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]