The federal government must fund the deprogramming of white supremacists and conspiracy theorists, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Friday night.
“The white supremacist cause is useless, it’s nihilistic,” AOC, a Democrat representing parts of the Bronx and Queens, said during a virtual town hall meeting Friday night.
“His world will never exist. That’s why we’re seeing violence right now, ”he said, speaking in the wake of the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol by radical supporters of President Trump.
“We have to pick up these pieces.”
Ocasio-Cortez said the House civil rights subcommittee where he has held hearings for the previous two years on white supremacy and said there are programs to “deradicalize” brainwashed adherents.
But he said funding was not a priority for these programs during the Trump years.
“Some people are radicalized right now. It will take a long time to eradicate these people and make a lot of effort, ”he said.
“This is a problem that doesn’t go away on January 20,” the congresswoman said, referring to when Trump leaves the White House and is succeeded by President-elect Joe Biden.
He said many marginal radicals operate in a “disinformation bubble” and it will take more than one conversation to deprogram them, compared to therapy.
But, he said, research has shown that “healing is possible.”
“We need to double, triple or quadruple funding for these programs,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The AOC said there is a spectrum of radicalization ranging from sympathizers to conspiracy theorists, to neo-Nazis. This radical ideology could lead to domestic violence and terrorism.
He said the conspiracy theory misled by Trump that robbed him of the election radicalized his supporters who invaded the Capitol last week, causing violence and the death of five people. AOC said it felt its life was threatened.