The article examines how exposure to extremist recruitment in video games relates to attitudes and aggression, and how this varies for far-right and far-left messaging. It reports that recruitment attempts are not widespread and that far-right exposure is linked to increased hostile sexism and aggression, while far-left effects depend on preexisting left-wing authoritarian traits.

The piece is of interest to psychology readers because it highlights how environmental factors in digital spaces interact with individual traits to shape social attitudes and behaviors, offering insight into prejudice, aggression, and the psychology of extremism.

Article Title: Video games aren’t major engines for extremist radicalization, new research suggests

Link to PsyPost Article: https://nolinkpreview.com/www.psypost.org/video-games-arent-major-engines-for-extremist-radicalization-new-research-suggests/

#video-games #extremism #radicalization #authoritarianism #hostilesexism #aggression #digitalculture #gamingpsychology #leftwingextremism #rightwingextremism

San Diego Mosque Shooting Linked to Prior Warning Signs and Seized Firearms

📰 Original title: Behavior Of Teen In Mosque Shooting Led Police To Seize Family Guns A Year Before Attack

🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Users: It's clickbait ⚠️

View full AI summary: https://en.killbait.com/san-diego-mosque-shooting-linked-to-prior-warning-signs-and-seized-firearms.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world

#incidents #massshooting #radicalization #sandiego

San Diego Mosque Shooting Linked to Prior Warning Signs and Seized Firearms

One of the teenagers involved in this week’s deadly shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego had previously exhibited alarming behavior, including idolizing Nazis and mass shooters, which prompted authorities to confiscate his father’s firearms in early 2025. Court records reveal that Caleb Vazquez, 18, had undergone an involuntary psychiatric hospitalization and faced mental health challenges, including being on the autism spectrum. Police seized 26 guns from his family after a welfare check highlighted his dangerous behavior. Vazquez and his accomplice, 17-year-old Cain Clark, were radicalized online and expressed white supremacist and violent ideologies in writings targeting multiple groups, including Jews, Muslims, and Black people. Both teens had struggled with social rejection and mental health issues. Vazquez’s family stated they attempted to help him through therapy, school monitoring, and gun restrictions, but exposure to extremist content online contributed to his radicalization. The police search for the teens began after Clark’s mother reported him missing with multiple weapons, leading to the fatal attack. Experts warn that de-radicalizing youth has become more challenging due to the pervasive influence of online extremist content and meme-based ideologies.

KillBait

San Diego Mosque Shooting Linked to Prior Warning Signs and Seized Firearms

📰 Original title: Behavior Of Teen In Mosque Shooting Led Police To Seize Family Guns A Year Before Attack

🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Users: It's clickbait ⚠️

View full AI summary: https://en.killbait.com/san-diego-mosque-shooting-linked-to-prior-warning-signs-and-seized-firearms.html?utm_source=mastodon_social&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_social

#incidents #massshooting #radicalization #sand...

San Diego Mosque Shooting Linked to Prior Warning Signs and Seized Firearms

One of the teenagers involved in this week’s deadly shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego had previously exhibited alarming behavior, including idolizing Nazis and mass shooters, which prompted authorities to confiscate his father’s firearms in early 2025. Court records reveal that Caleb Vazquez, 18, had undergone an involuntary psychiatric hospitalization and faced mental health challenges, including being on the autism spectrum. Police seized 26 guns from his family after a welfare check highlighted his dangerous behavior. Vazquez and his accomplice, 17-year-old Cain Clark, were radicalized online and expressed white supremacist and violent ideologies in writings targeting multiple groups, including Jews, Muslims, and Black people. Both teens had struggled with social rejection and mental health issues. Vazquez’s family stated they attempted to help him through therapy, school monitoring, and gun restrictions, but exposure to extremist content online contributed to his radicalization. The police search for the teens began after Clark’s mother reported him missing with multiple weapons, leading to the fatal attack. Experts warn that de-radicalizing youth has become more challenging due to the pervasive influence of online extremist content and meme-based ideologies.

KillBait

"Long before most institutions fully understood the dangers of #online #radicalization, #antisemitic ideas were already finding new life in #conspiracy culture, political #extremism and ideological movements across the spectrum. Some mistook a decline in public acceptability for a decline in the hatred itself.

Today, we are at another inflection point, but this one is far more urgent. #Antisemitism is no longer confined to the fringes, and its resurgence is part of a broader erosion of civic trust, shared facts and democratic norms. History has repeatedly shown that when antisemitism rises openly, it is rarely only a #Jewish problem. It is often a warning sign of a society becoming more vulnerable to extremism, #polarization and #intolerance more broadly."

https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article315813262.html

"Analysts increasingly describe modern #antisemitism as a convergence phenomenon — where far-left anti-#Zionism, far-right #conspiracy culture, #online #radicalization and broader political nihilism begin feeding one another. #Jews become symbolic targets onto which fractured societies project anger and distrust. As #JoshKaplan recently reminded us in The Free Press, the late #Rabbi Lord #JonathanSacks warned that “antisemitism is a projection, and is caused not by Jews but by internal conflicts in the societies that give rise to it.” That diagnosis feels painfully relevant now.

#America is experiencing a broader coarsening of civic life. Political rage has become performative. #Socialmedia rewards outrage over restraint. #Conspiracytheories spread faster than facts. Institutions are distrusted almost by default. In such an environment, antisemitism flourishes because it offers unstable movements a visible villain onto whom complex frustrations can be pinned."

https://www.jewishexponent.com/editorial-the-new-shape-of-antisemitism/

UK’s criminalization of direct-action climate protests has counterproductive results, study says

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/uk-s-criminalization-of-direct-action-climate-protests-has-counterproductive-results-study-says/3918054

Punitive measures against nonviolent climate activists, including those who blocked roads or damaged buildings, may contribute to their radicalization…

#ClimateDefenders #Criminalization #Radicalization #ClimateJustice #Government #Collusion

The documentaries on PBS are radicalizing me. What’s funny is that the ideas are hardly radical in our recent history.

Taking away people’s homes is bad.
Genocide is bad.
Apartheid is bad.
Fascism is bad.

#PBS #radicalization #AntiFascist #AntiGenocide

The damage will be enduring, and not just material
Pre-Teen Terrorists: FBI’s New Target “We are increasingly concerned about the radicalization of minors,” government report says. Fascist dipshits own the entire radicalization pipeline 🤦🏽 #Preteen #terrorism #LOL #GOPLiesAboutEverything #radicalization www.kenklippenstein.com/p/pre-teen-t...

Pre-Teen Terrorists: FBI’s New...
Pre-Teen Terrorists: FBI’s New Target

“We are increasingly concerned about the radicalization of minors,” government report says.

Ken Klippenstein