Post-Pandemic Society and the Violent Extremism and Conspiracy Belief Nexus
Post-Pandemic Society and the Violent Extremism and Conspiracy Belief Nexus

Author(s): Martin Innes
Subject(s): Government/Political systems, Security and defense, Politics and society, Sociology of Politics
Published by: NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence
Keywords: pandemic; extremism; Covid-19; violent protests; anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown protests; anti-mask protests;
Summary/Abstract: The history of pandemics teaches us they have deep ‘downstream’ consequences with a capacity and capability to induce profound new patterns of social organisation and order. Initial indicators of what some effects of the coronavirus global health pandemic might be include changing how and where we work, and our increased dependency on information communication technologies. For the moment, however, our vantage point renders it hard to forecast what these impacts might be exactly. One emergent trend that warrants urgent and close attention involves a shift in the ideologies and conduct of violent extremism. Specifically, there appears to be an increasingly troubling blurring and blending of ideas and groups possessing far-right proclivities among adherents of conspiracy theories.

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