Disaffected youth: are young people becoming more extreme?
With applications now open for Living Freedom Summer School in July, Jake Weston reflects on a lively and important debate at Battle of Ideas North.
The claim that young people are drifting towards extremism has become near-orthodoxy. Yet the term ‘extremism’ also now seems stretched to breaking point, applied with striking ease to denote Islamism and Islamophobia, the far-right and Antifa, misogynists and climate activists.
Some fear that a label once reserved for describing a genuine fringe is being casually applied to almost any dissenting view. As the government claims new powers to monitor and restrict ‘extremism’ – from tighter speech controls to deeper oversight of universities – a central question emerges for this year’s Living Freedom Summer School: in trying to stamp out ‘extremism’, do we risk eroding the very freedoms that a confident society is meant to defend?
Recently, Living Freedom events coordinator Jake Weston was joined by several participants from last year’s summer school for the Battle of Ideas North debate, ‘Disaffected youth: are young people becoming more extreme?’ Below, Jake reflects on the discussion – and you can watch the full debate on YouTube.
Finally, a reminder. Get your applications in NOW to attend the summer school this year.
LIVING FREEDOM SUMMER SCHOOL 2026
Date: 9 - 11 July
Location: Westminster, London
Eligibility Criteria: open to anyone aged 18 to 30
Programme, information and to apply: click here.
Alastair Donald
convenor, Living Freedom
What does it mean to be extreme? In our polarised age, ‘extreme’ is a term used freely. As Maeve Halligan, co-founder of the Cambridge University Society of Women, explained, in certain circles it can be considered ‘extreme’ to hold gender-critical views, be sceptical about mass migration or be pro-Israel. Conversely, in other circles, identity politics, climate activism and calling to defund the police may likewise be understood as extreme.
Extremism has always been relative. But what’s perhaps new about today is the practice of moralising your opponents’ views. They aren’t just wrong, they’re bad – perhaps even potentially dangerous. Yet when politics is debated through a lens of moral righteousness, what happens to the ability to persuade and to be persuaded?
One question we discussed is why today’s youth may appear to be ‘more extreme’, with the conversation inevitably touching on the influence of universities. Is progressive campus culture self-radicalising? Is there moral one-upmanship at work, with students competing to signal virtue and pushing each other further? Could this explain the ratchet effect – from death threats against Reform UK society founders to one in five students saying they’d feel uncomfortable living with a Jewish peer.
Many claims of extremism rest on headline-grabbing polls. But here, too, we might be sceptical. Does aligning with the Greens necessarily equate to rising extreme views? And do 25 per cent of young women truly believe in the legalisation of drugs and prostitution? Maybe we are more Generation Conform than Generation Extreme. As universities preach a monolithic progressive line, then perhaps the problem is a less intellectually rich and stimulating environment. The erstwhile diaspora of viewpoints found across society – in churches, the workplace or local communities – need new ways of articulating themselves and new space to breathe. Notably, this is one of the tasks of Living Freedom Summer School.
Sebastian Moore, North West chair of the Social Democratic Party, flipped the question: are young people extreme enough? For young people today, life may be easier technologically, but much harder materially. In the 1980s, homes cost around three times average earnings; today, comparable access demands salaries above £100,000. Saddled with debt and facing a bleak jobs market, today’s ‘Generation Rent’ arguably has ample reason for disaffection.
One of the most common explanations for youth radicalisation is being susceptible to misinformation. However, as I pointed out, studies show young people are fairly deft at identifying misinformation and sceptical of what they read, whether online or from traditionally reliable sources. Consequently, current calls to restrict access to social media are unlikely to be tackle the underlying causes of youth extremism, but will certainly badly impact on our ability to access information and engage in debate.
For Georgina Mumford, content producer and writer at spiked, the problem may be better located in how we are raised. She identified an odd dichotomy: constantly asking for affirmation of our feelings whilst being steered away from difficult challenges and independence – effectively leaving young people devoid of resilience. We were taught to ‘be yourself’ and that the world would deeply care about us, only to find out that that the ‘real world’ is quite a difficult and challenging place. That world is not organised around our own feelings, but it is one we need to engage with and shape.
A final question is what has happened to any common national identity – a factor that often provided some common ground for how we grow and develop. Over 80 per cent of young people in 2004 were proud to be British – less than 50 per cent are today. Within one generation, a positive national story has dissipated. So, too, has shared faith and, in extreme cases, shared language. How can young people develop a common sense of attachment when there’s nothing positive to belong to? Do we need to reinvent our national story so people can feel a part of it?
Perhaps this provides some of the explanation as to why some young people gravitate to more extreme views. While Palestine or climate activism are causes largely beyond our control, perhaps we would be better to refocus on the tangible pressures faced by our generation at home: graduate taxes or rising youth unemployment, never mind asserting both our right to speak freely and our moral autonomy. We have real cause for disaffection – and for action. A sensible starting point is Living Freedom: a forum to test ideas seriously and speak for ourselves, rather than be ventriloquised by the loudest fringes of our generation.
Jake Weston is Living Freedom event coordinator.