Media recommendations about MRA culture

October 13, 2019 2:14 PM

I was recently very interested and moved by reading “Stories About my Brother” by Prachi Gupta (thanks Countess Elena for sharing on the blue!). I’ve had similar but less extreme experiences with a family member getting into MRA culture, and realized I’d like to read more about it and especially about deradicalization and how people have left that subculture or similar subcultures. Looking for books, podcasts and research articles in particular!

Some things I’ve interacted with and liked
- Natalie Wynn’s ContraPoints videos (quite a few on related topics)
- Invisibilia episode “The End of Empathy,” philosophizes about empathy through the story of a guy who left incel culture

I’m interested in the psychology of MRA culture and in solution-focused ideas and writing. Not sure how much there is about MRAs in particular, so I’m also interested in information about deradicalization with similar groups like neo-Nazis. Podcasts are most ideal, books and research are great too!

Thanks, y’all!

posted by switcheroo to Society & Culture (3 answers total)

Best answer: Racists Are Recruiting. Watch Your White Sons. (Joanna Schroeder, NYT Opinion)

‘Do you have white teenage sons? Listen up.’ How white supremacists are recruiting boys online. (Caitlin Gibson, WaPo) (via)

“This is a specific strategy of white nationalists and alt-right groups,” says Lindsay Schubiner, program director at the Western States Center, a nonprofit focused on social, economic, racial and environmental justice. Schubiner co-authored a tool kit published by the center this year that offers guidance to school officials and parents who are facing white-nationalist threats in their communities.

[...] “The more I clicked, the more I started to see memes about white supremacy,” Schroeder says, “and that’s what was really scary.” That pattern of escalation is familiar to Christian Picciolini, an author and former neo-Nazi who left the movement in 1996 and now runs the Free Radicals Project, which supports others who want to leave extremist movements.

posted by katra at 2:59 PM on October 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

I wonder if this might fit:

https://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/white-masculinity-toxic-trauma-20190424
posted by tilde at 4:26 PM on October 13, 2019

The blog We Hunted The Mammoth has lots of leads and resources on this issue.
posted by Mistress at 1:10 AM on October 14, 2019