• axont [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    A lot of these murderers openly admit how gullible and susceptible they are. It's the same story with Qanon reactionaries too. They always tell a story that's like "yeah i never really paid attention to politics or the news but then one day I saw a meme that broke my brain."

    Yes, that's all it takes to radicalize them because they live their entire lives coasting on the basic assumptions of white supremacist imperialism without question and it destroys their mind to learn their ideology is in fact a particular ideology that can be put into words. It's completely gibberish racist drivel, but it snaps their worldview into focus like they've never understood because they've literally never thought about it before. The racist gullible nonsense was already bubbling in their heads.

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        There's even a part in the Turner Diaries where the main character doesn't fully understand his own motivations until he's told about Hitler. He then instantaneously morphs into a full white supremacist on a spiritual level.

        You're right, they started getting indoctrinated as kids, but got fooled into believing they discovered reactionary ideology on their own

          • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I'm not going to link it because I don't want to spread it, but it's in Chapter 10, after the main character is fully adopted into the "organization." He's given a book to read only called "the book" that describes why he needs to be a white supremacist. With the context clues of a "great one" who was born in 1889, it's clear "the book" is Mein Kampf or some kind of collection of Nazi theory

    • Ideology [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Commenting because I like this theory and want to keep it close to the top of the comment threads. This is what liberalism does to a motherfucker.

    • MemesAreTheory [he/him, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      HEY. Some of us learned about communism through memes and had a similar experience tyvm. You put some respect on memes!

      But the difference in ideological miasma people are steeped in leading to fascist bullshit and communism is clearly huge and I find your insight valuable for sure. I find that leftists are generally the most empathetic people who drive themselves crazy trying to make sense of how needlessly cruel our world is without a proper critique of it, so it's a process of trying to ask a question they don't have the words for that leads to their revelationary moment when they finally encounter leftist theory (even if that's in the form of memes). That's a remarkably different process than the fascist light bulb turning on as someone has their entirely unconscious and unquestioned ideology put into language for the first time, even if the subjective feeling of revelation is probably similar.

          • StuporTrooper [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/468/409/2a8.jpg

            It works on so many levels, because bulbasaur is the best starter.

            • MemesAreTheory [he/him, any]
              ·
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              :arm-L::data-laughing::palestine-strong:

              Edit: I was wondering why we didn't have an Israeli flag burning emoji, but then the small part of my brain that remembers I'm technically Jewish reminded me that the optics on that are.... Problematic.

              • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                they banned a dude who flipped out about wanting to burn the star of david here and then he made accounts for a month posting antisemitic shit lol

              • LeninWeave [none/use name]
                ·
                2 years ago

                Edit: I was wondering why we didn’t have an Israeli flag burning emoji, but then the small part of my brain that remembers I’m technically Jewish reminded me that the optics on that are… Problematic.

                :israel-cool:

      • ProfessorAdonisCnut [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        There are 100% people who call themselves communists because tankie is their favorite jreg character