My Descent Into America's Neo-Nazi movement & How I Got Out | Christian Picciolini

At 14-years-old, Christian Picciolini went from naive teenager to white supremacist, and soon, the leader of America’s first neo-Nazi skinhead gang. How was he radicalized, and how did he ultimately get out?

In this courageous talk, Christian shares a surprising and counterintuitive solution to hate in all forms.

After leaving the white-supremacist skinhead movement that he helped build in the 1980s and 90s, Christian Picciolini co-founded Life After Hate, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people disengage from violent extremism.

Christian lives in Chicago.

www.lifeafterhate.org

Activism Social Issues

Rate this video

Added by Films For Action

Social Issues

"The Beginning of Fascism": How Trump's Immigrant Crackdown Is Crushing Democracy

What Is Zionism?

We Asked 5 Young Men: Are They Struggling More Than Women?

United in Anger: a History of ACT UP (2012) ($4)

Living With Dying (2022)

Chris Hedges: Trumpland

Trump's War on Children: DOGE Guts Head Start, Child Abuse Programs, Healthcare & More

This Bill Could Destroy Texas Public Schools. Your State Could Be Next.

Trump’s Gestapo Is Disappearing American Teens | The Kyle Kulinski Show

The Alt-Right Pipeline Almost Got Me. Here’s Why It Failed

Holocaust Survivor’s Son Chilling Warning from History

The Resurrection of Victor Jara (2015) ($5)

Kanye’s Downfall Shows Why “Woke” Was Necessary

Trans Athletes: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

"Can't Look Away": New Documentary Examines How Social Media Addiction Can Harm — Even Kill — Kids

Ben Shapiro and Personal Responsibility

How I Escaped The Alt-Right

Do We Really Need a Border Wall?

How US Neo-Nazism Actually Works | Arno Michaelis

Elon Musk's Family History in South Africa Reveals Ties to Apartheid & Neo-Nazi Movements

Trans Critic Has TOTAL Change of Heart After Hearing Trans People’s Stories: “I’d Like to Apologize”

How Stoicism Became Religion for Immature Men

The Truth About the U.S. Border | Robert Reich

They Voted for Trump. Here’s Why They Feel Betrayed

MEDIA BLACKOUT: America’s Poorest Counties Devastated By Catastrophic Flooding

The 'Friendship Recession' Is Killing Us.

The Secret Reason Why Right Wing Parties Dislike Trans & LGBTQ+ People

Rep Zephyr’s Speech Flips 13 Republicans Before Vote, Defeating Anti-Trans Drag Ban Bill in Montana

Chris Hedges on Trump's Deep State Purge, DOGE, and Rebuilding The American Left

How to Start Making Change With Those You'd Rather Cancel

How Hate Killed Truth

Why the US Government Murdered Fred Hampton

The Politics Of Hate: The Far Right In The US And Europe (2017)

DEI and the Rise of the Modern Slur

Trump’s ‘DEI’ Purge: a Trojan Horse to Overturn Civil Rights and Erase History

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 (2025)

The Conflation Trap: How the Left & Right get Fooled into Supporting Elite Interests

The Conflation Trap: How the Left & the Right Are Fooled Into Supporting the Same Elite Interests

Peasants for Plutocracy: How the Billionaires Brainwashed America

America's Real Divide Isn't Left Vs. Right. It's Democracy Vs. Oligarchy

This Is Neoliberalism | 5 Part Series (2020)

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)

Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Politics (2009)

Lifting the Veil: Obama and the Failure of Capitalist Democracy (2011)

Exposing the American Okie-Doke: Russiagate, Corporate Propaganda, and the Historical Obstruction of Class Consciousness

Plutocracy: The History of Class War In The USA (2019)

Propaganda and The Engineering of Consent for Empire with Mark Crispin Miller

The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand: Capitalism As a State-Guaranteed System of Privilege

Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy

Barack Obama VS Those Craaaazy Republicans: Is He the Lesser Evil, or the More Effective Evil?

We Can't Battle the Bigotry Stoked by Trump without a Strategy to Alleviate the Chronic Misery Behind It

The Cult of Trump

Call Outs, Canceling, Shaming and More: Activist Tactics That Need a 2nd Look

Hey Progressives, Can We Stop Using the Tools of Social Justice to Tear One Another Down?

How to Be a Woke White Person (Satire)

The Role of Shame in Shaping and Undermining Activist Communities

One "Piece of the Oppressor" That I Have Discovered Within Myself

The Problem with Cancel Culture | Ayishat Akanbi

What Makes Call-Out Culture So Toxic

Calling in Call-Out Culture

Canceling | ContraPoints

Krystal Ball Interviews Contrapoints on Her Blockbuster Cancel Culture Video

Things That Anarchists Say to Me in Private But Never Repeat Publicly

The Problem with Wokeness | Ayishat Akanbi

Our Relationships Keep Us Alive: Let's Prioritize Healthy Movement Dynamics

Exiting the Vampire Castle

The Left's Self-Destructive Obsession with Shame

Noam Chomksy "Calls Out" Cancel Culture

So You're Still Being Publicly Shamed

Trending Videos

Louis Theroux: The Settlers (2025)

62 min - Fourteen years after his first visit and 2011 film The Ultra Zionists, Louis Theroux meets some of the growing community of religious-nationalist Israelis who have settled in the West Bank.Louis...

OMG: Trump HUMILIATED at His OWN Military Parade | Brian Tyler Cohen

9 min

Trump CAVES in Shocking Statement

12 min

DEBUNKING Netanyahu’s Claim That Hamas Takes Aid

17 min

Chris Hedges: The Last Days of Gaza

12 min - The genocide is almost complete. When it is concluded it will not only have decimated the Palestinians, but will have exposed the moral bankruptcy of Western civilization.Read the article...

Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980)

780 min

HyperNormalisation (2016)

161 min

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011)

174 min

MAGA Push INSANE LIES As MN Shooter Revealed To Be Trump Supporter

14 min - Tim Miller returns with a disturbing update on the targeted political assassination of Minnesota Democratic State Rep. Melissa Hortman and the attempted assassination of another Democratic...

Project 2025 Explained in Schoolhouse Rock Style!

5 min

A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict (2011)

154 min

Angela Davis on Veganism as Part of a Revolutionary Perspective

4 min

Why Israel REALLY Attacked Iran

10 min - The Chilling Truth Behind Israel's Dark AgendaJoin the Future of Journalism: https://www.patreon.com/DoubleDownNews

Louis Theroux: The Ultra Zionists (2011)

59 min

Schooling the World (2010)

66 min

Planet Local Voices Series: 33 Voices United by a Vision of Ecological Economies, Healthy Communities and Local Food Systems

445 min

Israelism (2023)

84 min - When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the brutal way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns. They join a movement of young American Jews...

You Need To See This Incredible 17–Minute Film Set Entirely On A Teen’s Computer Screen

17 min

Water is Love (2024)

61 min

The School of Life: Capitalism

97 min

65 min - It's 2067, the UK is vegan, but older generations are suffering the guilt of their carnivorous past. Writer and Director Simon Amstellasks us to forgive them for the horrors of what they...

Born Sexy Yesterday: A Hollywood Movie Trope That Maybe Needs to Die

18 min

Human (2015)

382 min

Awakening from the Meaning Crisis (2019)

3000 min

Earthlings (2005)

95 min - EARTHLINGS is a feature-length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete...

The Settlers (2016)

111 min

Roses Have Thorns - Casualties Of The Ukrainian Revolution (2014)

1262 min

Separated Interbeings | Volume 2 (2023)

900 min

LOAD MORE

Trending Articles

The Rule of Idiots

Israel's Strike on Iran Was Terrorism. No More Excuses. We Must Demand an Arms Embargo Now.

The Top 100 Documentaries We Can Use to Change the World

Films For Action

Comic: If Bart Simpson and Chris Griffin Went to Couples Therapy

Panic Volkushka

The Top 250 Documentaries We Can Use to Change the World

Films For Action

Four Kinds of Dystopia

American Concentration Camps

The New Mind Manipulators

Nantes: Does the 2013 European Green Capital have something to teach US cities?

The Top 10 Documentaries About the Israel / Palestine Conflict

10 Female Revolutionaries That You Probably Didn't Learn About In History class

Kathleen Harris

The Compassionate Activist Toolkit: the Ultimate Guide to Love-Centered Activism

Revolution and American Indians: “Marxism is as Alien to My Culture as Capitalism”

John Lennon's "Imagine," Made Into a Comic Strip

John Lennon. Art by Pablo Stanley

The White Man in That Photo

Riccardo Gazzaniga

Why Men Are So Obsessed with Sex

Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (The Real Reason For The Forty-Hour Workweek)

100 Short Films to Expand Your Consciousness

Films For Action

Marx and the Indigenous

John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark and Hannah Holleman

Toward a Sacred Cosmology of Belonging: to Heal the World, We Don't Need Shame or Blame, We Need to Remember and Reconnect

Never Forget? Never Forgive? Never Again?

How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’

Have You Heard of The Great Forgetting? It Happened 10,000 Years Ago & Completely Affects Your Life

Why French Kids Don't have ADHD

Truth or Consequences

Japanese Whalers Fire Their First Shot of the Season - at Sea Shepherd

90 Inspiring, Visionary Films That Will Change How You See the World in Profound Ways

Names and Locations of the Top 100 People Killing the Planet

Indigenous Knowledge

The Circle of Courage – Native American Model of Education

The Bemidji Statement on Seventh Generation Guardianship

Indigenous Principles of a Just Transition

A Thousand Rivers: What the Modern World has Forgotten about Children and Learning

Dear White People. An Open Letter to White People on Becoming Indigenous

Rose Pere: We Believe In The Oneness of Everything That Exists

Rights VS Responsibilities: "In Our Language, We Don't Have a Word for Rights. We Have Words for Responsibility."

Defend the Sacred Manifesto

Indigenous Wisdom for Living Responsibly

It's Taken Thousands of Years, but Western Science Is Finally Catching up to Traditional Knowledge

Indigenous Knowledge Systems / Alaska Native Ways of Knowing

Why Cultural Diversity Is as Essential to Human Survival as Biological Diversity

Arkan Lushwala Shares Indigenous Wisdom: The Earth Is Our Mother

The Other Way of Knowing

The Western Idea of Private Property Is Flawed. Indigenous Peoples Have It Right

Earth Whisperers - Papatuanuku (trailer)

Lakota Wisdom: Why Native American Truths Can Heal the World

Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure

An Indigenous Approach to Healing Trauma

10 Quotes From an Oglala Lakota Chief That Will Make You Question Everything About Our Society

Standing Rock Wisdom: How Sacred, Nonviolent Activism Has the Power to Succeed

Biocultural Rights: A New Paradigm for Protecting Natural and Cultural Resources of Indigenous Communities

Why Tribal Societies Work: An Introduction

The Rights of Nature: Indigenous Philosophies Reframing Law

Daniel Quinn: a Return to Tribalism?

Tribal Revival: The Tribal Basis Of The Next Civilization

Maori Elder Rose Pere Speaks and Sings for the 2015 Parliament Indigenous Plenary

Adam Curtis

The Century of the Self (2002)

Bitter Lake (2015)

HyperNormalisation (2016)

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom? (2007)

The Power of Nightmares (2004)

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011)

Nonlinear Warfare - A New System of Political Control

How We All Became Richard Nixon | Adam Curtis

Subscribe for $5/mo to Watch over 50 Patron-Exclusive Films

Within Reach: Journey to Find Sustainable Community (2013)

Accidental Anarchist (2017)

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire (2004)

Overload: America's Toxic Love Story (2019)

The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel's Public Relations War in the United States (2016)

Let Them Eat Dirt: The Hunt For Our Kids' Missing Microbes (2019)

Biophilic Design: The Architecture of Life (2011)

Abundant Land: Soil, Seeds and Sovereignty (2017)

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (2008)

Blood and Oil (2008)

Invisible Hand: Who Will Speak For Nature? (2020)

The Nature of Cities (2010)

Paradise with Side Effects (2004)

Freedom of Expression: Resistance & Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property (2007)

Oyler: Can a School Save a Community? (2015)

War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2007)

Self-Taught: Life Stories From Self-Directed Learners (2019)

The New Economics 101: True Wealth in the New Economy (2013)

The Myth of the Liberal Media: The Propaganda Model of News (1997)

Captive Audience: Advertising Invades the Classroom (2003)

Advertising & The End of The World (1997)

GIFT: The Imagination Creates the Future (2018)

Walled Off: Banksy, Palestine and the Struggle for Freedom (2024)

A Quest For Meaning (2017)

A Bold Peace: Costa Rica's Path of Demilitarization (2016)

Constructing Public Opinion: How Politicians & the Media Misrepresent the Public (2001)

The Great Disconnect (2020)

We Are Many (2020)

The Wisdom To Survive (2014)

Dysfunctional Societies: How Equality Makes Societies Stronger (2015)

Ancient Futures: Learning From Ladakh (1993)

To The Ends of the Earth (2016)

The Next American Revolution: Beyond Corporate Capitalism & State Socialism (2013)

Dancing With The Cannibal Giant: New Stories for the Great Transition (2019)

Peace, Propaganda, & The Promised Land: US Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2003)

The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation? (2020)

Redefining Prosperity (2018)

Inhabitants: Indigenous Perspectives On Restoring Our World (2021)

Call Of Life: Facing The Mass Extinction (2010)

Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective (2015)

The Third Harmony: Nonviolence and the New Story of Human Nature (2020)

Capitalism Hits The Fan (2008)

Fly By Light: A Film about Discovering Your True Nature (2015)

The Staging Post: Courageous People Never Give Up! (2017)

Spiritually Incorrect (2020)

Broken On All Sides: Race, Mass Incarceration and New Visions for Criminal Justice (2012)

Freedom Ahead: Democracy Does Not Offer Freedom, Nature Does (2012)

School Circles: Democratic Schools in the Netherlands (2018)

Affluenza (1997)

A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil (2006)

Shift Change: True Stories of Dignified Jobs in Democratic Workplaces (2013)

Subscribe $5/mo

View All Patron Films

Your support keeps us ad-free and financially independent.

Our 10,000+ video & article library is 99% free, ad-free, and entirely community-funded thanks to our patron subscribers!

Want to double your impact? You can subscribe for $10/mo or more as an extra show of support.