this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025
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Far-right extremists using games platforms to radicalise teenagers, report warns (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 day ago by LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/world@lemmy.world
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Parents advised to be vigilant over summer holidays to risk of offenders using in-game live chats to target their children

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[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 84 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Bruh as someone who used to play a lot of video games this article is 15 years too late. I remember neo nazis attempting to recruit me as a teenager in the early 2010s and they were not subtle. This shit is why we're losing the war against fascism, the so-called "experts" don't even know where the war is being waged and don't even show up to the fight.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think i have seen articles like this also 15 years ago. I also remember tv "documentaries" about "killer games" in Germany from almost 20 years ago, where they tried to paint everyone playing FPS games as Nazis too. One argument was that there is call of duty mods that allow to show the original graphics, where WW2 Nazis have swastikas on their uniform, which have been censored in the German version.

Extremists trying to recruit teenagers has been an issue since forever. As the "space" where teenagers spend their time moved online, so did the recruiting efforts.

The problem is real, but it should not be tied to games, or to rock music or to sports or to any particular hobby. It is a problem encompassing all of society. Parents need to talk with their children and know what is going on in their lives.

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

I agree on one hand, but I also feel like video games and other online spaces are kind of unique because parents don't really think about their kids having one on one conversations with adults on them. If your kid is going outside they are mostly talking to other kids and not other adults. If an adult in your kid's life IRL starts telling them Hitler was right you will probably catch wind of that much more easily than if it's online. If a guy on an obscure medieval combat simulation game starts telling your kid Hitler was right (not a hypothetical - this happened to me as a teen and thankfully I saw through what was happening) you're probably not going to even know about it unless you're really engaged with your kid and what they're getting into. I agree that's on the parents but a lot of the kids these guys are resonating with are the ones whose parents aren't particularly engaged with them or what they're doing. I think there's nothing wrong with acknowledging that this does happen and is an intentional strategy from the far right, and I think trying to pretend that there isn't a problem that is specific to games and the broader gaming community is harmful.

[–] b_tr3e@feddit.org 4 points 22 hours ago

Because it's a typical silly season article. Sure, the problem exists, but it's neither new nor is this the first time somebody mentions it. It is just one of these topics that will get warmed up when there's not too much else to write about. Actually, there are enough other problems to write about but these are difficult, need thought and research, eat resources and are political minefields. So it's cheaper to bring up a safe topic for the tenth time without telling anything new.
The whole "spoiling the youth" thing is as old as media and older - Sokrates might want to have word if he were allowed to.

[–] Ziggurat@jlai.lu 40 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's crazy how much right wing became able to influence kids, and making nazi cool again. Because of course if a teen worries that your parent may be evicted or a young adult can't find a job, it's the fault of immigrants and feminist, not at all because of capitalism

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 23 hours ago

It helps that public education has been gutted, so they don't understand just how despicable they are for associating with Nazis.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The oligarchs who finance the content, media, news, and information the vast majority of workers consume — the people commanding the capital — do everything in their power to divert the workers attention away from the systemic issues.

"The entire government, regulatory, and political system has been corrupted by capital? It's clearly the immigrants and trans fault."

[–] PIchu0102@piefed.world 24 points 1 day ago

Gamergate's effects are still echoing and doing damage today.

[–] Vanilla_PuddinFudge 11 points 1 day ago

Not very sigma of those teens to follow trends like sheep.

[–] LoreSoong@startrek.website 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I think we are giving them far too much credit. The article is written as if they are deliberately and systematically recruiting young teens. The reality is that these kids are looking for the unmodderated spaces where these sickos dwell. These kids arent stupid, they know that the content they see is filtered and when we dont talk to them about why and just tell them "because its bad" they go out and find the content themselves.

From that point its pretty much a flip of a coin. They are either disgusted at what they find or the look for more, THEN yes they will find the sick people and befriend them due to similar interests in gore, beheadings, r*pe, suicide etc. This sends them down the undesirable rabbit hole.

This is all because parents are too lazy or afraid to communicate with children and teens about these serious topics. But will instead allow them to reicieve moral guidence from a incel living in his mothers basement regularly masturbating to this foul content.

Ive litterally watched this happen and attempted to stop/ get these kids banned. But these teens genuinely think they know better and sometimes the mods themselves are sickos or children that think its okay to have shared spaces for people under and above 18. Minecraft(java), VR chat, Rust, any mmo, roblox, gmod, gta, tf2 im sure there are 1000s more. all games with minimal modderation. Kids and teens should just be banned from social media and social gaming. they only serve to harm themselves and the unmodderated safe spaces for adults to fuck around.

[–] real_squids@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Kids and teens should just be banned from social media and social gaming.

Disagree on the second part, more like limited, or better - separated. There's no harm in playing games with friends or strangers, as long as there's actual moderation or it's just a chill community.

I don't think it's the fault of those games themselves, but the trends in videogame development and support (extracting as much money as possible with little support). And also there's barely any enforcement when it comes to age ratings so it's a double whammy.

[–] LoreSoong@startrek.website 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You're right, the devs arent going to put millions into modderating, it wouldnt be profitable so its definitely not on them sorry if i implied that. I genuinely believe kids would be better off gone regardless. There are probably "chill" communities out there but Its still dangerous because you have to trust every single user to not be a creep. I just think as idividual adult communities we need to just kick these kids out of servers, discord channels, twitch chats Etc. And imo label anyone who thinks that its okay for kids to be in these spaces weirdos.

[–] b_tr3e@feddit.org 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It used to be pulp literature, cinema, comics, television, Rock'n'Roll and VHS that spoiled our young. Now it's video games.

[–] LoreSoong@startrek.website -3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Youre being cheeky right? Youre implying that the thing corrupting the youth is whatever that eras overly-righteous people dislike and is used to push some political adgenda. Because if so, solid bait 11/10 I was about to respond with "youre proving your own point" or something of that nature.

[–] b_tr3e@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Congrats. You have won the Irony Detector 2025 Award which a lot better than the "100% Humour-Free Certificate

[–] LoreSoong@startrek.website 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

WOW Finally! An award always wanted one of these!

See how I make it obvious that im being sarcastic? Coulda done that the first time.

[–] b_tr3e@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

My deepest respect for your pointing out the funny within the irony until really wach and everyone can laugh about it. Nothing better than a well explained joke, However the explaining of a single joke when just performed exhaustingly and tediously enough by pedantic characters might become itself a new joke, a form of "metahumour".

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

You know guys, the issue here really is that while you can imagine a tone while reading, unless there's actually an objective indicator as to what it's supposed to be, there's going to be mismatches.

I don't think we give enough credence to the magic of language. We're looking at essentially a binary table of black and white, the white forming letters, those letters then forming words and those words eliciting specific thoughts. The fact that the tone isn't conveyed properly is a very minor thing. But we can't really imagine completely toneless speech, so sometimes neutral seems aggressive and sometimes sarcastic seems obtuse.

Which I grant I honestly took your comment as well for the first 3 seconds. You never know online. You just. Can't know. No matter how seemingly obvious it seems to be from context. Poe's law and all that

[–] LoreSoong@startrek.website 2 points 20 hours ago

Well said, however there are universally accepted indicators within litterature that are used to convey such tone. Not to mention they completely lacked any connotative words that would have helped the average person decipher that instantly. My original message "youre being cheeky right?" was litterally questioning "what side are you on?" because without tone or connotation they might actually hold these beliefs. I think we can agree that they could have easily wrote the original message using these litterary devices to convey the message and connotation perfectly

"It used to be pulp literature, cinema, comics, television, Rock'n'Roll and VHS that spoiled our young. Now it's definitely video games."

[–] b_tr3e@feddit.org 0 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Heck, I sure was as ambiguous as the whole discussion is and always was. Claims of cinema, even theater (even drama in ancient Greece), VHS etc, were a danger to to the general public and specifically to the youth were absolutely real. They even had some point. It's just the fact that the same blame game has been played again and again with every new medium that emerged that has some intrinsic irony. Obviously communication channels can be used by miscreants to spread ugly stuff. Who might have thought? And still people are acting as if thit was new or unexpected. I didn't even have to point thar out, just the sheer mentioning of these undoubted historic facts did the job. Make your own conclusions from that, everyone, but don't be surprised or upset when the next big thing will be used to spoil the youth just again. Because it will happen. It never stopped happening.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

They even had some point.

I think history kinda shows us they did not in fact have any sort of a point besides being irate about new technology.

The point is text doesn't convey tone, or even necessarily have any, but texts is read as speech, and speech has a tone. A lot of the times our internal translators just pick the wrong one.

[–] b_tr3e@feddit.org 0 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

You don't realize my intention at all. I deliberately was as neutral as possible. Just one simple sentence. Facts. I am on no one's side, because there's no side in the more or less chronological ordered line of media being accused to spoil the youth, ruin society etc. The irony lies within. No need for intonation (and as a musician, I know a thing about tone and one more about each, rhythm and tempo). No need to take sides in the actual discussion, because it is the old discussion. Yes, there is irony and yes, I am completely serious. This sort of ambivalence is also what makes the arts what they are. Truth is there's practically no disambiguity in the real world, the duality we humans see everywhere is just how our minds simplify things, because evolutionarily most descisions are binary: flight or fight, left road or right one, answer or not, eat unknown berry or don't.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

I realise your intention perfectly.

This reply of yours is a perfect example. I have done nothing or taken any tone towards you, yet you have imagined I have imagined a tone for your messages, which then affected the tone you imagine I'm taking.

Because again, while text can be neutral, speech isn't.

You can read a user manual and the objective texts in it won't be imagined with any tone. But a personal message like this? You have already imagined what tone of voice, I'm using and with what sort of rhythm and tempo as well.

No need to take sides in the actual discussion

I haven't. Perhaps you've imagined that based on imagining a negative tone to a completely neutral reply? Almost as if humans had a tendency to do that. Weird how no-one has brought it up. Oh wait, right, I have, that's what we are discussing.

practically no disambiguity in the real world

Made me laugh, thank you.

[–] LoreSoong@startrek.website 2 points 1 day ago

Okay pops I can match this energy hold on. Ehem.

Doth thou cranium contain the capacity for sarcasm? If so, you certainly did not display such characteristics in your original message. For it seems you lack the basic litterary skills to portray such complexities in your work. I suggest doing away with your frail attempts at humor aswell, seeing as only you would find these morsels humorous. Finally on your ramblings of metahumor, you attempt to imply that I would become the posterier to your musings of comedy. However you fail to understand one thing, My original message too was a but a aggitator of sorts designed to invoke a reaction, quickly youve responded with an attempt to disparage me. My tactics were dastardly but you proved yourself the dastard In this exchange.

[–] redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

So they all suck right? Genuinely, Nazis in every game are nonexistent around diamond. The best of them are hard stuck plats and those are rare.