For A.M. Hickman, it was reading Ted Kaczynski\u2019s manifesto online when he was 13. Soon he was posting to survivalist message boards. By age 21, he was on Reddit, moderating one of the internet\u2019s largest forums advocating for \u201cliberation” from the government, capitalism and other systems members saw as oppressive.<\/p>\n
While the two young men fell into very different internet rabbit holes\u2014one with alt-right leanings and the other on the far left\u2014they were both drawn by a desire to find belonging and a yearning, they say, for the hero\u2019s journey. For both, the result was depression and loneliness.<\/p>\n
They each sought out ideas and experiences that elude many young men in an age some see as one of helicopter parenting and so-called toxic masculinity. For decades, schools have cut shop class, as well as recess and other programs that mental-health experts say give boys an outlet for their energy. The American Psychological Association reported that boys often receive more severe punishment than girls in school for the same behaviors. And there are fewer male teachers now than in the 1980s, according to the American Institute for Boys and Men.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoyhood now is a void. The thrilling extremist ideas you find on the internet become your surrogate boyhood adventure,” said Hickman, now 31.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s conspiracy theories, misogyny or political extremism, the rabbit holes\u2014or pipelines\u2014that lure teenage boys and young men are vast. Studies show males are disproportionately vulnerable to online extremism in one form or another. And psychologists say these pathways, for both right-wing and left-wing ideology, can end in violence.<\/p>\n
The shooting death of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was allegedly committed by a 22-year-old man, who authorities say had spent considerable time online growing political and left-leaning over the past year.<\/p>\n
On the same day Kirk was killed, a 16-year-old boy shot classmates at a Colorado high school before killing himself. Law-enforcement officials said the boy was immersed in online groups that expressed white supremacist ideologies.<\/p>\n
\u2018Why does the world suck?\u2019<\/p>\n
Dangerous online forums usually appeal to young men who are already struggling, said Joni Johnston, a forensic psychologist in San Diego who evaluates adolescent and young-adult offenders in the juvenile justice system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese groups are meeting the needs of many young men that aren\u2019t being met elsewhere,” she said. \u201cThey provide a sense of identity, camaraderie, power and control, and unfortunately it\u2019s often around hate.”<\/p>\n
Hickman\u2019s pursuit of anticapitalist ideals was born out of a childhood in rural upstate New York spent in poverty, with exposure to drug use and abuse. His late mother, he says, was a heroin addict.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got mad and asked, \u2018Why does the world suck?\u2019” he said.<\/p>\n
Researching anarchy led him to believe that the world couldn\u2019t be fair unless protections for the wealthy classes were abolished.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went into Reddit to find others who had experienced things analogous to what I\u2019d experienced,” he said. \u201cWhen you find other people who understand, you go, \u2018Let\u2019s talk about it,\u2019 and then it becomes \u2018Maybe we should blow up this dam or shoplift Kenny Chesney CDs and sell them.\u2019 It gets crazy quickly.”<\/p>\n
A Reddit spokesperson said the company has removed thousands of hateful communities in recent years and that the platform is home to numerous communities that provide support for men on a range of topics.<\/p>\n
\u201cA healthy online community is core to Reddit, which is why we flatly prohibit hateful content or inciting, encouraging, glorifying and calling for violence,” the spokesperson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve continually strengthened these policies over time and introduced new tools to enforce them across our platform.”<\/p>\n
Hickman put his ideas into practice by dropping out of society for eight years. He led a nomadic life, hitchhiking and shoplifting to get by, and living in off-the-grid encampments like one in Slab City, Calif.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when he saw that the reality of anarchy didn\u2019t match the fantasy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw botched vigilante justice, tons of heroin and fentanyl use and sexual depravity,” he said. Living conditions were filthy, and he lost half a dozen friends to overdoses.<\/p>\n
He was reminded of a line from \u201cNo Country for Old Men,” Cormac McCarthy\u2019s novel: \u201cIf the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?”<\/p>\n
Hickman decided to forge a new, more disciplined path, and joined the Coast Guard in 2019. During many lonely months in Covid quarantine, he began praying. He returned to his Catholic roots and eschewed many former beliefs.<\/p>\n
He is now a writer in upstate New York who makes a living from his Substack, \u201cHickman\u2019s Hinterlands.” He and his wife recently had a baby.<\/p>\n
\u2018Meaning and purpose\u2019<\/p>\n
Kiracofe can\u2019t recall the video that YouTube suggested to him 10 years ago, but he says it led him to the \u201ctruther” movement. This loosely organized community discusses how official accounts of major events and disasters like 9\/11 and Covid are smokescreens for hidden agendas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t isolated, I wasn\u2019t a shut-in. I played soccer and did a lot of art,” said Kiracofe, who grew up in a Christian, but not religiously strict, household in Van Wert, Ohio.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of young men are looking for meaning and purpose,” he added. \u201cThose videos made the world seem like it was something I didn\u2019t know it could be.”<\/p>\n
His exposure to conspiracy culture soon left him feeling depressed. He watched videos about the coming of the Antichrist and a New World Order, and feared for doomsday.<\/p>\n
He said his parents didn\u2019t know what was on his mind. \u201cIt felt embarrassing to talk about,” he said.<\/p>\n
The YouTubers he followed\u2014and the people in the comments sections\u2014also shared viewpoints on other social issues. They villainized transgender people, for instance.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet\u2019s Google, said the platform has been working to elevate authoritative voices, such as mainstream news outlets, in search results and on YouTube\u2019s Watch Next panels. YouTube has also worked to limit repetitive recommendations of certain content categories to teens.<\/p>\n
The spokeswoman also cited several independent studies which found that YouTube\u2019s algorithm has successfully steered viewers away from politically sensitive or harmful content and toward entertainment-focused videos.<\/p>\n
When Kiracofe was 17, he met the trans brother of his then-girlfriend and began to question his assumptions. \u201cIt\u2019s so much easier to humanize someone when you have an interaction with them,” he said.<\/p>\n
As he got older, traveled more and met new and different kinds of people, Kiracofe shed more beliefs he had formed inside the conspiracy cocoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beliefs themselves instilled loneliness,” he said.<\/p>\n
Extremist online communities at times encourage members to stay isolated, said Travis Jenkins, another young man who fell into a rabbit hole of misogyny and racism.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you ever talk about trying to improve yourself or to ask a girl out, they will lash out and tell you it\u2019s not worth it,” Jenkins said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Full of emotional suffering\u2019<\/p>\n
Jenkins said he was \u201cred pilled”\u2014a term from \u201cThe Matrix” that encompasses a range of often far-right and anti-feminist ideologies shared online\u2014while in high school. He became argumentative.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought people wouldn\u2019t listen to me because they didn\u2019t want to acknowledge I\u2019m right, but it was really people just didn\u2019t want to spend their time and energy dealing with me,” he said.<\/p>\n
Travis Jenkins, who became engulfed in anti-feminist ideology online, is now trying to help other men emerge from internet rabbit holes.<\/p>\n
Like Kiracofe, Jenkins\u2019s convictions softened as he encountered more diverse people. Now 35 and living with his girlfriend in Sacramento, he spends much of his internet time on Reddit trying to help young \u201cincels”\u2014the \u201cinvoluntarily celibate” men who blame women for their plight.<\/p>\n
The Reddit spokesperson said the company banned incel-related communities in 2017, but allows a support community for men trying to exit incel culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know they say a lot of awful things, but their life is full of emotional suffering,” Jenkins said.<\/p>\n
Today, Kiracofe works in a factory. He has been deconstructing his prior beliefs on his TikTok account, including a video he posted in August. After Charlie Kirk\u2019s killing, his video surged in views to more than 850,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe the Kirk situation has made a lot of people aware of how people engage online,” Kiracofe said. \u201cBelieving yourself immune to these types of pipelines is probably the first step to falling down something similar.”<\/p>\n
Write to Julie Jargon at Julie.Jargon@wsj.com and Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For A.M. Hickman, it was reading Ted Kaczynski\u2019s manifesto online when he was 13. Soon he was posting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[114450,64,63,54203,237,114448,114449,105,77184],"class_list":{"0":"post-176721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-anti-feminist-ideology","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-conspiracy-theories","12":"tag-internet","13":"tag-online-extremism","14":"tag-reddit-communities","15":"tag-technology","16":"tag-toxic-masculinity"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}