“The extreme right... The amount of resources behind them and the amount of power that they hold within the political establishment of their party is absolutely asymmetrical."

- @melissaryan.bsky.social

I absolutely cannot disagree

I think you're exactly right, and it often comes across as a pointless and counter productive anti-youth framework

They exploit cultural representations *because* they are popular, because disaffected, vulnerable people have been drawn to them, not because they create those fundamental vulnerabilities in the first place

And, yes, those vulnerabilities matter for extremist exploitation, but if those particular memetic expressions were not available, extremists would use something else.

They are often expressions that are particularly appealing to youth who are trying to find their identities and even more so to those who feel disenchanted with society, their home lives, etc.

This oversimplification misses so much, including how the nonsense, the meaningless is a more visible version of cultural expressions that have existed elsewhere for a long time and facilitate a sense of belonging and "we-ness."

Beyond being a real world case of poor methods that I would have my students dissect in class were I teaching this semester, this is an example of how work in a field dedicated to fighting extremism can instead be easily coopted to support fascism.

Unfortunately, and as the response also mentions, this was a highly foreseeable outcome in the current environment, an outcome amplified by poor word choice in the report itself. Those choices were not softened by attempted hedging about relative violence risks.

Earlier this week, a Congressional hearing had multiple individuals testify regarding the supposed threat of left wing violence, and they each explicitly cited the recent CSIS report. The one whose key problems are detailed here: www.justsecurity.org/122278/corre...

This is, fundamentally, an ethical issue, more than even a methodological one.

Scientists cannot always control how their work is interpreted and used. They cannot fully predict how people might intentionally misuse those data.

But they can and should make reasonable efforts to protect against it

This week’s GW guest is Eric King, an expert on anti-fascist action — and what it means to be a political prisoner

Eric served 10 years in a 6x9 cell in federal prison for throwing a Molotov at an *empty* Congressional building.

LIVE on WEDS, Oct. 29

Q&A drops THURSDAY

youtube.com/@thisisawkword