Great WAPO article about deprogramming hate group members

[lindysalsagal]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/05/desperate-families-are-seeking-groups-that-deprogram-extremists/

After Capitol riots, desperate families turn to groups that ‘deprogram’ extremists
Paulina Villegas and Hannah Knowles Feb. 5, 2021 at 7:00 a.m. EST

Her brother couldn’t make it to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but she worried that he would join a new insurrection — that one day “he would be one of the people on TV.” The woman in her 30s asked her family to make plans, she said, hoping to keep her brother busy. Then she contacted a nonprofit called Parents for Peace that seeks to pull people back from extremism, hoping to “save” him, after years of dismay at his hatred of Muslims and Mexicans and now alarm at his anger over the presidential election.

Dissecting her brother’s life and their relationship in weekly sessions, she started to wonder whether she was part of the problem.

The woman, who did not want her name or location made public so as not to upset her brother, is part of a surge of desperate families and friends calling organizations that aim to deradicalize and “deprogram” extremists across the ideological spectrum. Such organizations say demand for their free services has never been higher.

Parents for Peace, a 10-person operation of mostly volunteers, says calls to its national helpline have tripled since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, with a growing number of younger people being groomed in white supremacist ideology. After supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the intervention groups have experienced a deluge of calls related to the attack as well as to conspiracy theories and QAnon.

[PirateRo]

1. I did not know such groups existed but it seems a logical extension

I know there are groups that exist to deprogram religious fundamentalists. I suspect there must be a solid connection here to a more generic perspective of radicalization.

[Cicada]

2. Once you see a Jewish laser from space you can't unsee it

Think about the pharmacist in Wisconsin who left the vaccine out so it would spoil. He coincidentally believes the earth is flat and the CIA put up the sky so we can’t see God. I am not making that up. How can he be deprogrammed? I don’t think we can deprogrammed these people, just my hunch.

[lindysalsagal]

3. Study: Depression, dysthymia, anxiety and post-traumatic stress are associated with extremism

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30873926/

Extremism and common mental illness: cross-sectional community survey of White British and Pakistani men and women living in England

Background: Mental illnesses may explain vulnerability to develop extremist beliefs that can lead to violent protest and terrorism. Yet there is little evidence.

Aims: To investigate the relationship between mental illnesses and extremist beliefs.

Method: Population survey of 618 White British and Pakistani people in England. Extremism was assessed by an established measure of sympathies for violent protest and terrorism (SVPT). Respondents with any positive scores (showing sympathies) were compared with those with all negative scores. We calculated associations between extremist sympathies and ICD-10 diagnoses of depression and dysthymia, and symptoms of anxiety, personality difficulties, autism and post-traumatic stress. Also considered were demographics, life events, social assets, political engagement and criminal convictions.

Results: SVPT were more common in those with major depression with dysthymia (risk ratio 4.07, 95% CI 1.37-12.05, P = 0.01), symptoms of anxiety (risk ratio 1.09, 95% CI 1.03-1.15, P = 0.002) or post-traumatic stress (risk ratio 1.03, 95% CI 1.01-1.05, P = 0.003). At greater risk of SVPT were: young adults (

[Azathoth]

4. I think a lot of people overestimate the prevalence of mental stability in society

Large portions of the population are kept within "sane limits" not by their own rationality and temperance, but because of constant guiding and reinforcement from the consensus-building elements of society: the respectable news media, recognized experts, authority figures and professional civil servants. They stay on the road because they don't want to end up in the woods with the marginalized crazies of society.

That's why intellectual figures outside the mainstream consensus, on both sides -- from Chomsky on the left to Buckley and Bozell on the right -- made it their life mission to attack and undermine society's consensus-building structures. And it appears they've finally succeeded. People are as likely to trust random Facebook posts as they are a meticulously-researched journal article or a report on the front page of the New York Times.

And now we're learning just how many people are vulnerable to indoctrination into conspiracy cults when there is universal access to information and no consensus-enforcing guardrails.

[lindysalsagal]

5. OK you're a genius.

The anarchy theory is that people are better off left to their own impulses, and as someone who's had a career in the general public interest, I know you are correct: If not for the guardrails and possible costs, infringement would be excessive, approaching intolerable.

Add to that the waning of religion, and those who need containment of negative impulses are going unnoticed until the damage occurs.

And so in the 21st century, where we should have a fully-literate and civic-minded society, 15% aren't even sure the earth is a sphere, or if the earth revolves around the sun. So, a hostile, ex-president might just as well be about to oust the "false" government and resume command.