Youth Practitioners Can Counter Fascism: What We Know and What We Need

Abstract

Fascist, White nationalist, and misogynist groups are actively recruiting adolescent followers both online and in person. Youth development practitioners can play an important role in mitigating the influence of fascist ideologies on young people’s behavior and reducing the proliferation of youth-perpetrated harassment and violence. In this paper, we present a theoretical integration that draws on empirical research from multiple disciplines and youth development best practices to examine how youth practitioners can counter fascist recruitment of youth. There is much that youth development researchers and practitioners already know and do, or have the capacity to learn and do, that can mitigate the threat of fascist recruitment and deter young people from developmental trajectories leading them towards harmful ideologies and actions. In order to support youth development practitioners in effectively embodying this potential, we detail 3 sets of activities: (a) immunizing youth to reduce susceptibility to fascist recruitment, (b) intervening in fascist recruitment of specific youth, and (c) counter-recruiting youth into community organizing for social justice. For each set of activities, we describe the goals of each component, propose concrete actions it may entail, and highlight existing research and best practices in the field that can be applied to this current challenge. We then propose next steps in research–practice integration to further improve relevant strategies and point to existing resources for supporting youth in resisting fascist recruitment.

The Subtle Spread of Hateful Memes: Examining Engagement Intentions Among Parents of Adolescents

“…To date, alt-right actors have been effective in shifting the Overton window toward accepting increasingly overt hateful messaging (Daniels, 2018). This line of research builds on the theory of resisting far-right recruitment posed by Arbeit et al (2020). Arbeit et al (2020) highlighted the importance of adults explaining to youth the threats of far-right recruitment, which should include explaining how far-right groups, such as the alt-right, use social media to gain followers.…”

“…The alt-right further creates conspiracy theories that blame Jewish people, political correctness, and multiculturalism for current social problems, which bolster their White victimhood narratives (Sunshine, 2017). These conspiracy theories and victimization narratives construct a web of lies used to bring followers further into alt-right spaces online (Arbeit et al, 2020; Wong et al, 2015). Although often subtle, the recurrent patterns in this web of lies may be apparent in alt-right content, if a person knew what to look for.…”

“…To date, there is little empirical research about pathways of far-right youth recruitment or whether or how youth recruitment pathways differ from those of adults. While Arbeit et al (2020) propose a theoretical model for how adults may be able to prevent or intervene in possible youth recruitment pathways, there are no data published thus far evaluating this model. Media literacy is a potential component of this model as online users do not need to look intentionally for far-right content in order to be exposed to it.…”

“…Someone may be interested in video games or searching for dating advice and look to social media influencers or YouTube videos. What seems at first like reasonable advice could lead the user to veiled conspiracy theories or racist White supremacist mythologies that manipulate users, particularly youth, into sympathizing with far-right groups (Arbeit et al, 2020; Marwick & Lewis, 2017; Ribeiro et al, 2019). Thus, more research is needed on the skills that could help parents help youth resist online recruitment pathways, such as New Media Literacy (NML) skills.…”

Journal of Youth Development’s Stance on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access

“…We encourage you to read and share our articles. For example, in this issue alone I would highlight Recent publications address indigenous identity (Farella et al, 2021), LGBTQ+ inclusion (Rand et al, 2021), critical consciousness (Gonzalez et al, 2020), Black family engagement (Case, 2020), the Thrive model though an equity lens (Fields, 2020), Latinx adolescents' peer ethnic discrimination (Ma et al, 2020) countering fascism (Arbeit et al, 2020), Black families' reactions to socialization interventions (Anderson et al, 2020) and leading with youth of color (Clemons, 2020).…”