Dictionary

self-radicalize en · VERB

Etymology

From self- + radicalize.

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To become radical without outside influence.
   • It is unfortunate that this otherwise thoughtful analysis repeats (several times) the new favored explanation by Western terrorism analysts that those who self-radicalize and commit acts of violence on behalf of the global jihad are mostly just “unstable people who are at the end of their rope,” or “social misfits” on the “fringes of society,” all simply looking to die “for a cause.” 2016 July 25, Stuart Gottlieb, “Not All Terrorists Are Deranged Misfits”, in The New York Times:
   • When a young Muslim man, self-radicalized online, kills in the name of Islamist ideology, we have no trouble calling him a terrorist and connecting him with groups like ISIS. When a young white man, similarly self-radicalized, kills in the name of racist ideology — even when he publishes a manifesto to that effect — we tend to call him disturbed. 2019 May 8, Ali H. Soufan, “I Spent 25 Years Fighting Jihadis. White Supremacists Aren’t So Different.”, in The New York Times:
   • Within hours of the report that Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a Somali-born Ohio State University student, had plowed into innocent bystanders with a car and then sliced others with a butcher knife, Representative Adam Schiff issued a statement, observing that the attacker “may have been self-radicalized.” 2016 June 12, Jack Hitt, “We Don’t Talk About ‘Radicalization’ When an Attacker Isn’t Muslim. We Should.”, in The New York Times Magazine:

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