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Demo against the corona protective measures in Munich (in May)
Photo: Sven Hoppe / picture alliance / dpa
A short video clip, a man chats mockingly in the S-Bahn about his corona confrontation with the police.
Meanwhile, something is happening, initially in the background, that one has to look at several times in order to assess the scope and malice.
A squad of corona deniers is devastating a family, including a possibly 13-year-old girl.
"Mask off! Mask off! Mask off!"
they scream, mostly men.
Several from the Wutchor are filming the family with a striking smartphone.
The girl has to cover her ears and is clearly intimidated.
The screams get louder and louder.
A mixture of hatred, condescension and joyful confidence reveals itself.
Those who insist on "freedom of expression" and recognition of their beliefs for themselves at every opportunity impose their position on others, shouting, in a group, addressed to a teenage girl.
Hell, that's brave.
The protesters believe they stand for skeptical consideration and critical enlightenment.
In fact, however, many corona deniers are going through a pandemic real-time radicalization that has never been seen before.
It can be recognized not only in such situations, but also in the leading figures of the scene.
The anti-Semite, vegan chef and QAnon brand ambassador Attila Hildmann had already described the Pergamon Altar on Berlin's Museum Island as the throne of Satan in August.
Children would be sacrificed there.
Angela Merkel lives across the street, that has to be enough as final evidence.
In early October, an attack was carried out on around 70 works of art there, including the altar, which is a World Heritage Site.
A fire attack was carried out on the Robert Koch Institute on October 25th.
There is a screenshot, probably from Attila Hildmann's Telegram channel, on which the words could be read a few weeks earlier: "Oh, suppose the RKI would burn down. How well would we sleep that night ???" .
To make the extent of the radicalization a little more vivid: Hildmann is now warning of the "extinction of the Aryan race".
Extremism expert Olaf Sundermeyer observed the Corona protesters from the start.
Over the summer he saw calls for lynching, the emergence of a traveling protest circus, and civil war narratives at the demonstrations.
According to Sundermeyer, these live events in particular are an essential part of radicalization: "The police's reluctance to act fills them with a strong sense of self-empowerment that grows with every comparable demonstration event and every flash mob."
It is just as clear, however, that lightning radicalization takes place in and with social media.
One must not assume that the corona deniers or "lateral thinkers" are a constant grouping, the movement in summer 2020 was something different than it was in autumn 2020, among other things because it is now literally riddled with ideas from the conspiracy ideology "QAnon".
Theses therefore explicitly follow that must be examined more closely and confirmed or falsified.
I now consider three essential elements to be decisive for answering this question:
Why do corona deniers radicalize so quickly?
1. Emotional evidence
Aaron T. Beck is 99 years old, is considered the father of cognitive behavioral therapy and can help us understand the basis of radicalization.
He described the cognitive distortion called "Emotional Reasoning", in German "Emotional Evidence".
One regards one's own feelings as proof of the correctness of assertions.
In terms of Corona, this means something like: "I don't feel comfortable with a mask, so it is harmful."
I now consider emotional evidence to be the most important mechanism of movement, because feelings can be contagious through social media.
Because this is exactly what social media was built for, the viral spread of "engagement", as one describes the mostly emotionally tinged participation in the noise of the internet.
When one is afraid, there is
definitely
a reason to be afraid.
If you feel that something is wrong, then
something
is
wrong.
Feeling angry
is
evidence that something is going wrong and that someone has to be responsible.
The radicalized figures in the S-Bahn feel threatened by masks as a symbol of the reactions to the pandemic - and because they see this as evidence of an actual threat, they are counter-attacking.
The core of the lightning radicalization seems to me that corona deniers fight the worldwide uncertainty, the lack of knowledge and the absence of practiced ways of dealing with the pandemic by turning their feelings into facts.
This is monstrous and hardly excusable, but it doesn't make it any less important to understand how radicalization actually works.
2. Distortion blindness
Also a cognitive bias is bias blindness, and it connects directly to the emotional argument.
It means, for example, that you consider yourself to be hardly influenced or not at all.
The constant calls to finally "wake up" are a sign of this.
With this brief request, a world is constructed in which there are only two perspectives: the wrong one for those who are still asleep and the right one when one has finally woken up - in other words: no longer follows the supposed lies of the "mainstream".
The distortion blindness is thus the preliminary stage of the attitude that there is only one single, clear, unambiguous truth that belongs to one's own group.
All interpretations, opinions, ambiguities and even discussions are distractions from the pure truth.
"A conversation presupposes that the other person could be right," said the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer.
You can (perhaps) briefly see that he unfortunately only used the masculine form and can then recognize from the quote: Anyone who speaks of "waking up" has no interest in a conversation, but just wants to convince of their own position without any alternative.
Which in turn as dogmatism is one of the basic patterns of radicalization.
3. Confusion and overreaction
The third radicalization mechanism - unfortunately - does not only affect the heads of the corona deniers.
Even if that is not the most pleasant explanation for the enlightened public.
Humanity is only just beginning to understand corona and its pandemic.
For many contexts, little or no data exist so far.
Because scientific knowledge is not a linear process that is easily comprehensible for laypeople, a knowledge vacuum arises: the great corona perplexity.
The public needs more knowledge, clarity and clarity than is available.
Radicalization also arises because this knowledge vacuum can be filled so easily, quickly and clearly.
People find it difficult to cope with uncertainty, especially in times of crisis.
In my opinion, however, political and media overreactions can also fuel radicalization.
A current example comes from Karl Lauterbach, omnipresent Corona explainer, who for the most part does a good and important job as an educator against the pandemic perplexity.
But now he has seriously suggested that the inviolability of the apartment for corona checks be softened or even suspended.
Even if he is now trying to recapture this and apparently feels misunderstood: Such and similar approaches, which are extremely questionable in terms of fundamental rights, can literally function as a fire accelerator of radicalization - because they are themselves radical.
Lauterbach's statement basically stands for the abandonment of the weighing up of which measures are appropriate and which are not.
This departure from the democratic principle of proportionality can have a fatal effect on people who may not be corona deniers, but who look at government action in general with a certain skepticism.
You will find your understandable consternation perfectly absorbed by corona deniers: We will not accept that!
And the first emotional bridge to movement has been built.
The impression that politics is acting in a draconian way and without sufficient explanation of the restrictions is probably a good starting point for radicalization.
In extremely abnormal times, people lose a sense of normalcy.
That may sound banal, but everyday normality is an important and effective tool for moderation because it shows what you can and cannot do without great compliance.
Without Corona, it seems certain to me, the group on the S-Bahn would hardly have bothered a young girl.
Corona deniers are another example of the dangerous radicalism of people in extreme situations.
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