Friday night, MSNBC reporter and online extremism expert Brandy Zadrozny discussed how mass shootings have become intertwined with online extremism.
Zadrozny said that until about 10 years ago, reporting on the internet had nothing to do with covering mass shootings. But now, the two topics go “hand-in-hand.” That’s because you have to understand the internet in order to understand the motivations of mass shooters, she said.
Extremism is rewarded by online algorithms, Zadrozny explained. Also, research shows that once you’re in such a rabbit hole, “you say extreme things you don’t believe until you start to believe them and that is very much the case behind all of these people saying these crazy, violent things.”
Host Jacob Soboroff asked if there is a common denominator or type of politics among shooters radicalized online.
Spoiler alert: online extremism is almost entirely a problem from the right:
Zadrozny: I forget the researchers’ term for this, but there's an asymmetric polarization from online extremist spaces. You can find online extreme content from the left but not that much. It's pretty hard. On the right. you can find it literally everywhere. It's just overflowing.
Now, that doesn't mean necessarily that all these people are Republican. I would say probably most of them aren't huge fans of Donald Trump. They're fans of nothing. They're fans of extremism. They're fans of “burn it down.” They're fans of “this system isn't working for me, destroy it.” They're fans of chaos.
Kirk’s death should be a wake-up call to address that kind of anger and despair and its consequences. But we know the Trump administration won’t. Trump redirected FBI personnel from working on extremist violence in favor of targeting immigrants.
We also know he doesn’t really mourn Kirk’s death. Marie Antoinette Trump repeatedly changed the subject to his Versailles-like ballroom while supposedly expressing his sorrow over Kirk’s death. When he’s not boasting about himself, Trump uses the tragedy to stir up more dangerous hate against Democrats and the left. It is already working.
