Political events can re-trigger radical feelings years after an extremist exit.

Evidence

In some cases, feelings of being drawn back were triggered or sustained by current events, as this former right-wing extremist explained: … What it is, is all these statues of Columbus being torn down scares the hell out of me because I’m thinking that people are going to start getting torn down next… . How do we cope with that? A lot of the hard-line traditionalists aren’t actually all that stubborn; it’s just that we’re kind of old-fashioned and then society progressed really fast and we kind of got left behind. And we just need a minute to catch up with all this… . I am very scared that I’m not really deradicalized, that I’m still going to be kind of racist or sexist or something, and that I’ll wind up doing more harm than good. And I’m scared of that. — 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, 457

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Many extremists proactively seek out reasons and philosophy to abandon radicalism. — 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:…, 443; Attempting to quit extremism can itself escalate a person into a worse group — 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:…, 366; Online environments are compressing radicalization from years to months — 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:…, 177 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Attempting to quit extremism can itself escalate a person into a worse group #expands (0.82) — 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, 366
• Online environments are compressing radicalization from years to months #complicates (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, 177