He's dead to me. I switch rapidly between hoping his zombifying body dies ASAP, and missing the person he was before Nazis brainwashed and stole him.
He was a shitty friend who gatekept random things, like listening to bands in his mid-twenties. Much due to toxic masculinity. I found him quite cringey. Now he's a Nazi.
Yet I mourn his cringe ass each day. A whole person was lost to Nazis. I'm cycling, and I need new outlooks on this situation to get out of this rut. My self care is suffering.
It happened to just about my entire college social circle.
Some went full :soypoint-1: :melon-musk: :soypoint-2: as they became eager minions for Silicon Valley billionaires and the few times I talk with them it's all about robot gods from the future or takes about how climate change doesn't matter because billions of years in the future trillions of divine cyberangels will dance on the head of a Singularity pin.
Some went full :soypoint-1: :jordan-eboy-peterson: :soypoint-2: and went "cultural Christian" after Anita Sarkeesian broke their brains by having lukewarm takes about their treats.
Some went full :soypoint-1: :scared-fash: :soypoint-2: . Some marched, tiki torches and all, at Charlottesville and at least one was there for the January 6 clown car crash and circus fire in DC.
i had a close friend at the jan 6 shit and it was pathetic, he tweeted about leaving right when shit popped off like he had no clue how deep in this shit he was, but he was deep--he was leading maga car rallies across the coast and shit and then once shit gets real he's like oh snap what am i doing and leaves. so fucking dumb. he got alienated from all of his friends and family and eventually called us all one by one to apologize and say he realized he was wrong and was done with the political shit after things kinda blew up in his face. he was always apolitical before this to an annoying degree and suddenly he was a qanoner who knew everything. but then after his whole apology and everything like 6 months later he was tweeting lets go brandon shit and i'm not convinced he'll ever change. really sad and i don't really know how to even interact anymore because i loved him but what the fuck is this? like a line has been crossed and most of our friends feel the same.
Without revealing too much, I have a similar relatable story about the (at least one confirmed) MAGA cultist that was there for the January 6 circus fire.
That's all. It's all too relatable. :doomer:
I'm sorry. I can't imagine losing a whole group to chud ideologies. The chances of this happening goes way up just by living in :amerikkka:.
I was going to college in the shadow of Silicon Valley, and most of the people around me were very white and very insulated "nonpolitical" South Park enthusiasts (I even watched the show too, full confession) and their "nonpolitical" politics and their ideology of "no ideology" made them credulous clay shaped by the hands all around them. :doomer:
I was a kid when I saw South Park on other people's TVs. I'd get sucked in, and I couldn't see how damaging it was in general to have zero biases. Someone recently told me that every episode ends with, "both sides are at fault."
It sucks.
All I can say is, we work, we organise, we win, and then no one else ever falls to the fash again. And of course, we begin pulling as many back as we can.
Most of these people are opportunists who will latch on to any alternative to liberalism, and will flee the Nazi's if it looks like Communism will win, or even if they realise there's another, better option to the fash.
Still, a lot of re-education to be done.
Good words. Rn I'm too tired to pull anyone but myself back from sinister propaganda. It's tough putting myself through reeducation because my attention span has been struggling. When it comes to theory, I can finish Parenti's papers, and that's about it.
Btw, if someone recommends a Parenti paper, I'll likely read it eventually. This site is full of his works.
Not to Nazis and more of me going from Lib to Commie. But I do miss, an ex-gf & ex-friend who was a capitalist gusana. I loved her but once I realized I'm much more left than I had once thought and she was more right wing than I had thought I was heart broken. 2016 and Bernie's campaign both opened my eyes and cursed me. I do miss her occasionally, and on late 2020 we bump into one another and ended up losing like an hour just talking at the grocery had me miss her even more. Eventually the election was brought up and reality came back and I can't be someone that (albeit not insanely) into Trump. But that spark was still there, the laughs the relaxation was there but that politically and moral/principles are not.
Edit: If not obvious by use of gusana but she was cuban with parents who "escaped" Cuba to come to the states. Yet when Obama opened up her parents would fly over to get cheap medicine. Hypocrites.
Oh, Gusana,
Oh don't you cry for me
Cause I've come from La Habana with prescriptions on my knee
It can feel surreal to observe otherwise lovely libs support ghoulish things. You wonder which ones you're losing slowly. It's a shame she has so many brainworms. I'm sorry you lost such a dear connection.
I don't think I'm heartbroken the way you're heartbroken, but I'm relieved to hear I'm not alone. I still lay glued to the floor sometimes missing this guy's face and voice. Blocking his social media where I rooted for him was like letting go of stars. I had to cry that one out.
Guy that I kinda looked up to in high school who a couple times came to school in drag and liked to steal neighbors U.S. flags to burn went full crypto fash after being an early investor in Bitcoin. Last of anything I saw from him was ranting on FB about how he couldn't find a trad wife who agreed that feminism was a disease.
That's really unfortunate. Sounds like he once knew feminism is mens' rights. I love seeing men in dresses, and I hope he still thinks of wearing one all the time.
Yeah it was pretty sad. He just seems really angry now for whatever reason despite leading a fairly charmed life and I always thought of him as being a chill individual.
I'm not white, and yeah white people can be scary. Sometimes you have to cater to their unconsciously misdirected, hateful, scapegoating judgements of you.
I daydreamed and daydreamed of how to talk this guy out of being a Nazi. In these imagined scenarios of reversing his brainwashing, I always ended up catering to his blind hate. It was like cutting off thin slices of myself for the swine part of him to eat. Hoping he didn't do anything dangerous as I spoke to him.
Then my heart sank like never before. It made me think... "Is this what black people in predominantly white offices feel like? Tiptoeing around and catering to scary swine? Appeasing them with pieces of your flesh to eat?"
two of my former friends including my previous best friend became abusers in their relationships, which is roughly the moral equivalent of a nazi to me.
I can see that. Many abusers' worldview is basically "Don't tread on me", where you can only stomp on others or get stomped on. And they choose stomp.
After the gruesome way I lost my friend, I had a few fits of involuntary laughter too. Each time I find new tricks to leave them behind for good, I spend a little less time on average mourning. Still, I'm making agonizingly slow progress, and when I remember, the same depth of sadness fills me again.
A friend I grew up with, like my best friend, is an alcoholic who's been pretty depressed and in the dumps since he spent a year in jail. His nihilism, substance abuse, and the internet have at times led him to lean into reactionary takes. I pretty much would call him out everytime some slur slipped or he alluded to some reactionary position. I could tell that he really didn't care if I would get angry and tell him to fuck off. Eventually I took up a different strategy. I would remind him of the things he does care about, and of how he cares about people. He's weird because on the one hand he would say some bigoted shit, on the other he would get viscerally angry if other people would do the same, especially in public and in a way to harm or alienate someone else. Like he would be comfortable with saying a slur used against gay people, but if he saw someone do that and in front of a gay person, he would flip. So I remind him of his heart, how he cares about the vulnerable and the socially junk-piled, how he roots for the underdog. This has taken years and many many conversations, but he has sincerely changed. He decided to make a better attempt at creating positive meaning, as far as others are concerned, in the face of his meaninglessness. He is still an intense alcoholic, but even in this state he was able to challenge his baser and uninterrogated instincts and make positive changes. But yeah, most people don't and it's much easier not to. I only didn't give up because we were so close and it really seemed like his time in jail figured do heavily in his behavior/disposition
He’s weird because on the one hand he would say some bigoted shit, on the other he would get viscerally angry if other people would do the same, especially in public and in a way to harm or alienate someone else. Like he would be comfortable with saying a slur used against gay people, but if he saw someone do that and in front of a gay person, he would flip.
Your friend sounds like a very decent person. Like, he’s already starting from a more humane position than 70% of Americans. Most say bigoted things in private and would not at all speak out if someone said something bigoted in public.
My dad alwayd was a very unstable guy but fairly apolitical. He discovered Facebook and now he subscribes to all the -isms, never met one he didn't like. He now thinks only white men can save us from ourselves. No one of us have spoken to him in ages but apparently he started claiming he is Jewish?!? Because he supports Israel so much lol. Fuck Facebook
apparently he started claiming he is Jewish?!? Because he supports Israel so much
Dudes do not, in fact, rock
Death to America
Remember, fascists are human, and that's exactly what makes them so evil. Every necessary bullet in a fascist's head is a tragedy that must occur.
"Love and forgive them enough and they'll gain a conscience and empathy that wasn't there until that moment!" -Most contemporary fiction.
We're each an entire universe. An entire universe of human genius can make for a very dangerous predator.
Someone seemed to find it weird that I said "white cult." I call the Nazis that because I need to remember I don't have the skill to rescue someone from a cult. A death cult. A predatory swarm of insects who've been reduced to the evil of overconsuming and destroying until nothing's left.
He's a goner, and I hope his alcoholism, Covid, or monkeypox takes him out. :inshallah-script:
Man, the same thing happened to me.
He always had problematic beliefs, but I lied to myself that he was only kidding (yes, stupid in hindsight, I am not a clever man, etc.). It wasn't until I saw his blood-in-the-mouth reaction to the Ukraine-Russian war did I realise that he was just a stone's throw away from fash and I just couldn't keep hanging around him anymore. I miss him... I just wish he wasn't like this. It's why I had to say good bye.
However, I made him as a friend by hanging out in places that I enjoyed at the time. I realise now that if I want a friend like him again, I'll have to put myself out there again and find a person who believes in similar things that what I do. That's hard, I know, but I think that I can do it.
It's worrying seeing libs put up Ukraine flags in my neighborhood. I want this shit out of here, and my life in general. You're smart for kicking him out yours despite the pain of doing so.
You know what, I need to talk to friends I already have. I've cut most of them off while depressed, but I can collect whole new outlooks just by hanging around them. New memories can replace old ones if you live in the moment. No matter how much I still think of this guy, I'll end up doing it less just by having good company present. Thanks! :meow-fiesta:
idk the terminology is strange, so maybe they’ll edit it later? I don’t get it either lol
tbh I was thinking of posting something like this thread next week. Somber reflections on relationships lost to shitty politics.
I've almost lost quite a few of my close friends to the cult. There was two only-online people in my friend group who were open fascists and white supremacists. I stuck along mainly because I could at least fight back their idiotic political beliefs as the only (baby) leftist. Luckily, my friends seemed to only want to interact with the cult due to immaturity and wanting some sort of political ideology.
When one only-online friend went on a rant involving his hatred of Jews and black people right in the middle of the Black Lives Matter protests I left the Discord server where everyone was. Another real life friend did as well, and we ended up abandoning the server over time, and deleted the server just a little bit ago. Everyone now is just jaded about working, poverty, and cost of living, no extremists. People can change for the better, as it turns out.
