Scared about online radicalisation of men in far right and Islam

[Unfinishedkitchen]

I’m becoming increasingly worried about the radicalisation of young men to the far right and Islam.

On the far right side, there seem to be lots of sights aimed at radicalising young white men e.g 4 Chan, 8 Chan etc. I believe many are recruited through online gaming communities where ‘ironic’ hate speech is used to normalise hate and lure them in.

There are many vulnerable men out there who are prime targets for recruitment to the far right agenda. How long will it be before one of them straps on a suicide vest?

They are no different from the Muslim boys who are being radicalised. They believe it’s them against the world too.

I don’t have a son but if I did, I’d be worried and would be having serious talks about online groups and the fact some of them have a nefarious agenda. I’d also warn him off anyone who tried to normalise any hate speech around him.

There seems to be an increasing number of angry young men. They find each other online and encourage each other into violence.

[SheWoreBlueVelvet]

It’s young men full stop.
I pointed this out at work once, that the common link in the terrorism, shootings and stabbing, was men ( mostly young men). Was then told that women do it too despite no one being able to recall any and frantic google searches to prove their point.

Not about country or religion or race. It’s being male, Although I can’t decide if it’s the Y chromosome or environment,

[Driftingthoughlife]

the rise of the far right makes me shudder. I walked past an EDL march a few months ago and the sexual language hurled at me and my 70 year old mum was disgraceful. In not just Muslims they hate they hate women as well and a lot more groups.

[breeze44]

That’s interesting, I would have thought that with their focus on preventing English culture from being ‘corrupted’ by foreigners, it would have been all chivalry and gallantry, trying to present an idealised image of Englishness. But if they’re not even trying to hide their thuggishness, then what does Englishness mean to them? What kind of culture is it that they’re trying to protect?

[MIdgebabe]

I think environment primarily. Raise boys with a sense of entitlement, tell the boys you can be anything you want , idolise the lone hero pushing against the odds narratives in tv and films , then let them realise how much respect and wealth and looks others have that they don’t. Suddenly you have angry young men let down by society, they look for people who tell them they are hard done by and it’s not their fault

Women are raised with a lower sense of entitlement and are rarely the lead in violent me agaisnt the evil and the establishments stories. Pushed hard enough women will also commit attacks and have done so.

Pushed hard enough , I guess most people will

[keepforgettingmyusername]

This is what happens when boys and men sit in front of computers all day instead of going and kicking a football around or going to work or just generally not being glued to the Xbox/laptop/porn sites.

[Sickofthemoaning]

If only I could think of a high profile recent press story about radicalisation of a young women

[GregoryPeckingDuck]

It is concerning. Traditionally these men have taken out their frustrations and inadequacies out on their wives. The rise of the internet has allowed them to connect and mobilise. It is interesting often people’s failures result in them turning on others and becoming distructive or violent.

[Harumphharagh]

Yes, and how many people did she personally shoot dead?

She may subscribe to the culture, which I vehemently condemn her for, but as far as I’m aware she has not massacred anyone herself. It’s men who do that.

Once you have the revelation that virtually ALL the violence, the stabbings, the shootings, the wars, the sexual abuses and rapes, the genocides are indeed carried out by the male of the species, it’s a pretty horrifying realisation.

[Lizzie48]

@Sickofthemoaning that's true. And if you watch the news regularly you'll see that it's by no means unknown for women to be suicide bombers. (Although it's obviously more often men that are guilty of this.)

[Lizzie48]

I do concede that I've never heard of a woman carrying out gun massacres, though.

[YeOldeTrout]

Gosh, a lot of male hate here.
Could also blame being 'young' as the key risk factor, on same evidence.

FWIW, I recognise DS as having been ... cultured is word I would use, by far right. I have been minded to put his like of authoritarianism down to being bullied when he was younger and how powerless he felt about that. Was literally begging me to take him to a suicide clinic. Yet I was bullied far worse and didn't decide to embrace authoritarianism, so it's not simply bullied = go extremist.

I don't blame his Y chromosome. There are 3 other males in this household with same Y. 2 would say they were also bullied in school, and they don't embrace authoritarianism. The apolitical DSs were the only ones tagged in school as having 'anger issues'.

Young people do like a purpose. They want 'It' all to have a point, they want their lives to have meaning, they want to be not insignificant. It's that sharp hopeful crazy hyper energy & idealism of youth. These cravings could be shaped into something positive, instead, and sometimes are.

[Motherofcreek]

It doesn’t matter if women are not carrying guns.

I do firmly believe women have an equally important role in the family unit when it comes to extremism on both sides.

[brizzlemint]

Dcs have been raised with a sense of entitlement, entitlement to rewards of whatever sort for what they do whether it's the satisfaction from a job well done, good grades, a uni place or whatever but that entitlement comes from knowing that they are entitled to whatever they have achieved because of their efforts. You can be entitled without being far right and racist.

[RuggyPeg]

Lizzie - on the exceedingly rare occasion that it's a woman, it'll still be a man behind the scenes. Not for one second am I suggesting that women are mindless dolts but there will be grooming, coersion and abuse going on.

[BertrandRussell]

I think one of the reason people are so exercised about Shamima Begum is that she is a woman. Some people love the opportunity to say “See? Women do [insert unpleasant, usually male behavior here]”

We live in a almost entirely white area, and ds’s school was very worried about far right radicalization. The EDL loomed quite large for a while.

[TeddyIsaHe]

I’m just sick of men all round tbh. I know “not all men” etc etc but I can’t help think the world would be a hell of a lot better off if men just fucked off somewhere far away.

Women aren’t innocent by any means, but the majority of evil things are caused/happen because of men.

I get this is a wildly ridiculous view but I am just so sick of turning the news on and another disaster has happened because of some male cunt.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

YeOldeTrout, can you provide some more insight into the influences on your ds please. Is it from websites and chat rooms? Is it a common theme among his friends?

[RandomlyChosenName]

tell the boys you can be anything you want

I agree with some of what you’ve said, but I don’t agree that this is a bad thing. All children, boys and girls, should be raised believing they can be anything they want. Aspirations are a good thing.

I think the problem is the opposite- that some young males don’t believe they can be anything they want. They receive the narrative that they can’t be whatever they want because xyz stops them, which leads to anger and violence against xyz.

[missyB1]

Yes it blooody well does matter if women join extremist organisations! And yes women have been involved in tertorist attacks they definitely have worn suicide vests. Remember you don’t hear about all the terrorist attacks that happen all over the world- they are frequent in some Countries and don’t necessarily get the big headlines. Even if a woman isn’t personally involved in the killing they are assisting those killings to take place- oh and giving birth to and raising more potential extremists!!
The point is that we need to be worried about the rise of extremism not just worried about young men getting radicalised! Turning a blind eye to young women developing extremist views won’t help anything.

[SheWoreBlueVelvet]

Lizzie48 I’m sure there have. But the groups responsible for those bombings are overwhelmingly started, run and funded by men.

I haven’t done it myself but if you take a paper and circle every reported incident of violence and see what perscentage is male.
Until society is honest about this and stops blaming ethnicity or religion or whatever other diversions from the real cause, we can’t hope to stop this.

[BertrandRussell]

“The point is that we need to be worried about the rise of extremism not just worried about young men getting radicalised! Turning a blind eye to young women developing extremist views won’t help anything.”

Focusing on women when investigating terrorist/mass killing incidents and radicalization would be a massive waste of time and resources. Pretending that male violence is not a massive factor is burying our heads in the sand.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Men being men is one thing. The rise in right wing extremism is an additional topic. As Missy says, it's the increase that we need to be becomging very alarmed about.

[Buster72]

Op, any actual evidence of on line games used for radicalisation.....

[DavetheCat2001]

Testosterone

[Lizzie48]

Yes, obviously men are far more often guilty of violent terrorist acts, in the same way as they're guilty of far more acts of violence in general. It's no surprise.

The priority is to tackle radicalisation wherever we find it, whether Islamist or extreme right wing.