[tense music]
CHRISTIAN: You'll never get the truth from a current extremist.
Their whole job is to lie to you and to spin
things their own way.
Which is why I say, if you want the truth,
talk to a former extremist.
JOURNALIST: You still have the jacket?
CHRISTIAN: I still have the jacket.
JOURNALIST: Oh.
CHRISTIAN: So this was CASH, Chicago
Area Skinheads, which was that first American neo-Nazi group.
And then on the back--
JOURNALIST: Final Solution, wow.
Final Solution was my band name
with the 88, which is kind of shorthand
for the eighth letter of the alphabet, HH,
which stands for "Heil Hitler."
What was the final solution?
CHRISTIAN: Well, the final solution in my mind
was the same thing that was in Hitler's mind,
and that was the extermination of the Jews.
That was the ultimate solution.
JOURNALIST (VOICEOVER): From the age of 14 to 22,
Christian Vittrilini helped build
America's first neo-Nazi skinhead organization.
But today, he has devoted his life
to helping people disengage from the same extremist
groups he used to belong to.
CHRISTIAN: What I see when I look at those pictures
is not a tough guy.
I see a very insecure, low self-esteem,
and broken young man.
And I think it's important for people
to understand that what draws people to those movements,
hate movements, is not the ideology initially.
Nobody is born to hate.
It's something that we learn.
And for me, I was searching for an identity,
a community, and a purpose.
JOURNALIST (VOICEOVER): Christian
was ripe for radicalization.
And on a street corner in 1987, he
was approached by a skinhead leader
and recruited on the spot.
CHRISTIAN: That man told me that I mattered.
Nobody had ever told me that before.
And I bought into the ideas that they put in my head
because it made me feel powerful.
INTERVIEWER: With me today, Chris Vittrilini, 19-years-old,
director of the Illinois chapter of the Northern
Hammer Skinheads.
Well, I believe we're warriors today
and we're fighting for a great cause, which is the white race.
CHRISTIAN: I noticed my life change immediately.
I went from somebody who had been bullied
to now somebody who was feared.
JOURNALIST (VOICEOVER): Christian
describes his radicalization as a descent
into a community of like-minded individuals.
They consumed a potent mix of race-based conspiracy theories
and misinformation that fueled their anger
and justified their attacks.
I wonder how that radicalization process compares to today.
(SINGING) Damn [inaudible] just call me a shrink.
CHRISTIAN: In my day, it was very face to face.
But what's happened now is the internet
has kind of become that digital alley that I was
recruited in, except it's an all you can eat,
24 hour, hate buffet.
And there are millions and millions of young people
like I was at 14-years-old.
What about the El Paso shooter?
CHRISTIAN: The whole idea of a lone wolf is a misnomer.
While there are white supremacists who
may never in real life meet another white supremacist,
that doesn't mean they're not connected.
JOURNALIST (VOICEOVER): The internet
is a technological game changer, amplifying lies and weaponizing
propaganda like never before.
Extremists are flooding social media and encrypted chat
forums, creating an alternate universe of imaginary threats
where lies become truth and conspiracy becomes reality.
As of May 2021, Facebook banned 250 groups
linked to white supremacy.
Often what starts as edgy memes that target young men
on platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and others, quickly
spirals into more extreme content.
The El Paso shooter, for example,
wrote that he was inspired by a manifesto posted online
by a shooter in New Zealand who livestreamed
himself murdering 51 Muslims.
Called "The Great Replacement," this manifesto justified
the killings as a defense of white culture
from the existential threat posed by Muslims,
minorities, and immigrants.
The fact that these white genocide fears have
been debunked time and again over centuries
means little online.
Within the echo chamber of the movement,
the New Zealand shooter's manifesto is revered and used
to indoctrinate new recruits.
All too often, that's how it works.
The speed of online radicalisation
helps explain why race-based attacks are on the rise.
As Christian said, nobody is born to hate, it's learned.
[upbeat music]