美国国家公共电台 NPR--The online history of the Highland Park suspect reveals a fascination with violence

The online history of the Highland¹ Park suspect reveals a fascination² with violence

Transcript³

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Alex Newhouse of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies about the shooting suspect's violent posts.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

In Highland Park, Ill., the suspect in the July Fourth parade shooting was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder. And the Lake County prosecutor⁴ says he expects the accused 21-year-old will face more charges. Investigators⁵ believe he planned this mass killing⁶ for weeks, that he climbed onto a roof and used a high-powered rifle to fire more than 70 rounds into the crowd below. And he wore women's clothing and possibly a wig⁷ to hide his identity. He purchased that rifle legally, along with four other weapons. And this was after police were called to his home twice over threats of violence and suicide in 2019. The accused killer⁸ also posted online a lot - the content often violent. Researchers say it fits into an emerging profile of new extremist activity online. Joining us now to discuss this is Alex Newhouse. He's the deputy director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Alex, welcome to the program.

ALEX NEWHOUSE: Thanks for having me.

FADEL: So what jumped out at you? When you were looking at what the Highland Park suspect was doing online, what jumped out?

NEWHOUSE: So I think the first thing to note is that there's no clear ideological⁹ or even political motive¹⁰ to what the suspect was doing online and how he ended up carrying out the attack. So what we can say, though, is that his online activity fits a profile of a person immersed in these deep, deep internet communities at the very, very fringes of certain types of community activity, including types of communities that are organized around collaborative fiction and what we call alternate reality games, which are basically giant, large-scale community puzzles. And the thing to note about these communities is at the very, very fringe of them, often the participants in the communities basically lose track of their own identities and can't - and end up not even being able to distinguish between what is real and what is fake. And at that point, they start sharing content that's designed to transform their minds and make them more amenable¹¹ to using violence. This is a pattern that we've seen in the past in a couple of other recent mass shootings. And it fits the pattern of the online activity of the suspect in the Highland Park shooting.

FADEL: Are these online communities actually organized or is it just a group of people posting gore¹² online? I mean, what are they?

NEWHOUSE: They are pretty disorganized. They are pretty decentralized. And they come around - they basically come about and evolve out of a shared interest in a particular type of collaborative puzzle - a particular type of fiction. And they end up organizing themselves almost like extreme forms of fandom. So, like, you know, you have your "Star Wars" fandom, which is sort of a mainstream¹³ version of this. But at the very, very extreme edge of it, you can end up with these fandoms of people who basically combine their own personal identity with the type of content that they're organizing around and the community that they're organizing with.

FADEL: Why?

NEWHOUSE: It's a part of just, you know, finding - trying to find some sort of meaning in a world where they oftentimes feel very alienated¹⁴ and isolated¹⁵. One of the things we know about radicalization and mobilization to violence is that alienation¹⁶ and isolation¹⁷ is the core driver of it in a lot of cases. So for this suspect, for instance, what we can say is that about two years ago, he seems to have become increasingly isolated from his in-person support networks and even from his music community. But then he ended up increasing his activity in these fringe spaces, these spaces that are obsessed¹⁸ with gore, obsessed with puzzles and numbers. And, again, that fits this form of extremist mobilization that we've been seeing.

FADEL: But this stuff means depictions of violence, shootings, racist¹⁹, offensive posts. They're so common online. So when do you know that this is a cause for concern and there's this blurring²⁰ of reality and fiction? And when is it just people posting awful stuff online?

NEWHOUSE: Yeah, and that's still an open question in a lot of cases. But what we can say is that out of these very - these type of communities, there is this sort of - this type - this shared aesthetic²¹ in the content that they're posting that we can point to and say, OK, this is the type of content that we're talking about. This is the warning sign. And it's content that's purposely designed to be incoherent and it's cobbled together from a variety, like a mishmash of different influences. And oftentimes, it can seem completely politically contradictory²² and paradoxical. So it's content that includes things like basically incoherent static, really, really fast cuts between different things, a lot of neon lights, a lot of very, very loud and pretty aggressive audio. And all of that is designed to break down a person's reluctance²³ to commit violence. So as researchers of this trend, we have observed this sort of developing a shared aesthetic style that we can point to as an indicator²⁴ of when these communities are moving to a point where violence becomes more likely.

FADEL: So is that what you recommend when you work with tech companies that are trying to figure out how to handle this content?

NEWHOUSE: Yeah, we work with tech companies to try to identify this aesthetic style more quickly. And we also work with them to understand that in a lot of cases, violence today, extremist violence, isn't necessarily ideological or political. So we have to change the way we think about it. So in a lot of cases, what we'll do is we'll work with them to understand all of these types of violence are social issues. They're issues built around relationships between people and community dynamics²⁵. So this suspect, for instance, although he acted alone in person, in reality, what he was doing online indicated a deep connection with other people and other communities. So we work with them - we work with tech companies and policymakers to understand, OK, let's go look and detect the communities of people, the networks of people, that are organizing around this type of content and producing it so we can better detect and disrupt those in the future.

FADEL: In the few seconds we have left, the Highland Park mayor has called this an act of terrorism. Does it fit that description for you?

NEWHOUSE: It doesn't fit an act of terrorism because it doesn't necessarily have a political motive. But what we can say is it was designed to cause panic, and it was designed to be copied.

FADEL: Alex Newhouse, deputy director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute, thank you so much for your time.

NEWHOUSE: Thank you.

1 highland   

n.(pl.)高地，山地

参考例句：

• The highland game is part of Scotland's cultural heritage.苏格兰高地游戏是苏格兰文化遗产的一部分。
• The highland forests where few hunters venture have long been the bear's sanctuary.这片只有少数猎人涉险的高山森林，一直都是黑熊的避难所。

2 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

5 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

7 wig   

n.假发

参考例句：

• The actress wore a black wig over her blond hair.那个女演员戴一顶黑色假发罩住自己的金黄色头发。
• He disguised himself with a wig and false beard.他用假发和假胡须来乔装。

8 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

9 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

10 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

11 amenable   

adj.经得起检验的；顺从的；对负有义务的

参考例句：

• His scientific discoveries are amenable to the laws of physics.他在科学上的发现经得起物理定律的检验。
• He is amenable to counsel.他这人听劝。

12 gore   

n.凝血，血污；v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破；缝以补裆；顶

参考例句：

• The fox lay dying in a pool of gore.狐狸倒在血泊中奄奄一息。
• Carruthers had been gored by a rhinoceros.卡拉瑟斯被犀牛顶伤了。

13 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

14 alienated   

adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等）

参考例句：

• His comments have alienated a lot of young voters. 他的言论使许多年轻选民离他而去。
• The Prime Minister's policy alienated many of her followers. 首相的政策使很多拥护她的人疏远了她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

16 alienation   

n.疏远；离间；异化

参考例句：

• The new policy resulted in the alienation of many voters.新政策导致许多选民疏远了。
• As almost every conceivable contact between human beings gets automated,the alienation index goes up.随着人与人之间几乎一切能想到的接触方式的自动化，感情疏远指数在不断上升。

17 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

18 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

19 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

20 blurring   

n.模糊，斑点甚多，（图像的）混乱v.（使）变模糊( blur的现在分词 )；（使）难以区分

参考例句：

• Retinal hemorrhage, and blurring of the optic dise cause visual disturbances. 视网膜出血及神经盘模糊等可导致视力障碍。 来自辞典例句
• In other ways the Bible limited Puritan writing, blurring and deadening the pages. 另一方面，圣经又限制了清教时期的作品，使它们显得晦涩沉闷。 来自辞典例句

21 aesthetic   

adj.美学的，审美的，有美感

参考例句：

• My aesthetic standards are quite different from his.我的审美标准与他的大不相同。
• The professor advanced a new aesthetic theory.那位教授提出了新的美学理论。

22 contradictory   

adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立

参考例句：

• The argument is internally contradictory.论据本身自相矛盾。
• What he said was self-contradictory.他讲话前后不符。

23 reluctance   

n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿

参考例句：

• The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
• He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。

24 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

25 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。