-decentralized
group like the Alt-Right,
00:29:15
Charlottesville was bad
but eminently survivable.
00:29:20
People retreated back to the internet,
00:29:22
with its code words and anonymous
forums, but that’s where much
00:29:25
of the work was already done anyway.
00:29:27
The platforms where they
organized kept tolerating them,
00:29:30
the authorities still didn’t
classify them as terrorists,
00:29:32
and any disgraced figureheads
were replaced with up-and-comers.
00:29:36
The major change in strategy is that it
00:29:39
doesn’t seem anyone has tried to
formalize the Alt-Right since.
00:29:43
So where does that leave Gabe?
00:29:45
He’s gone through this whole process
of largely hands-off indoctrination
00:29:49
-- and I should stress his journey
may look like what we’ve outlined
00:29:52
or it may look different in places,
this video is not comprehensive –
00:29:55
but now he’s swallowed every pill
he cares to, he blames half a dozen
00:29:59
minorities for everything he
sees as wrong with the world,
00:30:02
and no one will give him anything to do.
00:30:05
You’ve got this ad hoc
movement frothing young men
00:30:08
into a militant fervor and then just
leaving them to stew in their own hate.
00:30:14
Should we really be surprised at
how many commit mass shootings?
00:30:18
This is a machine for producing lone wolves.
00:30:21
Leaving men to take up arms of their
own volition is a way of enacting
00:30:25
terror while being just outside the
popular conception of a terror cell.
00:30:30
There are also, of course, more classic
militias that will offer Gabe clear directives
00:30:35
– they’re recruiting from the same pool.
00:30:37
And Gabe may stop short of this step,
00:30:38
settling in a middle layer that suits him
or finding the inner layers too extreme.
00:30:42
But violence is the logical
conclusion of an ideology of hate,
00:30:47
and, should Gabe take this step,
he can approach violence in the same
00:30:51
incremental fashion he approached conservatism.
00:30:54
He can start with yelling at people on Twitter,
and then maybe collective brigading,
00:30:59
DDoS attacks, sharing dox, leaking
nudes, calling their phone numbers,
00:31:04
texting them pictures of
their houses from the sidewalk.
00:31:08
These acts of cruelty become games
of oneupmanship within his community.
00:31:12
All this can start as far back as Step Two,
and get more intense the deeper he goes.
00:31:16
Some people join explicitly to partake
in harassment and violence the way
00:31:20
Gabe joined to talk about anime.
00:31:23
But this behavior can
serve as a kind of buy-in.
00:31:26
The Left and the feminists
and the LGBTQs and the Muslims
00:31:30
and the immigrants are all,
within his community, subhuman.
00:31:33
You’ve maybe heard the conservative
catchphrase “feminism is cancer”;
00:31:37
well, you don’t treat cancer by having a
respectful exchange of ideas with it,
00:31:41
but by eradicating it down to the last cell.
00:31:45
Cruelty against the Left is framed as necessary and righteous.
00:31:49
From any other perspective,
posting someone’s bank information
00:31:53
is something you might feel ashamed of.
00:31:56
Which creates a psychological imperative
not to consider other perspectives.
00:32:01
A thing that keeps people in is staving off the guilt
they will reckon with the moment they step out.
00:32:07
Gabe is also aware that anything he’s
done to the Left could be done to him
00:32:11
if he leaves; some communities even
keep dox on their members as insurance.
00:32:16
And the things he’s been encouraged
to do to the Left will likely make him
00:32:19
feel that the Left would never take him now;
00:32:22
the radical Right is the only home he’s got.
00:32:24
Harassment becomes
another tool of isolation.
00:32:27
Steadily, options for Gabe are whittled
down to being a vigilante or a nihilist.
00:32:33
There are periods of elation: moments
the Alt-Right feels it’s winning
00:32:36
– or, more accurately, the people they hate are losing –
00:32:40
are like cocaine.
00:32:41
They are authoritarians, after all.
00:32:43
But the times in between
are mean and angry.
00:32:47
They are antisocial, starved
of emotional connection,
00:32:51
consuming incompatible conspiracies
that may at any point run them
00:32:55
afoul of one another, devoted
to figureheads who cater to
00:32:58
but cannot risk leading them,
and living under constant threat
00:33:02
of being outed to the Left or turned on
by the Right for stepping out of line.
00:33:06
Gabe took this journey for the
sense of community and purpose,
00:33:10
and, but for the rare moments everything goes
their way, the Alt-Right can’t maintain either.
00:33:15
They can only keep promising his day will come,
00:33:17
a story he could get from a $5 palm reading.
00:33:20
The feeling there’s nothing left but to kill yourself
or someone else is so common it’s a meme.
00:33:27
But there is always a third option:
Gabe can leave.
00:33:33
Pre-Conclusion: For Fuck’s Sake
Do Not Make Gabe Your Whole-Ass Praxis
00:33:38
Before we continue, I want to state
plainly that Gabe went off the deep end
00:33:42
because he found a community
willing to tell him that,
00:33:45
because he is a cishet white man,
the world revolves around him.
00:33:49
Do not treat him like this is true.
00:33:52
If a fraction of the energy spent
having debates with America’s Gabes
00:33:57
were spent instead on voter re-
enfranchisement, prisoner’s rights,
00:34:02
protections for immigrants,
statehood for DC, and redistricting,
00:34:06
Gabe’s opinions, in the societal
sense, wouldn’t matter.
00:34:10
Reactionary conservatism is a small
and largely unpopular ideology that
00:34:15
is only so represented in our culture and politics
because they’ve learned how to game the system.
00:34:21
And I get it.
00:34:23
Those are huge problems that are going
to take years to address, where,
00:34:27
if you know a Gabe, that’s a
conversation you could have today.
00:34:31
And, if you think you can get through
to him, it is worthwhile to try.
00:34:34
This is a fight on many fronts
and deradicalization is one of them.
00:34:39
But it is only one, so please
keep it in perspective.
00:34:43
It sends an awful message when we spend
more time trying to get bigots back on
00:34:47
our side than we do the people
they are bigoted against.
00:34:51
Your value as a lefty does not hinge on
whether you can change Gabe’s mind.
00:34:57
Conclusion: How Gabe Gets Out
00:35:00
He may just grow out of it.
00:35:03
These communities skew young,
and some folks hit a point
00:35:06
where hanging with edgy teens
doesn’t feel cool anymore.
00:35:09
He may become disillusioned after the
movement fails to deliver on its many promises.
00:35:14
He may become disillusioned if
something goes wrong in his life
00:35:18
and his community isn’t there for him,
00:35:20
if he feels they like his race and his
gender but don’t actually care about him.
00:35:25
He may be shocked if he sees the Alt-Right at its
worst before being appropriately conditioned.
00:35:30
Charlottesville was a step
too far for a lot of people.
00:35:33
His community may turn on him
for any perceived unorthodoxy,
00:35:37
and he may leave out of necessity.
00:35:39
He may be separated by
circumstance from the community
00:35:42
-- a trip with no internet, hospitalization, arrest –
00:35:46
and not be able to top up on the rhetoric.
00:35:48
This may lead him to question his beliefs.
00:35:51
His community may disappear, either tearing
itself apart or getting shut down by authorities.
00:35:57
He may have incidental contact with
populations he is supposed to hate,
00:36:01
and have trouble reconciling who they are in
person with what he’s been told about them.
00:36:05
In his community, people bond
over shared intolerance,
00:36:09
but, suddenly, being tolerant
helps him make friends.
00:36:13
(This is one reason the Alt-Right has made
a battleground of the liberal arts college campus.)
00:36:17
He may form or revisit
relationships outside the network,
00:36:21
people who can offer him the
connection he’s been looking for.
00:36:24
This may reintroduce outside perspectives,
00:36:27
but more importantly, it rekindles his
ability to have healthy relationships
00:36:32
at all, something the Alt-Right
has estranged him from.
00:36:35
As with recruiters, it seems
these “escape hatch” relationships
00:36:39
can sometimes be parasocial;
coming to respect a public figure
00:36:43
who is on the Left, or is critical of the Alt-Right.
00:36:46
Someone he is close to may compel
him to choose, “me or the movement.”
00:36:50
A lot of young men leave to
save a romantic relationship.
00:36:54
Hearing stories from people
who’ve already jumped may help;
00:36:57
there aren’t a lot of public formers,
00:36:58
and some raise questions as to their
sincerity, but it is getting more
00:37:02
common, and may be the closest we get
to exit counseling for the Alt-Right.
00:37:06
He may become aware of the
ways he’s being manipulated,
00:37:09
or have them revealed to him, maybe because
he stumbled into BreadTube, I dunno.
00:37:13
Knowledge that you are being indoctrinated
is no guarantee it won’t work
00:37:17
– you are not immune to propaganda –
00:37:19
but it can help one resist.
00:37:21
And he may revisit a core belief
system that used to guide him,
00:37:24
be it religion or social justice
or a really wholesome fandom,
00:37:29
and be reminded of the identity he used to have.
00:37:32
Moments like these, in isolation or
in aggregate, can inspire Gabe to jump.
00:37:37
They are also good times
for friends to intervene.
00:37:41
The reach and the impunity that comes
with the internet means it has never
00:37:46
been easier to fall into reactionary conservatism.
00:37:48
It has also never been easier to get out.
00:37:52
People who exit skinhead gangs
often fear for their lives; for Gabe,
00:37:56
there’s a chance getting out is as
simple as going to a different website.
00:38:00
Much of his community does
not know his name or his face
00:38:04
and he may not be important enough to dox.
00:38:07
What doesn’t get Gabe out
00:38:09
-- not reliably, not that I have seen –
00:38:11
is an argument with a stranger who proves
all his facts wrong and his ideology bunk.
00:38:16
Facts don’t always work because
facts don’t care about his feelings.
00:38:21
This was about staying in a community,
and holding onto an identity, that mattered to him.
00:38:26
It was about belonging, and that is
something a rando from the other side
00:38:31
of the culture war can’t give him and
probably shouldn’t be responsible for.
00:38:36
The theme here is human connection.
00:38:39
Before he can do the work
of disentangling himself,
00:38:41
and facing the guilt of what
he’s believed and maybe done,
00:38:45
he has to know there’s somewhere
for him on the other end of it.
00:38:48
That the Right hasn’t ruined him.
00:38:50
They’ve told him all of history is
groups fighting each other over status,
00:38:54
and that, without his clan, he’ll be an exile.
00:38:57
He needs a better story.
00:38:59
I don’t know that lefty spaces are ideal for this,
00:39:02
in no small part because bringing
someone who’s a bit of a Nazi
00:39:06
but working on it into diverse
communities is… questionable.
00:39:11
And it probably wouldn’t be good for
him, either; having just gotten out
00:39:14
of a toxic belief system, he’s going to
be deeply skeptical of all ideologies.
00:39:19
In a perfect world, people who care
about Gabe could build for him
00:39:23
– to use a therapy term –
a holding space.
00:39:26
Someplace private – physical or digital
– where Gabe can work out his feelings,
00:39:31
where he is both encouraged and expected
to be better but is not, in the moment, judged.
00:39:38
That comes later.
00:39:39
It is delicate and time-consuming work
that should not be done in public,
00:39:44
but we find these beliefs, built up
over the course of months or years,
00:39:48
tend to fall away very quickly
with a shift of environment.
00:39:52
Change Gabe’s surroundings
and you change Gabe.
00:39:55
But, instead, a lot of people who
jump are functionally deprogramming
00:39:58
themselves, which is working for a lot of them,
but it’s haphazard, and there are recidivists.
00:40:05
If you don’t personally know a Gabe,
or have training as a counselor,
00:40:09
you may not be in a position to help him.
00:40:12
Possibly there are things you can do
to disrupt the recruitment process
00:40:15
or prevent infiltration of spaces you’re in
00:40:17
-- I’m looking into it, but talk to your mods –
00:40:20
but, elephant in the room:
meaningful change will require
00:40:23
reform on the part of platform holders.
00:40:26
Tools to disrupt this process already
exist and are being used on groups
00:40:31
like ISIS, but they’re not being used
on the Alt-Right because they try
00:40:35
oh so hard not to get
classified as terrorists
00:40:38
(and also any functioning anti-
radicalization policy would require
00:40:41
banning a lot of conservative
politicians, so there’s that…).
00:40:44
But what makes our story better than
theirs is that the fight for social
00:40:48
and economic justice, though it is
long, and difficult, and frustrating,
00:40:54
when it works, it fulfills the
promise the Right can’t keep:
00:40:58
it materially makes people’s lives better.
00:41:01
I am not prone to sentimentality, or
to giving these videos happy endings.
00:41:06
But one thing we have that
the Alt-Right doesn’t is hope.
00:41:12
♫ [Cologne, By Trans Am] ♫
