What Makes Someone Vulnerable to Extremism?

In this podcast, Qudosi speaks with a counselor who specializes in trauma, PTSD, anxiety and depression, as these factors impact extremism.

Clarion’s Preventing Violent Extremism Training Program helps communities understand the severe grievance, social and psychological breakdowns that push individuals across a threshold toward the point of a breakdown.

The question is: How can we prevent people from crossing that threshold?

It is at that state of vulnerability that primes an individual for the manipulation and propaganda of recruiters. Someone who falls for extremist ideology isn’t just someone who has “gone bad” so to speak.

People vulnerable to extremism tend to have more risk factors that make them vulnerable due to underlying issues. For example: Oftentimes, these people have a limited sense of belonging and are looking to be a part of something.

Getting into extremism is both social and psychological. Red flags include high stress triggers in an environment with no resolution, a low sense of self worth and the feeling of not being heard.

For the extremist, their ideology becomes the center of their world.

 

RELATED STORIES

Clarion: On the Road in Richmond Hill, Georgia

Youth Resilience is Key to ‘Waging Peace’

Preventing Radicalization: Moving Beyond the Criminal Lens