• MitchFucko [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      yeah looks like it to me. there's a section of maga/post-maga people that are pro-russia, antisemitic, patriotic originalist types. They see a few of the problems with capitalism and our political process but filter the information through a thick lens of chauvinism and patriotism so come to fash and fash-adjacent conclusions.

      • Lussy [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I’m realizing just now that my friend is one of these. He just dropped me with a bomb the other week that led to me thinking I’ve been hanging out with wrong person without knowing this entire time: referred to the Weimar Republic as socialist.

        • MitchFucko [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Any other warning signs? Wonder if he can be de+re-radicalized

          • Lussy [any]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            He’s several decades older than me, I’veknown him since I was a child. He’s a white, former environmental science professor and Peace corp volunteer in Niger. He was teaching in Haiti just before the coup and has done a lot of work in Haiti.

            I was always under the impression he was a leftist, albeit with some ideological inconsistencies. Then he fell into the anti-vax rabbit hole. He’s stated that he thinks cops are necessary and that people want cops to exist. He’s talked about ‘woke’ language once. He said once he thinks minors should not be able to get a sex change. This sounds like the opinion of someone who is not necessarily a transphobe but one who has transphobic friends and he’s willing to ‘hear both sides’ just fit in.

            I dunno, I think he’s reading nakedcapitalism too much and getting sucked in by the reactionary types that have their stuff occasionally posted on that blog.

            I feel that the anti-capitalist sentiment that has been brewing in this country has been commandeered by the right. We’ve lost so hard on that front, because too many gullible libs and leftists exist and chuds are ruthless.

            • MitchFucko [any]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Sounds like maybe he could have been a leftish liberal who got pipelined rightward by culture war stuff over the last 3-4 years.

              Not sure what the "primary" contradiction might be in this type of person's mind. It kind of sounds like he's been caught up by the "capture" of the word "left" by liberals combined with the cynical co-opting of leftist rhetoric by the right, which funnels unprincipled but otherwise leftish people into ideologically-incoherent rightism.

              What's his opinion on Haiti? Perhaps if you can get through to him with comparisons to Cuba (actual Cuba, not western propaganda) it could unravel some brainworms?

              • Lussy [any]
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                He’s an American who is strongly anti-imperialist and anti-USA, it’s why I still cling on to the hope he’s a leftist despite those other things. But being ‘anti-imperialist’ nowadays doesn’t mean much, I’ve found out. His opinion on Haiti is inline with every leftist voice I’ve ever heard. It just seems like when it comes to local stuff, he sounds more and more like a chud.

                • MitchFucko [any]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  Hmm anti-imperialism is interesting and promising, isn't it? That's a line even leftish libs in the US don't seem to get. So do you think maybe he's a leftist that's been caught up in culture war propaganda? Especially if he's financially comfortable, it's pretty easy for ideological drift to happen without strong principles and a community (which largely hasn't existed for the left in the US).

                  If that's the case maybe it's better to do case-by-case targeted education on specific topics. Like, if you think he's a somewhat leftist person that's just being swayed by culture war stuff, pushing back on the culture war stuff and tying things back to leftist principals may be a good strategy. Like how no one is doing surgery on trans children, that's a made-up issue to rile up Fox News watchers (which is being used to manufacture legitimacy for removing children from homes and trafficking them). Maybe try and help him understand the difference between liberal corporate co-opting of popular rhetoric, and actual grassroots/leftist movements? It's like the corporation donning the mask of a marginalized group, making reactionaries target the marginalized group rather than the corporation.

                  I dunno him obviously, sorry if the spitballing is annoying. but I think talking through agitation/education tactics for situations like this can be useful

            • AcidSmiley [she/her]
              ·
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              This sounds like the opinion of someone who is not necessarily a transphobe but one who has transphobic friends and he’s willing to ‘hear both sides’ just fit in.

              It's the opinion of somebody who's been subjected to transphobic disinformation, as "sex changes" ( = surgical reassignment of primary sexual characteristics like orchidectomy, vaginoplasty, metoidioplasty, phalloplasty etc.) is not a form of gender affirming care for minors that is practiced anywhere in the world. The idea that trans kids' genitals are operated on is pure fascist fearmongering and disinfo and it is exclusively spread in TERF and far-right circles and media.

              Gender affirming care for kids before puberty is always just social transitioning, nothing else. Medically transitioning only makes sense once they're old enough to grow secondary sexual characteristics that could trigger dysphoria. At that point, you normally still do not start transitioning, but stall it by using puberty blockers, and only when they're old enough to legally consent to medical procedures themselves can you start with HRT (age of that varies, but it's 14 in a lot of places). Genital reassignment surgery exclusively happens when they're 18 or older. Anybody telling you otherwise either doesn't know what the fuck they're talking about or they're lying to you.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      also Israel is the client state of the USA, so it’s the other way around.

      Looking at how much influence AIPAC seems to have in US politics, it's hard to say that the US-Israel relationship isn't some sort of... symbiosis? Co-dependency?

      • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        It's an incestuous relationship for sure but without the USA Israel would lose so much and probably wouldn't be a thing anymore. The general chud conspiracy is that it's the other way around, that da joooooz control the USA through AIPAC and lobbies, and while they hold a shit ton of sway it's not really the case.

    • dead [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      This is just the average american reactionary. These stickers all align with things that Tucker Carlson has said on show, which is the most watched news program in america, averaging almost 5 million live viewers nightly. Tucker Carlson and a lot of MAGA people are unironically pro-Putin. I've also heard plenty of MAGA people say that funding to other countries like Israel should be cut off, just because they have chronic "fiscal conservative" brain.

      It's incredibly unlikely that this person is a patsoc or magacommunist or whatever. Patsocs are a very small fringe online group. We only hear about them because we are terminally online.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I don't know. The "Godspeed Putin" line makes this guy look like either a :fedposting: or one of those MAGACommunists I've heard so much about.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      :xi-gun: the only Winnie the Pooh joke I can get behind :xi-reactionary-spotted:

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    There's an old study that concluded that having more stickers on a car, no matter what the stickers were, corresponded to the driver having more aggression with the more stickers. Make of that what you will.