The federal government must fund the de-programming of white supremacists and conspiracy theorists, Rep. Said. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Friday night.
“The white supremacy case is pointless, it’s nihilistic,” AOC, a Democrat representing parts of The Bronx and Queens, said at a virtual town hall rally on Friday night.
“Their world will never exist. That’s why we now see violence. She said in the wake of the violent siege of the Capitol by radical supporters of President Trump.
“We have to get those pieces.”
Ocasio-Cortez said the Civil Rights Subcommittee of the House she belongs to has held hearings on white supremacy for the past two years and said there are programs to “ de-radicalize ” brainwashed adherents.
But she said funding was not a priority for those programs during the Trump years.
“There are now people who have been radicalized. It will take a lot of time to de-radicalize these people and put in a lot of effort, ”she said.
“This is a problem that will not go away on January 20,” the congressman said, referring to when Trump will leave the White House and be succeeded by President-elect Joe Biden.
She said many fringe radicals operate in a “false information bubble” and it takes more than one conversation to de-program and compare them to therapy.
But, she said, research has shown that “a cure is possible.”
“We need to double, triple, or quadruple funding for these programs,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
AOC said there is a spectrum of radicalization that ranges from sympathizers to conspiracy theorists to neo-Nazis. Such a radical ideology could lead to violence and domestic terrorism.
She said the conspiracy theory falsely pushed by Trump that the election was stolen from him radicalized his supporters who raided the Capitol last week, leading to violence and the deaths of five people. AOC said she felt her life was under threat.