The Internet Helped Create Dylann Roof

[struggle4progress]

STEPHEN A. CROCKETT JR.
Posted: June 17, 2016

Roof might have remained a crazed, lonely landscaper had he not been able to find other like-minded white supremacists on the internet ...

For all the wonderful things the internet has given us, unified hatred might be the unforeseen backlash of having us all connected. Now lonely, deranged, racist thinkers have forums and groups; places where they can share information to fuel their like-minded evil thinking; a place where their hate is not only welcomed but embraced. A place that encourages hateful people to act on their feelings. And even more dangerous, an anonymous mask to hide behind ...

Before Ammon Bundy and friends took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in January 2016, they used social media to find others who believed as they did. Once the 41-day standoff began, Twitter and Facebook became the anti-government group’s preferred medium to find supporters of their movement ... Currently, Bundy and his brother Ryan are in an Oregon jail fighting for internet access ...

Donald Trump’s entire candidacy—from his platform to his speeches to his social media posts—is nothing short of the physical manifestation of all the racist troll comments ever made in the history of the internet. It’s as if the troll section of Twitter somehow morphed into an orange man with bad hair who ran for president ...

https://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/06/racist-seeking-racist-how-the-internet-helped-create-dylann-roof/

[Igel]

1. Internet forums and discussions tend to go to extremes.

The most "pure" and the most outspoken drive out moderates and dissidents, whether through harassment or just ignoring them and ultimately impose a kind of uniformity of thinking that really can be called an "echo chamber."

This has been known for over a decade. I read the research in Rochester, and we moved from there over a decade a ago.

The exception are moderated boards where a few people's guiding vision moderates the "pure" and somewhat mute the most outspoken. DU's fairly well run, but it's still been driven to the extreme a few times, losing a lot of old timers, active participants who weren't so radical, and with them a lot of clarity. Zealots are good for whipping up mobs, but not intelligent conversation.

The Internet's allowed a lot of people to find solace in their group. No need to be tolerant, no need to compromise. Calls for tolerance and compromise usually boil down to, "Do as I say." Calls to unite behind the common good devolve into calls to "do what's good for us." "I represent everybody" means "everybody should follow me."

It's not just the neo-Nazi and white supremacist haters that do this kind of mental game and lose both all sense of proportion and sight of the fact that they're not the country nor the just and proper rulers of the country.

[heaven05]

2. +1000--so very true

in this time of trump and his chumps. This article is a very real reflection of america in the 21st century and especially after the election of Barack Obama and the Republican Party gave the Roof's and Bundy's of America a political Party to believe in and champion their rascist cause(s). I blame Ryan, O'crybaby and all the rest on hate radio and television that PROMISED to keep the first african-American POTUS from accomplishing anything great for ALL americans so that history would reflect failure of our POTUS.

They failed miserably.