Understanding Radicalization and Violence

Extract

[...] Another example of radicalization can be radicalization at the religious level. Indeed, those known as Islamist terrorists are willing to die themselves in kamikaze actions and kill hundreds or thousands of innocents through mass shootings or attacks. We can cite as an initial example the collapse of the Twin Towers in the United States or the Bataclan attack in France. The question of a reversibility of their radicalization is seriously raised and one can doubt it, even if one can find certain examples of terrorists saying they have come back from their ideas. [...]

[...] To do this, they are ready to vandalize slaughterhouses or even butcher shops. They too can find the legitimation of their violence by justifying that their violence is always less scandalous than the one inflicted on animals. These activists denounce the "specism" of meat eaters who believe in the superiority of human beings in the hierarchy of living beings. We have therefore been able to consider how radicalization associates with violence in that it is a matter of not making concessions to what one is fighting, whether in political, religious, or ideological opposition. [...]

[...] One can be radicalized politically or in religion, among other things. Does this radicalization necessarily accompany violence by aggression towards oneself or others, towards the public domain, etc.? On the other hand, is this radicalization necessarily irreversible or can one be in some way a 'repentant' of radicalization and adopt a more moderate point of view and attitude? We will try to think about this subject by looking at different examples. From a political point of view, we have seen in recent times during social protests known as the 'yellow vests' that the 'black bloc' group gathered at the periphery. [...]