Two recent school shootings are highlighting what extremism researchers see as a growing—and poorly understood—trend among young people who embrace mass violence.
The attacks, at high schools in Madison, Wis., and Nashville, Tenn., defy categories that law enforcement and researchers have long used to understand radicalization pathways, such as radical Islamist terrorism and white nationalist terrorism. Instead, some researchers say these attacks are examples of “nonideological” terrorism. They say these attacks appear to be the result of several antisocial, decentralized, online networks coming together in ways that encourage and inspire younger children to commit atrocities.
“It’s really about that violence for the sake of violence,” said Matthew Kriner, managing director of the Accelerationism Research Consortium. “There is a growth of intention and design within certain subcultures and subnetworks to inculcate that belief into younger people.”
Read more at NPR.
