Name: Tiffany Palapo

Social Justice Group: 2022-2023, Technology: Online Radicalization

Date of Fieldwork: January 20, 2023

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Patrick Riccards, CEO of Life After Hate

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

At 12:30 on January 20th, my group mates and I got on a google meeting with Patrick Riccards in Kalil’s office. Patrick is the CEO of an organization called ‘Life After Hate’. LAH is a nonprofit organization that focuses on helping former extremists get rid of their hate and help them to lead a more compassionate life.

Patrick is the first CEO of LAH to not have been a former extremist, so getting his perspective on things was insightful. We spoke to him about a range of things, from how he became interested in his field of work to how social media plays a role in radicalization. One of the many things I learned from him is why it can be challenging for extremists/supremacists to go through the process of healing/becoming a new person. First of all, they’d have to accept that they’re at fault not only to others but also to themselves, the process is really only beneficial if one truly believes that they were horrible and they were not doing the right things. Second, it’s the fear of going back to a normal life, one that is not decided by someone other than themself. Recruited supremacists are essentially in a cult, they’re whole life is dictated by their ‘leader’, their words are manipulated, their actions monitored and their thoughts processed; so going back to a life that is led only by themselves can apparently become really frightening.

I’ve learned many other things from Patrick, things that will definitely benefit me and my group’s project. From talking with Patrick, we’ve also been giving ideas of who to talk to and what to visit, allowing us more opportunities to learn and educate ourselves.