I'll echo what AWP said. I had a friend who was a few years younger in high school. We went to a small private Christian school and she just never really fit in. She was quiet, nerdy, just didn't take really good care of herself and was socially awkward. I pretty much befriended anything with a pulse, so she was somebody I was cool with, whereas I was one of her best friends. She literally asked me to prom after I graduated, but I was out of the country at the time, so I set up a mutual friend to go with her cuz I felt bad lol.
Long story short, I ended up reaching back out to her years later via social media to see how she was doing. We spent a day together just kind of wandering around, checking out coffee spots and the like. She was a member of Antifa, so I got to meet some of those individuals during that day as we handed out food to the homeless at one of the bus stops. It was a very unique experience, and one I'm glad I participated.
My overall observations were as follows,
1.
Communist. Now, the variety of how to "enact revolution" differed greatly, but the core is literal communism.
Zero deviation.
2.
Outcasts. They were
all social misfits.
3.
Family Issues. Every single one that I interacted with had some form of family issue. Some severe, some more perceived.
4.
Non-Binary. A-sexual, Pan-sexual, you-name-it sexual. In essence, because they never fit in with "normal" society, they had to define themselves by being "other." But many of them still needed that communal sense of belonging, so they created new identities that were still unique, but had overlap with others in their newly formed group.
5.
Community. It was literally a community of misfits, but a true community nonetheless.
6.
Genuinely Believed they were targeted. The biggest issue was that they genuinely believed that Nazi's existed and wanted to exterminate them. As a result, otherwise non-violent individuals were willing to become violent or support violence in ways they otherwise would not. The justification was to protect their community.
I think the current issue is that, you have a group that genuinely (incorrectly) believes they are being targeted for extermination. Combine that with unresolved trauma, untreated mental disorders, hormones/other drugs, communist indoctrination, and it's the perfect storm.
Mentally, many of them believe they are on
death/desperate ground. I think that's why the suicide rate was always so high in those communities, since taking their own life seemed like the only way to escape the pain they were feeling. Recently, there has been a shift from just taking their own life, to having somebody else end their life while they try and kill as many of the most vulnerable as possible. I'm not sure what that catalyst was, but I expect this trend to continue.
Circling back, I do think most in the community are like my friend.
She wants to be left alone, but as the community
feels more threatened, I think they will more easily justify violence coming from their community, and that will negatively effect each of the individuals who make up said community by further radicalizing them.