Our Collective Radicalization
If the first decade of this century was characterized by globalization, the second was characterized by radicalization.
With the birth of the internet, the constraints of time and distance were removed from one-to-one and many-to-many communications. This resulted in accelerated globalization at the beginning of the 21st century. In a highly connected world, ideas and goods can be shared more freely across borders. This has created a world that is increasingly interdependent and homogenous.
Around 2010, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube entered the mainstream. These platforms brought with them the possibility of wide scale one-to-many communications. For the first time, a single person with no institutional authority could reach and influence a large population.
One-to-one communications allow for the free flow of new ideas, yet typically on a very small scale. It’s difficult to achieve the widespread adoption of new ideas through such communication.
Many-to-many communications have scale, yet institutional constraints tend to moderate the content that is communicated. For example, academic research must be peer-reviewed before scientific findings are published. Similarly, journalism was historically vetted through formal editing processes before it was published.
When a single person gains the ability to communicate with a large group of people (one-to-many communication), their ideas begin to spread at scale with no substantial moderation of them.
When we hear the word radicalization, we might conjure up images of Islamic extremists or Neo-Nazis. While violent forms of radicalization certainly exist, non-violent radicalization has become far more ubiquitous and may at scale be much more dangerous.
I’ve identified four forms of radicalization that I believe are plaguing our world today.
- Right Wing Radicalization
- Left Wing Radicalization
- Conspiracy Radicalization
- Lifestyle Radicalization
Radically violent versions of each exist…
On the right: Boogaloo
On the left: ANTIFA
In Conspiracies: QAnon
Of Lifestyle: The Followers of Joe Exotic
While each of these groups perpetuate extreme perspectives on particular ideologies, beliefs, and behaviors, it’s become increasingly difficult for us all to steer clear of the dangerous paths that lead toward them.
Every time we engage with Google Search, we are pushed further into a personalized filter bubble that reinforces our confirmation biases by returning information that its algorithm thinks we’d like to see. In fact, two people looking for the same answer to an “objective” question on Google may end up finding completely different versions of the truth.
Each time we log into our newsfeed on Facebook, we’re served ads that are tailored to our particular interests and we are shown posts from like-minded friends that speak to our group identity and propagate tribal thinking.
And perhaps worst of all are the algorithms on YouTube. These are intentionally designed to recommend videos that are incrementally extreme in perspective on any given issue.
This is all on top of a journalistic environment in which news organizations have become increasingly partisan and sensational to support their traffic-driven advertising model.
If this is not collective radicalization, then what would be?
Beliefs and rhetoric that just ten years ago would have sounded preposterous are becoming normalized.
A significant segment of the population believes that…
- Vaccinations cause Autism
- COVID doesn’t exist
- Self-identified pre-teen transgender individuals should be allowed to undergo irreversible transition surgery (before their prefrontal cortex is anywhere near full development)
- The activities depicted in porn are representative of healthy sexual conduct
- Disbanding the police will be a solution to the issue of racial inequality
- Bill Gates seeks to use COVID vaccines to implant tracking devices in the world’s population
These beliefs all appear to be the truth for those who’ve been radicalized to believe them.
In what ways have you become a victim of collective radicalization?
In what ways have I become a victim of collective radicalization?
In what ways can we divert our paths toward radicalization?
