A Reformed White Nationalist Says the Worst Is Yet to Come

[babylonsister]

A Reformed White Nationalist Says the Worst Is Yet to Come
Christian Picciolini discusses the mainstreaming of white nationalism, what it takes to de-radicalize far-right extremists, and why the problem is metastasizing.
Yara Bayoumy Kathy Gilsinan
Aug 6, 2019


It’s going to get worse.

That’s the warning of a former violent extremist, Christian Picciolini, who joined a neo-Nazi movement 30 years ago and now tries to get people out of them. White-supremacist terrorists—the ones who have left dozens dead in attacks in Pittsburgh, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas, in recent months—aren’t just trying to outdo one another, he told us. They’re trying to outdo Timothy McVeigh, the anti-government terrorist who blew up an Oklahoma City federal building and killed more than 100 people in 1995—the worst terrorist attack in the United States before September 11, 2001.

On Saturday morning in El Paso, a gunman shot and killed 22 people, including children, at a Walmart. The store was crowded for back-to-school-shopping season. The victims included a high-school student, an elementary-school teacher, and a couple carrying their infant son, who survived. And the shooter, according to an online manifesto authorities attributed to the suspect, saw himself fighting a “Hispanic invasion” as he gunned them down.

That shooting, along with another one hours later, in which an attacker killed nine people over 30 seconds in Dayton, Ohio, renewed the clamor for gun-control laws that has become a grim ritual after such events. But Picciolini said that even if the U.S. could get a handle on its gun problem, terrorists can always find other ways. McVeigh had his car bomb, the September 11th hijackers had their airplanes, Islamic State attackers have suicide bombings, trucks, and knives. “I have to ask myself, Do we have white-nationalist airline pilots?” Picciolini said. “There have to be. I knew people in powerful positions, in politics, in law enforcement, who were secretly white nationalists. I think we’d be stupid and selfish to think that we don’t have those in the truck-driving industry.”

Picciolini now runs a global network, the Free Radicals Project, where former extremists like him provide counseling to others trying to leave extremist movements. He spoke with us yesterday morning about the mainstreaming of white nationalism, what it takes to de-radicalize far-right extremists, and why the problem is metastasizing.

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https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/08/conversation-christian-picciolini/595543/?fbclid=IwAR0odGucjyDMqctfvIBska_xv9psGqBJBwRBCGAlBYwX-BvVjdTMhRKqhT0

[ginnyinWI]

1. Yikes, babylonsister! nt

[babylonsister]

2. I know. Deeply chilling. nt

[The Polack MSgt]

3. Kick and rec - Needs more eyeballs.

Holy hell

[Mme. Defarge]

4. A very important read,

and even a little hopeful.

[moondust]

5. white-nationalist airline pilots?

How about a 49-year-old, self-described white nationalist, Coast Guard lieutenant:

February 20, 2019
Arrested Coast Guard Officer Allegedly Planned Attack 'On A Scale Rarely Seen'

[babylonsister]

7. Thanks for the reminder. nt

[UTUSN]

6. K&R

[madinmaryland]

8. Well, no shit, Sherlock. They have infiltrated the highest office in America.

Just look to Stephen Miller and tRump.

[Chemisse]

9. What I found most intriguing about this article

was the discussion of what causes them to radicalize and how they can pull themselves out of it under some circumstances.

I find it really disturbing to cast off groups of people as 'deplorable' or irredeemable. I like to believe all of us are basically good, with the exception of the fairly rare sociopath, such as Trump.