Undoing the Pipeline: Analyzing Narratives of Deradicalization From Extremist Alt-Right Communities in the United States

Abstract

Research on alt-right communities focuses on indoctrination strategies that lead to radicalization, but there is little attention paid to deradicalization as a cultural and civil process. Scholars of radicalization provide an institutional and political account of social learning and identity formation, conceptualizing radicalization online as a “pipeline,” with individuals recruited into “filter bubbles” and trapped in “echo chambers.” The much smaller literature on deradicalization, in contrast, pays less attention to cultural contexts, relying instead on psychological and criminological frames to account for why individuals leave extremist groups. We know comparatively little about the cultural and civil contexts of deradicalization. This research offers a first attempt to describe this context in sociological detail, using narrative methods to analyze 29 accounts of deradicalization posted to social media between 2019 and 2025. The cultural codes and civil frameworks that former extremists use to account for their exit from right-wing communities resemble the structure of awakening narratives, a sub-type of narrative that describe moments of political, religious, or spiritual revelation. In fact, many deradicalization narratives rely on religious language and cite religious belief as a fundamental reason for deradicalization. From the perspective of current policy efforts in Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), this insight also suggests there is civil potential in building a fuller public understanding of deradicalization to counter alt-right extremism.