Sunday, December 31, 2017

Decoding the Red Pill: Social Media and the rise and radicalization of the Alt-Reich.




Greetings and welcome to a detailed discussion of the specific psychological mechanisms that underpin the radicalization process and how social media has been weaponized by corporate and political actors to exploit this specific (naturally occurring) emergent behavior. This essay will explain how certain types of media (often heavily reliant on the spoken word) can "teach" the human brain to accept/reject new information based on its adherence to a recognizable formula, (a process I call "Narrative Induction") and that once so induced a specific types of media result in a predictable and steady process of radicalization- progressing from nonviolent (at first) to violent* (the "Radicalization Engine"). 

*Violence appears first as lone wolfs attempting to fire the "first shots" of what they expect to be a great war (e.g. the Charleston Shooter), and if left unchecked this progresses to small groups taking to public spaces to enact violence on targeted minorities (e.g. Charlottesville).

But first a few words about the author. I was raised in an authoritarian cult environment and despite rebelling against the specific cult I was raised in wound up involved in a series of cults during the early stages of my adult life. Eventually my dysfunction (as well as my untreated mental illness) resulted in my becoming homeless. While homeless I finally hit my personal rock bottom and checked myself into treatment. I spent several years in intensive therapy learning to deprogram myself. (as well as manage my schizophrenia) During the process of deprogramming I started a personal vanity project meant to both help myself understand the environment I had been raised in as well as to help others understand the authoritarian mindset. With the (genuinely heartwarming) support an an internet community I was able to develop my ideas into the "Narrativist Framework- a detailed psychological framework that describes the behavior/mindset of the extremists I was raised around and used to be myself.

I mention all this upfront because I want to make clear that I am not a credentialed expert and do not have a college education. The cult I was raised in had its own school and they were largely responsible for my education growing up. (I have been trying my best to fill in the gaps ever since I graduated high school but I was largely taught irrational fantasy nonsense.) Rather I prefer to think of myself as being akin to Mowgli trying his best to explain the Jungle to those who have never lived in it. I understand all of this on an intuitive level and (as a result of my schizophrenia) have an unusual capacity for pattern recognition. I am therefor doing my best to convey an intuitive understanding of this topic- I am not always perfect or completely correct but I feel my work is well reasoned and insightful enough to be worth hearing out.

Lastly before I dive into the meat of this (it's coming I swear) I want to clarify my reasons for writing this in the first place. I aim to 1.) explain the radicalization process in such a way as that the average person can both recognize and understand why groups like Gamergaters or r/Incel became so radicalized and 2.) prevent the same from happening (even more than it already is) on the progressive left. (The progressive lefts love-affair with purity tests can result in the exact same radicalization process playing out in progressive communities if left unchecked.) While much of this essay will cite examples from the Alt-Reich that is only because they present the most clear and well-known examples of the behaviors described- I could have used examples exclusively from the left if I had been willing to put in about 4 times the legwork/been willing to use examples that required more explanation. (Radicalization is much more widespread/developed on the right at present than it is on the left, but there is plenty enough radicalization on the left to warrant concern.)

Returning (finally) to the main thrust of this essay let me first explain how new Narrativists are created before I explain how radicalization occurs. Narrativism is what I call a "Self Replicating Behavior Pattern"- that is to say that Narrativism is a naturally occurring behavior pattern that results from changes to the way the way the brain processes information. These changes in the way the brain accepts/rejects new information are caused by exposure to Narrativist media over a sufficiently long period of time. (The younger the mind the less overall exposure required- this is why tweens and young teens are becoming very quickly radicalized by youtubers like PewDiePie.) Specifically media that communicates using what I call "Bypass Logic" through the medium of the spoken word seems to be the most reliable method of inducing the brain to adopt Narrativism.

For a demonstration of this process impacting an adult mind I would like to cite the excellent documentary "The Brainwashing of My Dad". In the trailer for this documentary you can see the general premise of my argument demonstrated: A normal father begins to listen to right wing radio (spoken word relying heavily on Bypass Logic) during long commutes. This results in the father becoming a clear example of a Narrativist and undergoing a steady radicalization over the years. (Thankfully in this case the story ultimately has a happy ending.)



Next we come to the Radicalization Engine. In order to explain this concept I will need to heavily reference terms and concepts from the Narrativist Framework. While brief descriptions of each of these concepts are provided here it is strongly recommended that readers new to this material also read the longer definitions provided for each term.

*I am occasionally asked why I rely heavily on using the Narrativist Framework instead of referencing similar concepts that exist elsewhere in academic circles. The reason is because while it may lend a bit of credibility it would require so much extra explanation as to ultimately cancel out any positive benefits in my view. While a number of my concepts have similar counterparts, there are are often enough differences that I would need a significant explanation next to each term- in addition to a number of my concepts being completely novel and requiring the creation of a new term in either case. Furthermore modern psychology has not yet attempted to connect these concepts in the way I have and I would be taking pieces from 20 different theoretical frameworks while needing to explain what pieces of which theory are relevant and why. The overall result would be a confusing mess for both myself and the reader. As a result I feel it is just far simpler to use my own terms for these concepts: the Narrativist Framework was meant to describe how these concepts are interlinked to begin with and once understood it requires far less effort to communicate far more information with the Narrativist Framework than it would be using/adapting existing concepts within academia.

The Radicalization Engine is a three step process:
  • 1.) Narrative Dysphoria: When the experience of the real world does not align to the expectations generated by the Inner Narrative a form of cognitive dissonance that I call Narrative Dysphoria. This cognitive dissonance is relieved in a Narrativist group by engaging in a 
  • 2.) Compaction Cycle: The ritualized scapegoating and expulsion of a member of a Narrativist community*. Events that generate large amounts of Narrative dysphoria often produce visible Compaction cycles in online communities as the less radicalized are driven out by their more radicalized brethren. Those driven out from one Narrativist group very rarely stop being Narrativists however and instead will often join a new Narrativist group. After a Compaction Cycle there is very frequently a clear period of
  • 3.) Inner Narrative Evolution: The stresses of the Compaction Cycle cause the brain of the Narrativist to adopt Bypass logic ever more heavily- resulting in The Enemy becoming a steadily greater threat (with an ever-increasing retinue of unearthly powers) and justifying ever greater (and eventually violent) responses in order for the Narrativist to defend themselves from expected annihilation.

*If the Narrativist community is large and radicalized enough they will also target non-Narrativists for scapegoating/harassment and expulsion from society.

The above process can be seen playing out over and over in virtually every single right-wing affilaited space at present- from the notorious FreeRepublic.com to the (thankfully now closed) r/Incels and r/physicalremoval*. (This process can also be observed playing out in smaller scales on a number of left-oriented online communities as well.) Once recognized the cycle becomes clear and almost routine: a wave of Narrative Dysphoria (of late these are often caused by the bumbling of the Trump administration) is followed shortly thereafter by a Compaction Cycle (often targeting anyone who publicly questions the emerging groupthink), then shortly after the Compaction Cycle there is a noted uptick in the radicalized behaviors exhibited by the involved groups.

*I would argue that the very name "Physical Removal" is a direct reference to the psychological imperative to engage in Compaction Cycles.

One of the cleanest examples of this process comes from the Trump administration itself in the form of the firing of Reince Priebus. The various leaks in the administration were an ongoing source of Narrative Dysphoria and Reince was first scapegoated for these leaks before being publicly Compacted out of the Trump administration. Shortly thereafter there was a noted uptick in radicalization among Trumps inner circle- particularly when a month after Reince was fired Trump gave his infamous speech supporting white supremacists in the wake of Charlottesville.

It is my contention that Narrativism (and all attendant behaviors like Narrative Induction) are naturally occurring behaviors: I would even argue that early on in mankinds history Narrativism likely provided a community with more benefits than costs. When human communities were very small (often sub 200 members) Narrativism would have presented a way of creating a group united by common beliefs instead of by familial ties- and during the first 180,000 odd years of human existence that very likely may have been a significant survival advantage over human groups that relied solely on familial ties for alliances. Narrativism would have spread from speaker to listener- but only very slowly as much of the average persons time was occupied with meeting basic needs. The much smaller community sizes also meant generally fewer opportunities for Compaction Cycles- and therefor a sort of "soft cap" on the degree of radicalization that could occur in a given community before it became too small/dysfunctional for the process to continue unabated. 

However modern mass media overcomes all these soft limits and makes it possible for large numbers of individuals to be radicalized quickly (as happened in Nazi Germany). The 24/7 barrage of Narrativist media enabled by modern social media has enabled Narrativism to develop even faster-it has also enabled hostile foreign actors to interfere in rival countries simply by monetarily supporting media that supports either Narrative Induction or some portion of the Radicalization Engine.* (Russia has been slowly trial-and-erroring its way to a better understanding of how to manipulate Narrativism over the past several years: Its most notable successes thus far being Brexit and Trump's election.) 

* The following video demonstrates this very nicely I think: