Nazi Symbols and Racist Memes: Combating School Intolerance – By Neil MacFarquhar (New York Times) / Nov 24 2019
BEAVERTON, Ore. — An 18-year-old senior at Battle Ground High School in Washington State was immersed in a fighting video game with a couple of online friends in March when news broke about a violent shooter targeting New Zealand mosques.
© Kristina Barker for The New York Times Some schools in Oregon are using a guide for teachers to spot signs of white nationalist ideology and potentially at-risk students.
The three friends, including one in Virginia and another in Britain, often frequented the chat platform Discord while playing Melty Blood, their favorite game. Sometimes they dabbled in extremist material — like videos claiming that Jews control America — that white supremacists have propagated via Discord in recent years, the senior explained.
Intrigued by the attack, they quickly found the gunman’s lengthy manifesto and an Instagram account that appeared to be his, so the senior dashed off a message in the jargon of white supremacists. “WAR IS ON THE HORIZON WE SHALL NOT LOSE WE SHALL SURVIVE,” he wrote, according to a screenshot.
Much to their astonishment, an answer popped up within 15 minutes: “This is my final message, this is my farewell.” Soon afterward, the account went dark.
“I did make a stupid decision,” the senior later said in an interview, thinking, at the time, “Oh, God, I just messaged the shooter!”
The Battle Ground student, who asked to remain anonymous, never committed violence. But his activity drew the attention of authorities, including the F.B.I., according to a law enforcement official. His experience on Discord is just one example of how vulnerable adolescents can easily access and become targets of extremist material on the internet.
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