Another terrorist plot foiled

[Ridgewalk]

12 hours ago, peak4 said:

It's a serious issue with the rise of social media particularly with some of the more extreme outlets, 4chan, Gab, Telegram etc.
I don't have any kids, but I wonder how many parents really do know what their offspring get up to on the internet.
 

'I was radicalised by the far right aged 15'   BBC post Manchester Arena attack; the whole article is worth a read

 Former right-wing extremist has described how he was radicalised as a 15-year-old boy in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing.

John said he wanted to speak out as a way of warning other young people, particularly about the dangers posed online.

"It was unbelievably easy as a young teenager to access propaganda and now it's just as easy - maybe easier," John told BBC North West Tonight.

Night after night, he said he would sit in his bedroom, scrolling through far-right forums, watching videos and scouring social media until the early hours.

 

Not just the far right of course;

Brain scans show social exclusion creates jihadists, say researchers Guardian report of an international study
International studies of young Muslim men show that radicalisation follows a sense of isolation from society

The research challenges the prevailing belief among western policymakers that other variables, such as poverty, religious conservatism and even psychosis, are dominant drivers of jihadism. “This finally dispels such wrongheaded ideas,” said the study’s co-lead author, Nafees Hamid of UCL. “The first ever neuroimaging study on a radicalised population shows extreme pro-group behaviour seems to intensify after social exclusion.”

 

Personally I'd suggest that this issue of isolation/exclusion doesn't just relate to Islamist radicalisation, but to the very nature of preying upon those who are mentally vulnerable, even though they might not identify as such themselves.

 

Many of the instances of far right terrorism also seem to involve social loners who are easy prey for extremist groups.
Also a number of suicide bombers have a past history of petty criminality; Manchester, Paris for example.
Lots of these terrorist ,and other group murders/suicides, seem to involve social misfits, Plymouth, Norway, New Zealand, plenty in USA etc.

Some of you will realise I now live in Buxton, where there was a proposal to convert a disused hall of residence to asylum seekers accommodation.

It was rightly opposed locally by many townspeople of all political persuasions, but we also had groups like Homeland, dressed in HiVis, and bearing clipboards, apparently carrying out an official survey of local residents, whilst they were handing out recruitment cards to likely candidates.

Local Facebook groups show they had some support from folk who didn't know their backstory.
Patriotic Alternative split results in 'dangerous' Homeland group National Scot. via archive.ph   Read the whole article if you've never heard of them.

Britain's “largest and most significant fascist group” has undergone a “catastrophic split” - with a new splinter group described as the "most dangerous group on the British far right". 

 

 

Some good research here well done. Social isolation and youth  are obviously risk factors. . I’ve noticed how young the majority of those accused of being radicalised are. Fortunately the lack of access to guns  unlike  in America, seems to be a protective factor.

 

If anyone wants reminding how nuts they are in America  should watch the documentary about Alex Jones (Info Wars) currently available on TV and  his claims about the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.
 

What makes some people want to believe all that nonsense ? 
 

Probably should  add Incel’s to the list of  vulnerable to radicalisation

[butlers]

Its.a Sky documentary  above.