True equality is the antidote to extremism
It was another one of those online videos, the kind the world has come to expect with weary repugnance. The video starts with ominous looking centaurs flashing on the screen with blazing fire and pictures of small children being victimized. The video’s narrator talks about what is forbidden and how Satan worshipping elites are trying to extract a substance from helpless young children because they use it as a recreational drug and elixir. The video encourages viewers to join the cause and hunt down these “infidels.”
This was not some run-of-the-mill display of wanton hatred captured on a shaky, low-definition cellphone. It was a high-end production, shot in super-HD on state-ofthe-art cameras like an episode of “Dateline.”
No, this wasn’t an ISIS video from the Middle East. It was allegedly produced in a basement outside Little Rock, Ark. Last week, U.S. intelligence agencies released new data showing that domestic violent extremism poses the biggest threat to our national security.
The man, a trending QAnon propagator, dominates the underground QAnon world. His raw numbers probably understate his influence. His ideas somehow infiltrate most popular social media platforms, and legions of young people adhere to him. In fact, the QAnon “Shaman” Jake Angeli was inspired by watching his videos. Spoiler alert: Although the video maker wasn’t arrested for the Capitol insurrection, many of his followers, like Angeli, were.
Believe it or not, part of this video producer’s schtick is that he wants to restore the Constitution. The irony is thick. Throughout the history of the West, the words “all men are created equal” have rung hollow and worthless in the face of slavery, segregation and rampant racism. Just a few years after those words were written, laws were implemented that deemed African Americans as three-fifths of a person. Even after Emancipation, the Jim Crow era segregated society and treated African Americans as second-class citizens. We continue to see inequalities that stem from our history. The phrase “all men are created equal” was the original Big Lie.
The viewpoint that says “I am better than you, and God created me that way” breeds extremism and historical violence — whether it’s in the lynchings of the South or the breach of the Capitol.
In the Middle East, there is a similar Big Lie. Islam’s founding principle is the equality of all men — a revolutionary claim made by the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia 1,400 years ago. He challenged the hierarchical tribal system at the heart of Arabian culture. Over the past century, modern monarchies and dictatorships were established across the Middle East, separating centuries-old tribal communities, displacing millions as refugees and creating strong, oppressive centralized states. When oil was struck in the sands of the Middle East, those who happened to be in power enriched themselves and their tribal compatriots, leaving many of their countrymen behind.
There was no way to reconcile the foundational principle of equality with the monarchies and dictatorships that seized power and wealth. In order to mask their hypocrisy, they funded state religion apparatuses to point the finger at others. While the rich became richer, the poor were fed propaganda instead of bread.
Most saw through the propaganda, but others bought into it. As the masses started to demand the equality they were promised, others joined extremist groups that reassured them that systemic inequities are justifiable, even natural. Conspiracy theories are food for minds that hunger for meaning in a world of absurd inequity that promises equality.
Whether it’s Little Rock or Baghdad, extremist groups target emotionally vulnerable youth through social media. They feed them with wild accusations of pedophile cannibals, or satanic infidels, that control your country or occupy your land. These groups form most easily online, where virtual communities suck followers into an alternate universe where superiority complexes are glorified, and “others” are demonized. They promise belonging and make vulnerable people feel powerful. Worse, they teach followers how to organize, gather resources and participate in violence.
The antidote to extremism is within the vial of equality. We must not just say that we’re equal, we must act that way. We must govern that way. And we must share our planet’s resources in that way. The role of leaders — whether in the U.S., Europe or the Middle East — is to live the value of equality contained in our constitutional documents and etched into our religious traditions. And it is to take a firm stand against those who blatantly contradict that self-evident truth.
For too long, people have been falsely promised a world “where all men are created equal.” The cause of extremism is the perpetuation of this Big Lie. The cure for extremism is to make it true.