With weeks to go before the 2024 election, experts in extremism and political violence are issuing warnings to families who see loved ones gravitating toward extreme ideology.
“The first thing you should do, if you believe a loved one is going down a rabbit hole, becoming radicalized, is to try to assess exactly how far down the rabbit hole they are,” Brian Hughes told the News4 I-Team.
Hughes is the co-founder and associate director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University.
Hughes warned that once people make social connections within extremist groups, “it becomes very, very hard to pull them out.”
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Why an ex-member of a racist gang now works with Life After Hate
Connecting with others is part of the psychology of why people join extremist organizations in the first place.
“The day that I became involved in this stuff, it could have been a gang, it could have been some other type of extremism,” Brad Galloway told the I-Team. He was looking for “that sense of belonging, that sense of worth, that sense of identity, that we're all actually searching for.”
Galloway was a member of a Canadian racist skinhead gang for 13 years and eventually became one of its leaders. It’s a time he says he’s not proud of but does not deny.
"The violence was particularly something that, over time, I was like, well, what is this doing? What is this creating? What is this changing? All that I see that it's doing is hurting,” he said.
For the last decade, Galloway has helped people get out of extremist groups. He works across the U.S. with a group called Life After Hate.
After a decade spent in an extremist group and now with more time out of one, he said, “These groups are not looking for an answer that doesn't involve violence.”
What a survey showed about beliefs on political violence
In this election year, there’s real concern about how those extremist views could inflame political violence in America.
“Views that were at one time held by a very small number of the population are finding their way into the mainstream,” Dr. Garen Wintemute told the I-Team.
Wintemute is the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.
His group’s ongoing research shows 25% of Americans surveyed in 2023 believe violence is usually or always justified to advance at least one of 17 political objectives. That’s a decrease from the year before, but he says it is potentially more dangerous.
The survey also showed an increase in the number of people who support violence who also said they would be armed with a gun, threaten someone with a gun and even said they were very likely or extremely likely to shoot someone with it for a political reason.
“I think people take it as a matter of course that violence is going to be a part of our political process,” Hughes said. “Ten years ago, that would have been shocking to say.”
To Hughes, political extremism and the violence that surrounds it have become far too familiar in recent years. He said it’s not unstoppable, though.
“When people have the tools and the resources to recognize these issues before they become very severe, they do intervene. And those interventions are effective,” he said.
How to talk with a loved one about political extremism
Hughes admitted that relationships with people who have become involved with extremist groups can be frustrating.
“It is hard. It can be very frustrating. It can really make you mad to have to talk to a person who seems so far afield, but it has to be done, and the best way to do it is to do it from a place of curiosity.”
Lead with curiosity, not condemnation: Every expert the I-Team spoke with over the past year said the key to convincing a loved one to leave an extremist group is to lead with curiosity, not condemnation.
Hughes has worked with Rachel Carroll Rivas at the Southern Poverty Law Center to develop strategies to help people who have been radicalized.
“If we actually ask the question of, what was the purpose? What do you think is going on here? Why is this happening, that really gives people that agency to come to a decision on their own.”
Galloway, the former extremist turned exit specialist, said, "I want to understand why you're there, right? So, why is it that you have such a dissent for the government, or why is it that you have such a dissent for certain cultures or communities within America?"
Galloway said he’s led 50 people away from extremism and is currently working with 20 more.
He credits his wife for being part of the push to get him to leave.
“She was never involved in any of that stuff. She would poke at it all the time and say, ‘Are you sure about that? I mean, have you researched, have you looked at that … just keeping those questions going."
Keep the conversation going: Former Oath Keeper turned congressional Jan. 6 witness Jason VanTatenhove told the I-Team earlier this year that keeping the conversation going is another key.
“We have opportunities with the people in our lives. It's going to take a tsunami of those little moments of reaching across in our own personal lives to begin to see some change. I think we need everyone to be doing this,” he said.
Do what you can: Wintemute echoed VanTatenhove’s point.
“We all have to be willing to say, ‘This is not acceptable. I will do my part.’ Elected official, I need you to do yours, but we can't look elsewhere for the solution.”
Go here to see resources from the PERIL project at American University.
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This story was reported by News4 Investigative Reporter Ted Oberg and News4 Investigative Producer Rick Yarborough, shot by News4 Photojournalists Jeff Piper and Steve Jones, and edited by Jones.
