Understanding How Attachment Disorders Lead to Radicalization
Belonging
Julie Samrick wrote an outstanding book called How People Get Their Politics. In Samrick's book, she states, "Human beings inherently seek communities to which they can belong. Americans may find communities in houses of worship, at workplaces, in schools, and neighborhoods. With the advent of the smartphone, it is no wonder people have sought communities online."
Doctor Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist who created the Hierarchy of Human Needs Theory in 1943. Dr. Maslow believed that people are motivated to achieve basic needs and that some needs take precedence over others. Our most basic need is for physical survival, and this is the first thing that motivates human behavior. Once a human being has his/her basic needs met, such as food, water, and shelter, they begin to search for more advanced needs such as security, love, and belonging. The psychological profiles of human beings who become radicalized are deficient in many of these higher-level needs.
During the Covid-19 quarantine, many Americans felt isolated and became entrenched in conspiracy theories out of boredom from being homebound and missing community. The internet has a treasure trove of rabbit holes one can go down seeking connection. People have described Tik Tok, Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube as addictive for these reasons.
Destabilizing Factors
According to criminal psychologists and FBI profilers, most radicalized characters have the same personality type; attachment-avoidant-lone wolf syndrome. They feel socially shortchanged by their past experiences. They feel disenfranchised by their peers, family members, romantic partners, the government, and other races or religions. They perceive these differences as competition to themselves. They believe their competitors have a more comfortable experience in life. The dark web and fringe networking communities allow lone wolves to feel connected without the exposure of social vulnerability or risk of rejection by the mainstream.
Researchers have found that three-quarters of radicalized individuals have never been married or were separated before violently acting out. Seventy-one percent of attackers have a history of being bullied and rejected by a person or organization. Almost none had children under their care. Fifty-four percent were non-working or attending school (source hstodya.us). In Maslow's terms, they lack security, love, and belonging. They lack purpose. This lack of protective factors often causes a person who is already feeling isolated or worthless to grow resentful of socially engaged others.
For non-working, socially isolated individuals seeking attachment – the fringe communities offer the perfect solution. Once a person feels he/she fits in, it is easier to adopt a groupthink mindset --similar to peer pressure. Elle Reeve from CNN interviewed a member of the Proud Boys who said, "The Proud Boy activities are the place where I have friends, and people don't call me stupid." Cosplay with MAGA merchandise allows for these group members to identify one another and feel even more invested in their membership.
New Ideology
Daryl Johnson, the author of Hateland, describes many veterans who felt harshly judged as weak performers during active duty often become radicalized after discharge seeking a community to supplement their sense of purpose. Upon returning from combat, the mainstream often misunderstands these veterans, leading to more rejection. These vets may struggle with post-traumatic stress-related symptoms, confusing family members and employers. Their entire identity becomes conflicted when they transition from military to civilian. Timothy McVeigh, (the American domestic terrorist who carried out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people) was initially accepted into the special forces team during his active duty but dropped out due to not being in shape. This experience with feeling disconnected may have led McVeigh to feel that he no longer had a purpose or sense of community. Therefore, he redirected his interests toward Waco and Ruby Ridge, leading to his disdain for the government.
Don't Tread on Me
Psychologically speaking, white supremacists' organizations possess an irrational fear that the government and liberal media are conspiring with minority populations to bring about the white race's demise. These individuals often show antisocial traits recognized by close friends or family members. They also lean towards anti-authoritarian and nonconformist ideological beliefs, and many display signs of paranoia combined with substance abuse and suicidal ideation. While it may be easy to suggest these individuals are ignorant of other cultures, it is more precise to realize they chose to be intolerant to protect their attachments.
Fear of Progressive Ideology
For most human beings, attachment to people, places, and things offer physical and mental security in a world where radical change may feel threatening.
The fear of globalization, affirmative action, and multiculturalism contribute to racist and sexist thinking because the competition becomes broader. White male privilege is not the only criteria one needs anymore for success. Educated people are pouring into the country, arriving with advanced degrees, speaking multiple languages, bringing new cultural traditions and religious views, and stealing jobs from average Americans. The America First propaganda promoted the idea that we need to take care of our own - which contributed to racist and xenophobic ideologies out of the fear of being disenfranchised. Female access into the workplace also caused resistance for the same reasons. When John Kerry recently suggested that Americans should transition from coal to clean energy, conservatives panicked! When Kerry suggested that learning to code is better than getting black lung, he was portrayed as an elitist, with conservatives pushing back on progressive ideas in favor of staying in their comfort zone.
For conservatives who become domestic terrorists, the two biggest fears are a progressive mindset and gun control. Both compromise security and consistency.
Ann Coulter, a conservative media pundit who is famous for anti-immigrant rhetoric, is quoted as saying, "There's nothing good about diversity, other than the food, and we don't need 128 million Mexicans for the restaurants." She also tries to scare conservatives into thinking if we don't get a handle on immigration, then white Americans will be speaking Spanish as their primary language. She is the perfect example of a person who favors white privilege over social justice, and she is unapologetically proud of it! Her ideology reinforces radicalization in the name of saving Americans from diversity. She has zero insight or empathy for disenfranchised communities.
Don't Tread on Me with that Covid Crap
When people feel the same as Coulter, their comfort zone is threatened, anger and resentment build towards those who may be the threat source. The don't tread on me theme becomes their mantra. If you dare put your foot down on me, I will strike you like a snake! Consider the Covid-19 mask mandate and government-initiated quarantine. The automatic thought for these alt-right Americans is, "Here goes the government again infringing on my rights away and telling me what to wear!" When masks started to trend after the Covid-19 outbreak, some conservatives protested the idea of wearing face coverings for this exact reason. The change was sudden and extreme, the choice of wearing a mask was taken away with the mandate, and therefore resistance emerged.
The Covid anti-maskers and lockdown protests were not necessarily about the virus; they were about the fear of losing freedom because of the virus. Suddenly, the idea of being forced to change habits, limit business goals, and mask up for an invisible enemy felt too threatening. Again, the fear of government control heightened the ideology of "Don't tread on me and tell me I have to wear a damn mask!" Science became irrelevant because perceived freedom was at stake. For Covid deniers, it was easier to call the virus a hoax than to accept one's independence may be compromised. Before Covid, the fear of politicians taking away guns was an effective recruitment strategy for anti-government radicalization; after Covid it was taking away guns and enforcing masks mandates.
What is Radicalization?
Johnson describes radicalization as the process by which a person becomes an extremist -taking on extreme views. Factors contributing to radicalization are individual psychological traits and minimal grounding inhibitors such as healthy relationships (i.e., attachments). When attachments become severed, such as job loss, death of a family member, divorce, etc., the more likely people are to seek revenge, sink into depression, commit suicide, or be sucked into the extremist universe. Once sucked in, the need for attachment propels one to drink the cool-aid.
Johnson described the Klan leader Riccio (known for the neo-Nazi movement in the US) as using the need for attachment to recruit broken kids onto his compound in Alabama. These boys were recruited from broken homes and places where they were physically, sexually, and emotionally abused. Many had dropped out of school, were in trouble with the law, and addicted to drugs or alcohol. At the compound, the boys found a community they desperately longed for that fulfilled their need for belonging. Once the boys felt attached, it was easy to mold them into the Nazi culture as part of the group mindset.
Dylan Roof (an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi, convicted for the Charleston church shooting in South Carolina) was unemployed, spent his days drinking and using drugs, and was heartbroken after his girlfriend rejected him for an African American male. According to Johnson, these destabilizing factors were the perfect storm for his violent attack on the African American church attendees.
January 6, 2021
In the book Hateland, Johnson discussed how American farmers in the 1980s began to suffer economic catastrophe and needed someone to blame. Bankers, politicians, and anyone guilty for causing their financial collapse became the target of their hatred. The point being, fear of being disenfranchised or forced into a minority standing required strong defenses against any perceived enemy who may be the source of the disenfranchisement. In other words, violence is justified for these reasons.
Storming the capitol building in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, resulted from MAGA conservatives fearing their attachment to Trump may be in jeopardy. Just like the disenfranchised farmers in the '80s, anti-government, alt-right community members were looking for someone to blame if Trump lost the election. Trump had always validated their anti-government, anti-immigrant, white supremacy belief system. The threat of losing the Trump Presidency would mean these fringe communities would have to go back into the shadows. The panic about losing this attachment resulted in a violent reaction.
Conservative Media
If you are a conservative news viewer, you frequently hear about the radical left trying to take your freedoms away. You may start to think that fighting for freedom and stability is your duty as a good patriot. You become convinced that the radical left is continuously trying to change the comfort zone. A progressive mindset is tolerant of change. Conservative media plays on the fear of change. Political correctness, big-tech, and a multicultural country are perceived as unwelcome changes for right-wing conservatives. Conservatives feel like they can't keep up with politicians' ever-changing expectations to be highly educated, socially informed, and open to non-traditional relationships. This extreme fear of change causes conservatives to cling to the past for security. Bill O'Reilly used this resistance rhetoric when he started insisting Americans say Merry Christmas. The suggestion that we welcome diversity of religious holidays in December became anti-American. To this day, conservatives get offended when they don't hear Merry Christmas, even though not everyone celebrates Christmas.
In Summary,
The human need to attach to people, places, and things create paranoia about being disconnected or losing an attachment. The need to belong to someone or something is so pervasive that people will compromise their values to maintain their security. For individuals who join gangs or terrorist organizations, the sense of community and the feeling of attachment outweighs integrity and moral norms. For MAGA domestic terrorists, Trumpism offers a sense of membership and belonging to an exclusive community of White Angelo Saxon Protestants who think their culture is superior. Despite the possibility of violence and loss of life, the satisfaction one gets from feeling part of a group outweighs the consequences. To that end, even when the MAGA movement fades away, there will always be radicalized individuals threatening our global security because the fear of change, desire for power, and hunger for attachment must never be underestimated.
