How to Disrupt Extremism

Memified Terrorism

During the Fireside Chat on American Hate, Former Special Representative to Muslim Communities and Author of How We Win Farah Pandith pointed out that to incite emotion, many hate groups leverage visual semantics which are “used to enforce the spirit of connecting to increase your ability to focus as a team.” When participants come together around similar symbols that represent a collective ideology, the group becomes energized to a new level.

The iconography of American extremism, for example, can be perceived as insidious, magnified and unsettlingly bold in tone. In discussing the January 6th insurrection at the U.S Capitol, those who stormed the Capitol magnified their message with flags, hats and additional decorated attire that are now correlated with a new type of outspoken hate. In The New York Times piece “Decoding the Far-Right Symbols at the Capitol Riot,” Joan Donovan, the research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School states that this new iteration of extremism “looks like military fanfiction — until it’s not and it crosses a very dangerous line.” Our trend of Defictionalization, in which the world of fiction manifests in tangible ways, is reflected in such “military fanfiction”. This aesthetic, paired with the severity of the deadly attack on the Capitol, shows how alternative realities have never been as closely embedded into mainstream culture as they are today.

Watch the Full Culture Briefing below:

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Look at Context, Not Just Messaging 

Government, organizations and individuals can address hate in the U.S. by looking at what motivates extremists around the globe. While social media creates access for malicious influencers to reach new targets, unpacking global extremism requires looking into cultural contexts behind the messaging tactics. In the Fireside Chat on Global Hate, sparks & honey CEO Terry Young spoke with Former U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Doherty and Former Director of DARPA's Information Innovation Office Dr. Brian Pierce. They both agreed that governments and institutions should build responses to global threats by analyzing larger and broader environmental factors, in addition to extremist ideology and messaging.

In other words, extremism does not develop in a silo; external factors are crucial for detecting threats earlier and faster. Dr. Brian Pierce argues that those studying extremism need to look at “worldviews and beliefs if you are going to affect the meta-narrative that informs the framework for your messaging.” Former U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Doherty added, “We’re sometimes too fixated on the ideology rather than the groundwork that allows an ideology to develop.” 

Understanding both fast and slow culture (a part of Cultural Intelligence) — ranging from memes on the internet to political turmoil — allows organizations to better predict how culture can encourage and discourage extremism.

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Defeating Misinformation Via Gamification 

Looking to the future, our Culture Briefing on Hate 2024 featured solutions and cultural innovations that will help combat violent extremism. One realm of culture that helps perpetuate terrorism is misinformation and falsehoods that exist on the internet and spread through social media. Gamified learning has emerged as one potential way to decrease the reach of misinformation in the future.

Connecting to our trend Play, the gamification of learning to detect falsehoods could aid in public safety in the coming years. For example, Go Viral! is a new game developed in partnership between the University of Cambridge and the UK Government that allows players to learn techniques and understand motivations behind the spread of misinformation—  in this case specifically around COVID-19. Senior Cultural Strategist Alice Li mentioned that Go Viral! could be successful in practice, however the next step is to better integrate the practice of media literacy into daily rituals. These technologies will need to be incorporated more directly into public infrastructure as citizens look to be more conscious of false information throughout their day.