I was radicalized 17 years ago, in the wake of the Iraq War. But I was never recruited and never became an active member of any group. The reason? The online forums which I frequented were taken offline. If they weren't, my life would have taken a very different path.
https://twitter.com/nooranhamdan/status/1347690237913399297
Radicalization thrives in communities of identity and grievance. You surround yourself with people who echo back to you what you already desperately want to believe. But you also adjust your own beliefs in order to "fit in". You compete in showing your allegiance and purity.
The actual truth doesn't matter, what matters is the group's truth, which serves as a marker of belonging. You join the group by believing its truths and disbelieving the truths of the out-group. The harder you do that the more you "belong".
Trump losing his Twitter account is more painful to him than getting impeached, and perhaps even more than losing the presidency. Had Twitter acted years ago to set limits, maybe he would have kept within those limits. Too late now, we have one monster grievance.
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