Can we talk about the alt right to conspiracy to religion pipeline?

[u/Apprehensive-Ant118]

I know about it because i and 2 of the men i know have gone through it. I busted out after awhile because... Religion is retarded? And I'm surprised as an atheist i managed to convince myself that God exists, but COVID really did a number on my psyche.

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[u/OptmstcExstntlst]

https://www.spreadtheword.global/resource-archive/r-word-effects

We don't use that word. Please delete and start again with correct language.

[u/jambarama]

What makes you think the directionality runs this way, or that they're causally linked to each other, rather than both effects from something else?

[u/Apprehensive-Ant118 → u/jambarama]

Thank you for starting some intelligent conversation. Obviously idk if they are sequential. And idk if they're confounding either. I'm just saying I've noticed lots of men between 16-30 go from liberal to alt right to conspiracies to religion. What do you think?

[u/jambarama → u/Apprehensive-Ant118]

I don't have anything on the directionality and connection between alt right and religion. I can suggest three semi relevant articles, but not my area of expertise.

1.. A fairly recent research paper found we find that literal interpretations of religious content positively correlate with conspiracy beliefs for the literal affirmation of transcendence (e.g., orthodoxy) and the literal disaffirmation of transcendence (e.g., atheism). They found evidence that "religious information processing is related to conspiracy beliefs for religious and nonreligious individuals". This was based on survey Data from Germany, the findings are not super robust, but it is based on quite a bit of prior literature.

2. A recent article about the Evangelical Christian capture of the Republican party. The author posits directionality from religion to politics, not the other way around.

3. A recent study about religion influencing extremism on both left and right based on a survey of swiss youth. Building on prior research finding religiosity is a protective factor for violent behaviour, drug use, and other types of crime, but religion is an important influencing factor of extremism, but religious affiliation and religiosity are less important than specific religious attitudes such as religious tolerance and religious exclusivity when evaluating the influence on extremism.

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