Extremist Involvement Overview

People get involved in the far right for all different types of reasons.

For the vast majority of the time, it is due to a vulnerability of some type.

This can be a range of things, people feeling lonely, neurodiversity, or even people going through hard times financially.

In this blog article I will have a short look at why people become involved and talk you through a few of the ways that I know people can get radicalised.

One of the main reasons people get involved is because of current world situations.

For example, the cost-of-living crisis.

With everything going up in price, a lot of working-class families live pay check to pay, understandably people are not happy about this and this can open a door.

They feel aggrieved they have to work long hours, only to have no money left over for a few luxuries or maybe things are so tough, they even have to borrow money.

This then, is where extremists, including the far right will take advantage of that frustration and often say things like “migrants get everything, while we get nothing”.

In reality, things are very different.

Did you know..................

On the GOV website it states - asylum seekers in the UK, are generally banned from working, receive £49.18 per person per week to cover food, clothing, and toiletries. Also, if meals are provided (e.g., in a hotel), the allowance is reduced, often around £8.86 to £9.95 per person per week.

This Is far from what far right extremists say, but how many people know this?

I didn’t until I looked it up.

But hardship, is not the only thing we should be worried about.

In recent years there has been a huge emphasis from extremists on recruiting people from the neurodiverse community, especially people who are autistic.

In this example, I will highlight how the far right does it.

Today, a number of far-right recruiters are learning about neurodiversity.

For example, they have learnt that a lot of people with autism have a very black and white way of thinking. By this I mean a lot of people with autism think something is either right, or wrong. There isn’t a grey area in between.

Seeking to recruit people to the far right, if they find someone they can use, they will manipulate the person to believe that people like their friends, family, teachers, the media and the police are all wrong, and  only the far right are right. Sadly, when this happens, the person with autism often becomes even more dedicated to the far right, because they believe they care and are valued.

Algorithms are another big issue.

If for example, you are into the football or music , if you like a few posts about your team or your favourite band, you will then start to get a lot more of the content that you have liked or viewed.

Often if you look, you will see the far right do this on multiple occasions. They will put up posts that encourage you into liking them, or sharing them.

For example, they will post a cute picture of a red squirrel with the caption “share this post if you love British wildlife”.

Most people will just see the picture, not think to check where it has come from and share it.

The far right know this.

Then when you share that one post,  the algorithm will recognise you have taken an interested in the page (i.e. the far-right page) and then start to put more content in your timeline.  This is how it works.

Sadly, this isn’t only done by the far right, but other extremist groups as well.

Offering just a short insight into why people get involved, the reasons listed are from my own experience as former nationalist activist, but there are many more.

J - Former