After Capitol riot, desperate families turn to groups that 'deprogram' extremists

[Nevilledog]

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/05/desperate-families-are-seeking-groups-that-deprogram-extremists/

Her brother couldn’t make it to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but she worried that he would join a new insurrection — that one day “he would be one of the people on TV.”

The woman in her 30s asked her family to make plans, she said, hoping to keep her brother busy. Then she contacted a nonprofit group called Parents for Peace that seeks to pull people back from extremism, hoping to “save” him, after years of dismay at his hatred of Muslims and Mexicans and now alarm at his anger over the presidential election.

Dissecting her brother’s life and their relationship in weekly sessions, she started to wonder whether she was part of the problem.

The woman, who did not want her name or location made public so as not to upset her brother, is part of a surge of desperate families and friends calling organizations that aim to deradicalize and “deprogram” extremists across the ideological spectrum. Such organizations say demand for their free services has never been higher.

Parents for Peace, a 10-person operation of mostly volunteers, says calls to its national helpline have tripled since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, with a growing number of younger people being groomed in white supremacist ideology. After supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the intervention groups have experienced a deluge of calls related to the attack as well as to conspiracy theories and QAnon.

The range of extremist ideas they encounter also has widened in the past year, driven by the 2020 election and the pandemic.

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[SheltieLover]

1. Good plan!!!

[CrispyQ]

2. Worth the read!

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“My goal was not to challenge his thought process or ideology but to get to a point where he could do it on his own,” said Buckley, who worked with the teenager. The process was an “emotional roller coaster with peaks and valleys, built on trust and compassion,” he said.

It took almost six months, but eventually, the teenager came to recognize the irrationality of his beliefs — as well as the psychological toll they took on him. “It’s the most exhausting and draining place you can imagine,” he said. “It is filled with frothing vitriol, sheer unadulterated anger.”

Away from the Internet now, the teen says he has more time to play the banjo and listen to folk music.

“When I took a break from it, it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders,” he said. “I was free.”

I loved this: Away from the Internet now, the teen says he has more time to play the banjo and listen to folk music.