‘I was brainwashed by a Nazi as a child – now I worry for kids like me’
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The rise of the far-right has become mainstream, from so-called ‘manosphere’ influencers like Andrew Tate to the Netflix hit-series Adolescence, and it’s appealing to Britain’s young men and boys, as a YouGov poll reports that 1 in 6 boys have a positive outlook on Tate. These two examples share one thing in common – the digital world, a virtual space where young people are preyed upon as their vulnerability is exploited. But young men are still being exploited offline, as far-right groomers target young men within their communities.
The Mirror spoke exclusively with deradicalised far-right member, Tom*, who was groomed by the group as a child, with special insight into how he ended up down that path and how he sees the world now.
Years on since his radicalisation, he has renounced far-right ideologies and wishes to speak out about the grooming of children into extreme hate-filled groups. Tom says from the outset that he is “not an isolated case,” but part of a larger issue that is happening regularly. In an exclusive conversation, Tom discusses how he was groomed into the far-right, class A drugs, extremist ideologies, and coming out the other side.
Tom was only a schoolboy when he was first approached. He was the sort of child who regularly got into trouble in school. A turbulent at-home situation caused him to act out, so he was often scolded by teachers for his behaviour, with Tom explaining that he was “completely directionless in [his] life” at that point. It’s these cross-roads that far-right recruiters exploit, offering a path and a community that all young people are searching for.
Every kid dreams of fitting in, of finding their group who will support them through thick and thin. The far-right know this, and prey on boys looking for their community at a time in their lives that is, by nature of being a child, filled with natural insecurity in themselves. Tom says: “I never left my house thinking I’m going to seek out far-right ideologies. It was never an intentional thing to come across these beliefs”. But rather he “went looking for something and got the exact opposite of what [he] was looking for.”
But unlike Netflix’s Adolescence, Tom’s first-contact with a recruiter took place in person as opposed to online, and not by his peers, but an older man. The first meeting was a chance encounter that would go on to change the course of his life. Tom says that this man appeared charismatic. He brought Tom back to his house and gave him Class A drugs before indoctrinating him into his way of thinking.
Tom tells The Mirror that he was searching for community at a difficult period in his life when he met the person who would recruit him into the far-right. “For the majority of knowing this person I just felt like I had just a mate who was interested in my life,” he says. “I was just under the impression I’ve just got these mates who were real [and] they like me.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/i-brainwashed-nazi-child-now-35051865.
