#deradicalization

[victusinveritas]

Reminder: you can always just stop hating and being an asshole. You'll probably even feel better about yourself.

[creature-wizard]

Hey folks, something to keep in mind - far right indoctrination runs on a lot of pseudoscience and pseudohistory. Promoting and spreading real science and real history is incredibly important, both to help people deradicalize and to prevent people from being radicalized.

[nachobsns]

Hello - I was impressed and extremely relieved by what you wrote in the post about the cult mentality of the Left RE Israel and accusations of genocide. You mentioned that you bought into the mindset until recently. If it's all right for me to ask, what was it that helped you break out of it? (Please feel free to delete/ignore if you'd rather not answer!)

thank you!! and no worries about asking— i think i put something in my pinned post about how people are welcome to send asks about this stuff, although my story isn’t super interesting. i fell down the typical online rabbithole, a couple weeks after october 7; i knew what had happened, at least vaguely, but the posts trickling onto my dash were all about the (undeniably tragic) loss of life in gaza, with little to no acknowledgment of the hamas atrocities that had started the war, so my narrative was pretty one-sided from the beginning. it just continued to snowball as the months went on and people became more radicalized, calling into question the reality of the 10/7 attacks and the humanity of all israelis. i never went all the way down the pipeline to full-on endorsing hamas or justifying their attacks, at least on a personal level, thank god, but i would reblog other people’s posts referring to hamas as a “resistance movement” and calls to boycott starbucks and mcdonald’s and condemnation of the “zionist media” etc etc etc. what pulled me out of it wasn’t any one thing— if someone had directly called me on my flawed logic and antisemitic biases while i was in this mindset, i doubt it would have done much, just reinforced my belief that i was on the “right side of history” and zionists were aggressors who couldn’t be reasoned with. it was mostly just passive observance and a slow exposure to other perspectives. i’m pretty sure the first post that led me to question my thinking was an ask on jewish-vents, which popped up on my dash in like, late july. this led me down another rabbithole, first scouring every single post on jewish-vents, then moving on to more popular jewish blogs that i had seen on “zionist blocklists” (applesauce42069, xclowniex, and spacelazarwolf were probably some of the blogs that influenced me the most, though i told myself i was just hate-scrolling at first, lol). i felt incredibly guilty seeing all the harm the movement i was a part of had caused to random jews and israelis just trying to live their lives and i realized how it went against everything i believed about how minority groups should be treated. from there, the aspect of actually undoing my thinking and changing my behavior for the better still took several weeks. denial of jewish indigenity to the levant in the face of tantamount archeological and cultural evidence was the first to go, as well as any ambiguity in my feelings about hamas. after that, it’s mostly been a slow process of redefining the idf’s actions from a “genocide” to a “war.” i still believe that what’s happening in gaza is unconscionable and horrific, and that too many innocent civilians have died, but i also understand how difficult it is to fight against a terrorist group that systematically embeds itself in civilian populations, and that the ratio of militant to civilian deaths is incredibly low compared to most urban warfare. i quietly deleted my old blog in early august— if i had directly engaged in harassment against jews, i likely would have kept it to make amends to the harmed parties and put a face to my actions, but as was, i had just contributed to the larger atmosphere of antisemitism on this site, and i felt uncomfortable knowing that i had a blog full of sentiments that no longer matched my values and beliefs. i decided i would be better if i took my endorsement out of the equation entirely, because when you’re looking through the notes of a post, it obviously doesn’t matter if someone who’s reblogged it no longer agrees with what was said— their notes still count as tacit approval, and i did not want approval of this “activism” attached to my online presence. i still have unwanted kneejerk reactions that crop up sometimes, particularly around the fundraiser posts from people “in gaza”; even though i know logically that they have all the markers of scams, there is still a part of me that really wants to believe i could help.

[aqlstar]

Question for Jews and non Jews alike-

Has anyone seen someone go from supporting Hamas/Hezbollah/PFLP while claiming they aren’t antisemitic to understanding why those orgs are in fact antisemitic and changing their position?

Curious not because I think it’s a good use of our time to try to convince terrorist supporters why they’re wrong, but because if it’s a thing that people have had success with we could come up with a guide for well meaning gentiles to be able to deradicalize their friends.

Idk anyone have any ideas here? Open to everybody.

[odinsblog]

The fucking nerve of Netanyahu talking about “de-radicalizing” Palestinians, as he is committing genocide. Somebody needs to de-radicalize Benjamin Netanyahu and the state of Israel.

[boreal-sea]

Look,

If you’re slowly starting to question the extremely radicalized “pro-Palestine” edge of the current conflict, I’m proud of you.

If you’re quietly reading posts by Jews and learning more about the history of the region and it’s starting to change your mind, I’m proud of you.

If you’re questioning the things you believed when you got swept up by the momentum of the movement, I’m proud of you.

If you’re starting to think “yikes, maybe some of that actually was antisemitic”, I’m proud of you.

If you’re listening to more than one voice or one opinion on the matter, I’m proud of you.

You can do this.

Maybe at first you’re just going to quietly delete all those posts where you said “globalize the intifada” now that you know what that actually means. Maybe you’re going to quietly unblock a lot of Jews, and even follow some of their accounts. Maybe you’ll block the non-Jewish accounts that spread a lot of antisemitism and hatred, the ones that got you all angry and radicalized you in the first place.

Those are all good first steps towards deradicalization. It’s kind of scary to pull back from all that, but if you’re trying, I’m proud of you.

[pumpumdemsugah]

People online think deradicalisation can be achieved through the power of friendship and not a years long process that requires introspection, therapy, and sometimes professional deradicalisating services and if you're ever suspicious of someone with a past like that or you're even slightly mean to a white man, you're to blame for neo nazis, you're a fascist and not leftist and you can't play with my toys anymore.

" If someone's changed, you should forgive them or its sin (not leftist)." ok, youth pastor

What do you people think forgiveness is because it doesn't mean people are obligated to be around you. There are literal groups dedicated to deradicalisating people and have been trained to do so. Your white ass doesn't need to try to guilt other people into " forgiveness."

Every day, people on here make it clear they grew up as deeply obnoxious white American Christians and all ideas about community need to function like a fucking church where everyone needs to play nice or they're going to hell...sorry I mean not a real leftist

[thestrangerinyourmidst]

One thing that struck me at my intro to judaism course today as we were learning about zionism was that my shul's cantor made it clear to us that we are not required to be zionists to become Jewish.

One accusation I've had thrown at my rabbi and my congregation by multiple people is that they are just telling us (conversion students) Israeli propaganda. Which in itself is problematic because it feeds the antisemetic "Jews are liars and manipulators and can't be trusted" trope, but it also shows a fundamental lack of understanding in the way a synagouge functions. There is no preacher who tells you "this is what we believe" the Rabbi or another member of the congregation may present to the congregation something that they personally got out of the text, but won't force you to believe that. Similarly, members of the congregation are likely to want you to join in on discussions and debates about any number of topics but won't force you to believe what they believe. The ability to learn, understand, and make an informed decision is highly valued, especially in the reform/progressive movements.

I used to be a bit of a hamasnik (thankfully a nonconfrontational and nonviolent one) and it was a combination of learning Jewish history, talking to people who have lived in Israel or have family in Israel, and hearing live updates about the hostages, combined with a non-threatening and non-confrontational environment where I was never forced to submit to frivolous morality tests or risk being shunned from my community that made me realise I can actually think for myself.

[alittleannihilati0n]

Trying to deradicalize my MAGA teenage sister and I need to crowdsource some info! For the time being, I can pretty easily access her Instagram (which is her main social media) and follow/unfollow/mute accounts, but i have to be subtle so she doesn't catch on. I muted Charlie Kirk, but I don't think I can do much else in terms of muting/unfollowing without it being obvious tampering. Are there any creators anyone knows of who make subtle deradicalization content? I've found a lot of deconstructers or ex-maga/right-wingers, but that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for accounts that couch their deradicalization content in language that doesn't immediately turn off people who are currently MAGA. If anyone knows of any, please lmk in the replies or reblogs!! Also do me a favor and reblog this if you can, I actually wanna get some visibility for this post so I can get more responses.

[wirewitchviolet]

Observing an Infantalized 4chan Nazi

So recently I fell down a real serious rabbithole with a game that really puts your brain through the ringer. Nobody I know seems to want anything to do with it, so I wandered into some discord trying to find people to compare notes with and get my head around some more headache-y bits. It's not my community, I don't really know the vibe, I'm still feeling it out, but the other day someone new wandered in, and I dunno, I feel like a researcher lucking into an unexpected glimpse at a rare phenomenon in the field, or maybe like a vampire hunter stumbling onto someone who only just got bit and is having stomach pains because he tried to eat garlic bread. One of those.

See, I'm no stranger to watching nazis try to sneak into communities for nefarious purposes. It's always the same song and dance where they try real hard to come off like polite functional human beings, and casually ease into their talking points, and then their masks slip right off because if they could conduct themselves like rational empathetic human beings, they wouldn't have ended up as nazis. This here though isn't one of those. This is someone who seems to just have wandered in here for tips on how this weird game works, who doesn't have the wherewithal to even try to act like a normal person.

He's just attempting to ask questions about game mechanics, and it's spilling out as this weird mix of disgusting Nazi frog pictures, self-flagellation, slurs, and weird baby talk. I'm trying to find something that can be quoted in polite company and I just can't. Here's the closest I can manage, with apologies:

"I dont have enough weaponised autism to play this game LOL"

And when questioned on that phrasing- "I dont have the 4chan/pol weaponised Elon autism. I have the garden variety THE DUMB"

Both of these of course paired up with gross poorly drawn Pepes, one drooling, one... committing an act of self-harm. The vibe I'm getting off the entire server is this mix and disgust and confusion at this gross pathetic mess. There's some polite hinting that this isn't cool to maybe try and catch a mod's attention, and there's some effort being made to parse out the actual questions and answer them. Then there's a bunch of blubbering from the channer shocked at anyone being willing to engage with him.

Meanwhile of course I'm over here on the sidelines, just kinda simmering with rage and knowing better than to open my mouth, over just being in the presence of one of these creeps, all the casual hate speech, nazi symbols, and vile imagery, idol worship of deeply hateful and stupid people, the total lack of self-awareness, and, like the title says, just general disgust at the weird cocktail of learned helplessness and self-loathing simmering in that sort of environment has reduced what I assume is physically a fully capable of adult into.

But, I say through incredibly clenched teeth, I suppose this here really is sort of the ideal scenario for our rare specimen here. He's not SO far gone that he's completely given up on having actual interests and at least trying to make some kind of attempt at healthy interactions with people. Again, usually when I see a nazi in some discord, there is zero question that they are there for absolutely no purpose beyond trying to recruit/attack/spy on people. So theoretically, not completely beyond saving here. And he's getting a taste of how normal people interact, with a nice contrast against the nazi crap, and doing... yeah literally anything with his time but marrinating in hate. He just needs to stop metaphorically dropping his pants and taking a giant dump on the floor every time he enters a room and to talk like an actual damn adult and not some kind of racist giant baby.

So in this one very specific case, hey, glad to see it, here's hoping he slips away from the chan scene and focuses on games or whatever. But before anyone gets any ideas about running around redeeming nazis or anything, keep in mind the following things- I only see this as even potentially on the table here because this is a rare unicorn situation of someone who's clearly been cooking in a nazi stew long enough to lose all ability hold a conversation like a civilized person but not QUITE so long as to stop seeing other people as anything but potential targets or recruits, a window that tends to be so short I've maybe seen it one other time ever. Even under these rare ideal conditions, odds are pretty low this particular channer is going to actually withdraw from that scene in favor of say this random discord, not have some kind of relapse, not pose a clear threat or danger to anyone, and it's not like people who stop being slur-spewing nazis magically turn into decent people. Best case scenario's still going to be a fairly repellent right-wing creep, just you know, one who keeps quiet about it and lives a normal life instead of being some indoctrinated fanatical foot soldier actively antagonizing people.

[odinsblog]

war criminals 🇷🇺🤝🇮🇱

The Joseph Goebbels, “always accuse the other side of that which you are guilty of doing” strategy has always worked remarkably well on a lot of people, especially tankies and their counterparts, authoritarian conservatives.

Who will deradicalize Israel, and denazify Russia??

[jewish-vents]

I hate that it's our responsibility to deradicalise them

it's not our responsibility to deradicalise antisemites, our responsibility is to live our life respectful and kind to others, and to do our part to better the world or our community.

there's no use talking to people who think you're less human for the way you were born or because of actions others are taking in what they believe to be in your name, especially if they're not people you know personally. you can always try to explain to them if you believe it comes from a place of misinformation or ignorance, but it's not your responsibility to change their mind.

please stay safe anon 💙

[aloeverawrites]

The basics:

Human rights are important.

Animals rights are important.

Abuse is never okay.

Marginalised communities deserve to be exist and be respected.

Harming others is wrong, being odd is okay as long as no harm is being caused.

Words can hurt.

The goal is world peace.

[screamingfromuz]

hi. i know this isn't an easy question to answer but i'm very lost right now so i would appreciate any advice. how can you deradicalise someone away from conspiracy theories? my white roommate has been liking israel did 10/7 posts, as well as some praising mob attacks on random diaspora jews, and i'm really scared. it's all because of twitter. i've given her my login info for a couple of newspapers i subscribe to but she hasn't been reading them. i've sent her links to books/podcasts but she doesn't open them (just says oh thank you and then nothing). she doesn't listen when i tell her bluntly she should stop getting her news from the site run by a neonazi. i am not a zionist and i know i'm significantly more pro palestine than her (she didn't even know who ben gvir was or what the west bank was the one time we talked about it, i really think it's just a Correct Twitter Opinion for her), but i'm scared she'll dismiss me as anti palestinian and deem me a bad jew if i say anything and i'm not in a position to move out rn. i'm so nervous and feel like i'm walking on eggshells all the time. please let me know if you know of any resources for this kind of situation. i don't know what to do

first, I know you said you cannot move out right now, but get an escape plan ready, just in case. Deradicalization should never come at the cost of your safety.

two, efficient deradicalization does not use facts, sending articles and podcasts is useless because of the nature of ideologies. Althusser explained that ideologies have a central place in the perception of reality of someone, your ideology is part of you, and forcing change on others never ends well. If you want to deradicalize her, you must engage in a conversation that acknowledge emotions and the way people get defensive when their opinions are challenged. Talk about the emotional reality of the matter, ask her why she thinks that it was an inside job, or what makes her comfortable attacking random Jews and them deconstruct that belief with her. If you feel comfortable, you can ask if she thinks it's ok if you were attacked, if she would praise people that would put you in danger.

this will require the trickiest thing in deradicalization, you must not come from a place of moral superiority, you must come from a place of equality and serve as a companion and not a guide. deradicalization is placing a mirror in front of someone and helping them examine themselves and develop empathy for "others".

this is a long process, that often requires you to teach people a whole new language. I can tell you that part of deradicalization here is simply getting the term "Palestinian" into the vocabulary.

I will warn you, it only works if the other person has a desire to change. deradicalization is a lot like speech therapy, it will take time.

this is a great video that might give you tools. Daryl Davis is am amazing person and a role model for how to deradicalize people.

good luck love, be safe.

[creature-wizard]

How to persuade people more effectively

So my lovely Tumblr people, I think you can agree that we are facing dreadful times and that it would be wonderful if we could get out of them. As we all know, changing anything in society and politics requires changing a lot of of minds, which often feels like a Herculean task. Since I believe in trying to fight smarter rather than harder, here's my list of advice to make this work easier.

Ask yourself if you’re really up to the task.

If you’re really tired or not in a good mood, you might want to pass. If you’re looking at someone who’s really obnoxious and maybe likely to set you off in bad ways, you can pass. If OP has a username that signals an extreme viewpoint like retvrn1488, maga5ever, or wyldwombyn, consider that just blocking them may be your best choice. Also, you’re probably never going to get anywhere with someone who thinks you’re beneath them – if someone obviously holds you in contempt, just don’t bother. You are not required to try and educate or argue with everybody who’s wrong. Pick your battles.

Know your stuff.

I’ve made the mistake of trying to talk about things that I didn’t know nearly as much about as I should have a few times. Even though I wasn’t wrong, I just didn’t have enough information to demonstrate that my positions were justified. Each time I tried this, it basically blew up in my face. Please don’t repeat my mistakes.

Ask yourself: Can you explain and justify your position without repeating a soundbite like “X is a conspiracy theory” or “Y is racist”? Can you show why it’s a conspiracy theory? Can you show how it’s racist? If you can’t, you’re not ready yet. Go level up first!

Stay composed and be charismatic.

I know this is sometimes easier said than done, but coming off as calm and confident does wonders, especially in contrast with someone who just can’t hold it together. It also helps to have a big vocabulary and to be articulate, and to inject an energy into your message that makes people feel empowered and motivated.

Don't talk to people like they've been consciously choosing evil just because they want to.

People don't do that. People believe that what they've been doing is either good, neutral, or necessary to survive. Functionally telling people "you're evil and you know it" signals to most people that you're a bad faith actor. (The ones who will actually agree with you are probably deeply traumatized from abuse and/or suffering from moral OCD.)

Don’t show contempt.

Showing contempt signals that the person you’re arguing with isn’t worth taking seriously. This is can be useful for handling bad faith actors who come and try to make themselves your problem. You know you aren’t going to change their minds, but you can signal to anyone watching that this person is an utter fool, even a laughingstock while signaling to them that they aren't getting anywhere with you.

If you’re trying to actually change somebody’s mind, you do not want to show them that they aren’t worth taking seriously. You want them to feel respected, like you think they’re smart and have ideas and feelings worthy of attention. I know this can be easier said than done! But if you begin with the assumption that the person you’re talking to is capable of learning and probably has some insights, values, and opinions worthy of consideration, you’re going to give off a much better vibe for them.

Don’t attack people personally.

If you’re trying to persuade someone, don’t call them racist, sexist, bigoted, etc. Don’t call them ignorant, stupid, or whatever. This is basically just a form of showing contempt. Again, showing contempt has its uses, but persuading people isn’t one of them.

A lot of people assume that the people they want to persuade think very highly of themselves and if they just cut their ego down to size they’ll become receptive and listen. But most people are just going to see an attack and nope out. Besides that, teaching self-hatred is how capitalism manipulates people into making themselves more profitable and marketable, and it’s also one of the ways white patriarchy manipulates people into taking on its repressive and often oppressive roles. Self-hatred is the weapon of the enemy, we don’t need it.

Don’t play the victim.

Playing the victim isn’t the same as acknowledging that you have been abused or harmed, or acknowledging that you lived a life where everything was stacked against you. Talking about ways you’ve been victimized doesn’t equal playing the victim, contrary to what some bad faith actors out there say.

Playing the victim is about the role you take on in a social interaction, where you position yourself as fragile, put-upon, and vulnerable. It’s the kind of thing a lot of white women do when things don’t go their way. It’s also a habit that’s easy to pick up if you don’t have firm boundaries. People who haven’t realized they can just go, “I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to have this interaction, so I just won’t,” might start traumadumping, or try to shame the other person, or try to make a big guilt trip. “How dare you talk to me this way, you don’t know what I’ve been through! You’re so selfish, you don’t think about anyone but yourself! You’re forcing me to do all this work for you because you’re so entitled!”

I know, people can be really frustrating. Sometimes they can be incredibly upsetting. Sometimes they can send us spiraling into dangerous places. But the thing about playing the victim is that it not only doesn’t persuade people, but it’s also really unhealthy for you. It feeds a narrative that you are always disempowered, even when you’re not. On the Internet, you can usually just choose to not interact if things get overwhelming, and maybe use the block button. It can be harder to get away from people offline, but it’s important to do the best you can.

It’s also useful to recognize when you’re getting defensive and to know what you can do when that happens. Here’s a page that might help you with this.

Don't act like anyone you wouldn't listen to.

When's the last time you've listened to one of those street preachers screaming about everything they think is wrong with society and yelling at people to repent of their sins? Never, right? Don't act like the kind of people you would ignore.

Be a good listener.

Persuading people isn’t just about saying what you want them to hear, it’s also about listening to them so they feel like you’re engaging with them, rather than talking down to them. Plus, listening helps you assess what they actually know and believe, which helps you determine what you need to say to them. Here’s a page to help you improve your listening skills. (And I know stuff like maintaining eye contact and reading body language isn’t always easy or possible for people – just try to do the best you can!)

Validate people where you can.

Validation signals that you understand and care about people’s problems, which makes them more open and trusting. You don’t have to validate bigotry or anything like that, but you can validate how frustrating it is to deal with high grocery prices, politicians who don’t seem to care, and lots of everyday frustrations. This is also how you begin building solidarity, by the way – when people see how we all suffer the same way, they can begin to see that we’re all working toward a common goal.

Use anecdotes.

It would be wonderful if we could just show people scientific data and have them be persuaded by it all the time, but for many people data feels abstract and not really real. (It probably also doesn’t help that most people don’t understand how the data was collected.) However, anecdotes often feel more real to people, and have a lot more persuasion power. (Consider how many “this happened to a friend of a friend” stories get passed around like gospel!) Personal anecdotes are really great – telling someone about your awesome trans friend can do a lot do make them reconsider their prejudices about trans people.

But also, have scientific/scholarly resources.

Some people are going to be sharp enough that anecdotes won’t work on them – and good for them, honestly! Also, scientific and scholarly resources can lend further credence to anecdotes. So try to have them on hand, if you possibly can!

Give people reasons.

People don’t like doing things if they don’t feel like there’s any good reason for it. Also, be aware that different types of reasons will be more or less compelling to different people. Some people will find moral reasons compelling on their own, while some people will respond better to a “how this benefits you personally” reason. Someone might respond better to “we shouldn’t do X because it hurts the environment” than to “we shouldn’t do X because it’s cultural appropriation.” (And of course we want people to understand that cultural appropriation is bad, but that’s going to be a whole other thing you’re going to have to give reasons for!)

Adjust your rhetoric for the person you’re talking to.

Though we all share many common values, we also understand the world through many different lenses use different language to communicate what we see and feel. We also prioritize certain ideals over others.

If I were going to talk about the racism in the Republican party to a strongly Christian person or a New Agey person, I might say that all of this stuff they’re saying about immigrants is meant to stir up fear and divide people, then go on to talk about how the data just doesn’t support this idea that immigrants are as violent as they say.

If I were talking to the kind of person who strongly believes in the ideals of freedom and liberty, I might talk about how anti-queer legislation infringes on people’s freedom to live how they see fit. I might bring up that it violates their constitutional right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Offer alternatives.

The easiest way to end a bad habit or belief is to replace it with a good (or at least neutral) habit or belief. For example, if you’re trying to persuade people to stop using unsourced white sage (here's information on the problem with this, if you don't know), list alternatives such as rosemary and juniper.

Leave them with additional resources to explore.

Keeping a big list of resources on hand is the secret to activism bliss. Okay, maybe not, but it sure makes things a lot easier! If someone is really curious and engaged, they’ll often be willing to explore resources if you have them. Do try and make sure that not all of your resources are locked behind paywalls or require a deep understanding of specialized language. Curating resources accessible to any means and level of education will help you maximize your ability to persuade and educate.