This report argues that the understanding of ‘cults’ and online activity needs to be carefully nuanced; the complexities of online and offline activities that might result in violent extremism need to be analysed and risk assessed at the level of both group/social movement and individual. [...] The report argues that understandings of ‘cults’ and online activity need to be carefully nuanced; the complexities of online and offline activities should be risk assessed at the level of both group/social movement and the individual. [...] Important variables include the personal characteristics of an individual, the social structure of the group and the nature of its concerns, as well as the extent of social support external to the group and other traumatic or unsettling events for either a particular individual or wider society at any given time.10 It is important to keep in mind these complexities and the range of engagement in m. [...] Importantly that environment also encompassed ‘the collectivities, institutions, individuals, and media of communication associated with these beliefs’.22 It is important to note that understandings of ‘deviancy’ in relation to the mainstream is contingent upon the norms and moral values of the particular time period and changes over time; many of the groups and ideas that were considered ‘deviant. [...] For the purposes of articulating the second of three ideal types of activity involving cults and online extremism, we have selected the anti-vax and QAnon-related movements, which illustrate important aspects of conspirituality and the ‘online cultic milieu’.
- Pages
- 32
- Published in
- United Kingdom
