Boredom and job loss can drive politically inactive people into radicalization

Evidence

Take, for example, twenty-seven-year-old Anthony Antonio, a solar panel salesman from the suburbs of Chicago. Antonio had no prior interest in politics. He hadn’t even voted in a presidential election before. After being laid off work during the pandemic, Antonio said that he simply got bored. He started watching Fox News on repeat, tuned into right-wing social media and became consumed with conspiracy theories that the presidential election had been rigged. On 6 January 2021 he wore a bulletproof vest with insignia of a far-right militia group. He was charged with five counts, including disorderly conduct and violent entry of the Capitol. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 10

Categorization

• XREF: This individual radicalization pathway maps onto the profiles being built in the chapter; also resembles the isolated-young-man radicalization arc common in fiction like The Reluctant Fundamentalist. — connects to: Wartime expansion created an unskilled workforce ripe for radicalization — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 171; Ordinary, otherwise unremarkable people can become radicalized through online research — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 3; Unemployment makes people passive and withdrawn rather than radicalized. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 641 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Unemployment makes people passive and withdrawn rather than radicalized. #contradicts (0.85) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 641
• Personal crises precede and open receptivity to religious radicalization #corroborates (0.80) — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America, 327
• Mental health problems create radicalization vulnerability only by blocking other life opportunities #qualifies (0.75) — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America, 285
• Economic retrenchment produced defensive embourgeoisement rather than further radicalization #contradicts (0.75) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 140
• Perceived exclusion and injustice prime society-wide breeding grounds for radicalization #expands (0.70) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 716