"Self-radicalisation" - a object lesson in confused thinking

"Self-radicalisation" - a object lesson in confused thinking

I read today about a fifteen year old girl who is believed to have run away to join ISIL who was widely described in the media as "self-radicalised". 

The term "radicalisation" is often used to describe a process that denies responsibility for extreme views, on the basis of "brainwashing" or something similar. The responsibility is shifted from the "radicalised" to the radicaliser". Or the authorities for allowing this to happen. The idea that someone can be "brainwashed" is no longer tenable. But even if it were, how could you brainwash yourself? When the radicaliser and the radicalised are the same person, then it is no longer possible to shift responsibility to an external source. 

The simple fact is that people choose to adopt ideologies. Some are more malleable and suggestible than others, but ultimately we can and should hold people responsible for the beliefs they adopt.