Three steps to talking to a loved one at risk of being radicalised into rioting
Anthony English.
For some, the shocking scenes of violence which have erupted across dozens of locations in England and Northern Ireland will evoke an all-too-real concern – could someone close to me get involved in the violence?
Alongside those directly affected by the act of rioting itself, there are another set of people who will suffer the consequences – the families of those arrested and imprisoned. It’s becoming clear that whatever “call to arms” was sent out in recent weeks, it was picked up not just by hardcore far-right agitators but by people of all ages who got pulled into the idea that rioting is a principled act with the highest of stakes.
So what can you do if you are concerned someone close to you (of any age) may be vulnerable to participating in future riots?
A starting point might be to recognise that we all have the capacity to engage with narratives that could be considered to be politically extreme, particularly when they are expertly targeted. This is the premise of research I’m conducting with colleagues which aims to track, attune and limit the spread of extremism. To do so, we’ve had to articulate the concept of “everyday extremism” to acknowledge that extreme narratives derived from non-mainstream sources can become a part of mainstream political discourse via social media. Such discourse typically involves symbolic violence against a person or group which has the potential to escalate into real-world harm, if encouraged.
In the case of the Southport knife attack that became the trigger for the unrest, the initial legal restrictions around publicly releasing the identity of the suspect (due to his age) created a void which was swiftly filled with a wildfire of far-right disinformation. Before it was made clear that the person in custody was a British citizen, anti-immigrant and racist accusations, and a false name that implied he was Muslim, were already on social media. This disinformation spread quickly, moving from online to offline, mobilising people’s anger.