ABSTRACT
This chapter first talks about how the English Defence League (EDL) activists knew developed the beliefs that underpinned their commitment to the cause and to one another and their increasingly acute feelings of indignation and outrage. Second, it discusses the materials that the activists engaged with as they constructed their ideas and what this can tell everyone about the structures of belief that they develop. Third, the chapter explores the social structures of learning. The activists did generate both offline and online spaces in which opinions, ideas and phrases that would normally be unacceptable or likely to attract social sanction were in fact praised and reinforced. As Sutherland and colleagues observe, one of the things that activists often value in grassroots and relatively non-hierarchical social movement groups is that they provide, or at least give the impression of providing, every member with the opportunity to engage in meaning-making.
