Updated 2 years ago
Radicalization isn’t just QAnon or ISIS.
When I was in college in the 80s, I went through an anarchist phase. I was very active with events and wrote for the school paper. There was no Internet then, so I devoured radical literature, became involved in radical groups and activities, and read anarchist zines. It was actually very social, unlike today, but more on that later.
I decided to take it as far as it went, and I did, and in the process got so paranoid of the FBI’s prying eyes, or a knock on the door by the police. “The System” was everywhere, like a demon behind every bush to a distraught Christian.
I saw the endpoint. I began to feel like I was going insane, like paranoid schizophrenia. People need to feel connected with the world, and if a large part of the world is your enemy, you get self-alienated. Your mind starts playing tricks on you, like a bad acid trip. The endpoint was going to be my mental breakdown, my death, or lifelong incarceration.
I ended up deciding to accept what I cannot change. I didn’t want to go there.
This man in the article below went there. With QAnon, it has happened time and time again.
Today, unlike in the 80s, you don’t have to go far to find sources of radicalization. So I propose that it’s catching more people. Casuals who spend nights reading fringe sites.
They start on reasonable topics, such as making fun of shrill extremists on the other side. Then it gets gradually deeper and deeper.
Extremism has always been deadly, but now it’s easier than ever to fall in to.
Here was all I needed to hear in the 80s:
When students asked Terrence McKenna during one of his lectures… “How do we fight THE MAN???”
He replied with ~~~ “Make Art.”
Man Murdered Wife, Shot Daughter After Being Sucked Down ‘Q Rabbit Hole,’ Family Confirms
