Yesterday's meeting with the "far-right curious" person I mentioned went better than expected.
He's of the "it's only fascism if it refers to an Italian state policy of workers bundled into guilds" persuasion, but using the 1940s film I wrote about a few weeks back, I actually got him to realize that even fascists of the era had a range of buy-ins to various forms of the movement - just like the range of "everyday conservatives" he worries are stigmatized unduly for liking extremists today. 1/3
From there, we talked about how that fear of being seen as a bad person leads people (usually men, in my experience) to rush to defend someone who's done wrong: racist, nationalist, sexist. They're so afraid of being called out themselves one day, they'd rather fight society's criticism of another than interrogate their own actions and pursue change.
And that fear shapes so many problems in our society. I know plenty of people I consider to be deeply in the wrong wrt political morality - 2/3
but worse is seeing them with no idea how to off-ramp from extremism, so they just info-silo deeper & defend even more staunchly views they *should* be able to let go of via new data as it arises.
Seeing how quickly humans can and do become apologists for terrible acts, it's hard not to empathize with those who are now slowly coming to realize that their views were wrong, but who don't have the tools to walk back to decency yet, because they've been caught up in the propaganda for too long. 3/3
The term "deprogramming" comes to mind.
Normal psychological, emotional, moral self-righting may not suffice for individuals who have been so deeply programmed.
True, I am actually suggesting a compassionate healing rehabilitation process. Not that it is likely to come about in any practical sense.
@ceorl the best opportunity for a national wake up call was in the weeks following J6. Biden pissed away the moment in an apparent bid to foster some sort of 1980s style return to bipartisanship. The lack of accountability for political enablers has only minimized the severity of the event in the public eye.
@CanisPundit @ceorl @MLClark I mean that's one view. Or one might say that McConnell, Graham, and similar GOP folk pissed away the moment to draw back from the brink. I well remember Linds speaking after Congress re-convened the night of January 6; he sounded a little drunk and a lot rattled and he said basically, "enough already." A moment of clarity! -- and gone within days. So... who pissed what away, there?
@agunn I completely agree they had a chance to right the Right. A sad fact is Republican gerrymandering to select their voters has left them with a regressed mess as the Republican base. To vote to remove Trump in impeachment episode 2 would appropriately throw the GOP into minority status for a couple of decades. They put party, power, and personal gain ahead of country.
@ceorl @MLClark