Right-Wing Embrace Of Conspiracy Is 'Mass Radicalization,' Experts Warn

[Nevilledog]

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Tweet text:
Nina Burleigh
@ninaburleigh
Confirmed, although we have noticed it since the Republican National Convention in 2016: "The line between mainstream and fringe is vanishing."

Right-Wing Embrace Of Conspiracy Is 'Mass Radicalization,' Experts Warn
Terrorism analysts warn that the country's polarization isn't just damaging to U.S. politics — it's a national security threat.
npr.org

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/15/946381523/right-wing-embrace-of-conspiracy-is-mass-radicalization-experts-warn

The widespread embrace of conspiracy and disinformation amounts to a "mass radicalization" of Americans, and increases the risk of right-wing violence, veteran security officials and terrorism researchers warn.

At conferences, in op-eds and at agency meetings, domestic terrorism analysts are raising concern about the security implications of millions of conservatives buying into baseless right-wing claims. They say the line between mainstream and fringe is vanishing, with conspiracy-minded Republicans now marching alongside armed extremists at rallies across the country. Disparate factions on the right are coalescing into one side, analysts say, self-proclaimed "real Americans" who are cocooned in their own news outlets, their own social media networks and, ultimately, their own "truth."

"This tent that used to be sort of 'far-right extremists' has gotten a lot broader. To me, a former counterterrorism official, that's a radicalization process," said Mary McCord, a former federal prosecutor who oversaw terrorism cases and who's now a law professor at Georgetown University.

McCord was speaking at a recent online conference, Millions of Conversations, an organization aimed at reducing polarization. Along with McCord, several other former officials who served in senior national security roles said the mass embrace of bogus information poses a serious national security concern for the incoming Biden administration.

Weekend protest

They added that there's no easy foil for a right-wing propaganda effort that amplifies fears and grievances on a nonstop loop. Those beliefs already have inspired political violence at protests over lockdowns and racial injustice. Political conspiracies drew thousands to last weekend's pro-Trump rally, after which the Proud Boys and other violent extremist groups wreaked havoc in downtown Washington, D.C.

*snip*

[onecaliberal]

1. Lock them up. Use your private prisons to house the real criminals.

[KS Toronado]

2. Hope we can pass some laws to curtail the disinformation age we live in.

[jalan48]

3. K & R

[sanatanadharma]

4. "Whereas...Therefore"

Whereas the USA is purported to be a Christian nation, and
Whereas lying and bearing false witness are repudiations of God's commandment, and
Whereas the constitutional government of the USA is implored to promote God's plan,
Therefore, hence forward from this day, disinformation, false facts, alternative truth shall be known as crimes, and
Therefore old-testament punishments will be applied to lying tongues.

[Arne]

5. Here is a tool to use

I want one.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Split the right: 1) radical tRumpissers, 2) reasonable conservatives. It disempowers both halves. nt

[JHB]

16. The reasonable conservatives were the now-extinct Rockefeller Republicans

The "reasonable" ones these days simply still have some glossy varnish that hasn't stripped off yet.

[CrispyQ]

7. I see a day when we no longer have the Democratic Party & the Republican Party, but rather,

the Sane Party & the Insane Party.

[DavidDvorkin]

8. We're already there.

[SoonerPride]

14. This. Totally.

[llashram]

15. +

[Initech]

9. They went way too far with this administration.

It's going to take years, maybe decades before the GOP gets over the hangover from this administration. And this will not end well.

[czarjak]

10. Make America Genocidal Assholes...

If they can’t have it, nobody can?

[BobTheSubgenius]

11. It's like the writer has just hit on this paradigm.

It's been right out in the open for years, and since 2015, has been amplified to an amazing degree.

[StarfishSaver]

12. That wasn't a "weekend protest" ... It was a riot. Period.

[Vivienne235729]

13. Maybe if they treated them the way they treat black people, they'd think twice

About parading around advertising their looney toons nonsense like it's some privilege badge of honor.