Today, the ‘red pill’ is used, by a variety of groups, to describe an awakening to previously hidden ‘truths’ about the world. This ‘red pill’ terminology is derived from a scene in the 1999 film The Matrix, where the character Neo is given the choice to take a blue pill, and remain ignorant, or the red pill, and awaken to the truth of how the world really works. In their online forums, male supremacists identify the experiences and mechanisms that led them to accept these shared beliefs as ‘red pills’. My field sites are male supremacists’ online forums, YouTube videos, and other digital sources that can lead individuals down the radicalization rabbit hole. Thanks to the F.A.G.’s funding, I am able to research, and begin to understand, why individuals radicalize into male supremacism. While there is a growing interest in male supremacist identities, and more broadly gendered approaches to understanding extremism, there is little understanding of why or how individuals radicalize into male supremacists identities. United in their reduction of women to their sexual or reproduction function, and in their belief that that they are the victims of an increasingly female-centric society in which men have lost power, male supremacists have perpetrated several deadly attacks across North America since 2009. Though male supremacists existed before widespread internet access, the internet and various social networks have facilitated the expansion of male supremacist ideology and spurred the creation of a variety of male supremacist identities. While the internet has been a mechanism for positive change, it has also allowed for identities and movements to form around hate, violence, and extremism. Since the advent of the internet, people have been able to connect with others who share their interests, discover new communities, and ideas about the world around us.
0 kommentar(er)
