Right-Wing Extremism
Introduction
# Young People and Right-Wing Extremism
Traditional Right-Wing Extremism
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For some time now, the Internet has been a main tool of neo-Nazis/right-wing extremists for recruiting new members. Various means and methods are used, but fascination with violence is always a starting point. Young people, many of whom have frequently been confronted with violence in their everyday lives (e.g., in their families), are attracted by symbols of absolute power (e.g., the swastika) and by hate songs performed by bands with such typical names as »Zillertaler Türken-jäger« (Zillertal Turk Hunters) or »Landser« (The WWII Privates). The next stage is massive ideological indoctrination, which allows the young people to view their hatred of all things foreign and different as justified. The perceived certainty that is offered by right-wing worldviews is an additional factor: there are no more contradictions but clean-cut distinctions between »good« and »evil«, between »us« and »them.« Early adolescence, an age of extreme uncertainty, is the most receptive phase for such ideological offers.


 

 
Meeting of Austrian and German right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis (2002)
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Meeting of Austrian and German right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis on 13 April 2002 on the Heldenplatz in Vienna as a protest against the exhibition »Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941–1944.«


Young People and Right-Wing Extremism