http://blue.utb.edu/labad/white_supremacist_is_held_in_ord.htm

Those who monitor white supremacist and other hate groups said Mr. Hale had been brilliant in using the Internet to recruit young members, luring them through a network of 30 Web sites featuring compelling graphics and interactive games. His church, “dedicated to the survival, expansion and advancement of the white race,” claims 70,000 members in 49 states and 28 countries, though some experts say the movement has just a few hundred adherents.

One could make the argument that our increasing societal exclusion, those who live vicariously on the Internet whether it be in virtual Second Life
http://secondlife.com/?v=1.1
with avatars, or simply in chat rooms become consumed and perhaps by definition , addicted to the stimulus. Communities, social interaction, and the way we communicate is undeniably different than 20 years ago. I’m personally aware of several instances where competent, highly educated, professional men and women have been consumed with their fantasy lives to such a degree that their “real life” is now the funding vehicle for the avatar life. No one should be surprised by this.

How we communicate and how we’re communicated to is both revolutionary and evolutionary. The Internet is many things to many people. If, in this particular instance, the Internet is the world’s primary communications platform than there should be no surprise that it is being exploited by a group or demography choosing to exploit, garner, or solicit membership to their point of view. It also becomes a volume issue. The more people that are interacted with touched, and media impressed the more likely a hierarchy or threshold matrix will emerge. It would be interesting if the data mining was available to see the percentages of radicalization versus contacts.
From an objective point of view it’s simply marketing. There’s a reason why infomericals are on the television and commercials on the radio; they reach a lot of people and are very successful. It is also a reason why phishing scams work time and time again. So from the marketing aspect is is all probability and statistics. It’s marketing, human behavior manipulation, and potentially a demonstration of our values and mores becoming less significant internationally and nationally.
I would also state that this is not as much a troubling preview, as a predictable expected progression of what amounts to information warfare; a saturation campaign of disinformation, rhetoric, and degrees of utopian existence and the elements of a sophisticated soft jihad taking place in the West. There’s an active recruitment, messaging, and push to gain first sympathy, than advocacy, and finally, activity on behalf of the movement. The radicalization process or more subtle soft jihad is perhaps happening all around us and we’re either not aware or choose to ignore its signals.
So is the real question should we be afraid of this phenomenon or is it simply several women out of 150 million going astray? Thank you for posting this very interesting subject matter and topic to discuss.