Direct family confrontation often backfires or has no effect on committed extremists.

Evidence

Of the 15 focal individuals who experienced failed interventions by individuals, the majority of these failed attempts (eight white supremacists and five Islamic extremists) were family members trying to intervene and either having no effect or even increasing the focal individual’s dedication to radicalism as a result. For example, one former white supremacist explained: … My grandfather actually pulled me aside to have a talk about being involved in this. And he said, “You know, [name], one of two things is going to happen to you if you continue on this path. They are gonna kill you or imprison you.” So this was my grandparent, my grandparents would come to get me out, which I was already 15 years in by this point. And I’ll never forget because this was somebody I looked up to ever since I was little. And the horrible thing I said to him was something about like, “I’d rather live my life fighting than on my knees,” or something like, “You might have given up but I haven’t.” And I regret saying that to this day because of the look that I got. But he tried to get me out at that point as well. No effort could get through to me when I was in there because I was so fanatical, so dedicated. — 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, 451

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Successful individual interventions mostly supplied positive support, not confrontation. — 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:…, 399; Interventions by individual people helped most sampled extremists exit or deradicalize. — 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:…, 398; Family interventions into spiritual involvement can humiliate rather than persuade the target — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice: How to Communicate…, 468 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Family interventions into spiritual involvement can humiliate rather than persuade the target #corroborates (0.85) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 468