Friend Infected With Right Wing Brain Worms - What to Do?

lickspittles for the super rich and the violent tho

some inchoate thoughts about this lately and the role of group violence in post-colonial culture. something along the lines of violence being the structuring force and desire line of modernity. it's only real symbolically (even though it really effects the deaths of thousands of people every day) and there are two sides to it: a libidinal, group-binding thing and a practical, keep neo-liberal realpolitik fed thing. it's driven by desire but highly regulated. you aren't supposed to have direct access to it; mediated access is what's allowed, but that simply keeps the desire hot. everyone including liberals pay fealty to it but their ideal interface allows them a smooth existence in spite of it (they lean towards denying or repressing the group-binding element, or enacting the violence from within the structures and hierarchies of capitalist exploitation). conservatives are repulsed and infuriated by this repression of liberalism. in some instances there is an impulse to override the capitalist structure which could even be seen as progressive if it were turned toward ending violence, but the goal is to resurrect violence as a libidinal pleasure and try to enact it in a more authentic fashion, that's the appeal of neo-fascism, but they can't access a "deeper" more "authentic" violence because it's already been given legitimacy only when it's carried out as globalist, market-sustaining extinguishment of people who matter the least on that scale.

also like there's a moral imperative against violence of any kind in liberal culture that isn't coherent at all when you realize that sanctioned violence is more prevalent than ever, and the atomization of its causes is even somewhat driven by the puritanism of the no-violence commandment. the appeal of conservativism is it puts the violence front-and-center and puts it in an old-fashioned frame, where ironically it ends up being useless to society at large except as another way to keep groups of people from directing their ire at what's legitimately a moral wrong in society, the ruling class hierarchy and all of the tools it uses to sustain itself.

For clarification I hate ultra- rich, violent people not rich or violent people. Which I think you touch on above about capitalist exploitation.

I just permanently disassociated myself from some of the RWNJs in my family. My cousin, who is of my generation and with whom I spent a lot of time growing up, posted a dumb Facebook meme from -- :::rolleyes::: -- Turning Point USA, and all I did was correct a few of the facts that were very obviously wrong. I didn't expect to change her mind about anything, and she made it clear that I wouldn't; I just said I was a big believer in facts. Her son chimed in with a meme of Trump in a soldier's uniform (oh the irony) reading "How about rooting for America once, you liberal scumbag?" to which she replied "That's my boy!" I replied one last time and said, "I just achieved a moment of realization -- I don't have to have anything to do with you people just because we happen to be related and once got along. Have a nice life!" It's a very freeing feeling.

The aforementioned son, by the way, is a racist piece of shit who brandishes a Confederate flag (in Ohio ffs, we have relatives in our family true who fought for the Union in the WV infantry and were prisoners of war) who -- and I'm sure this is ENTIRELY UNRELATED -- is starting at the police academy this month.

Yeah, one of my brothers was a cop for 20 years, barely passed HS, did a ton of steroids, cheated on every gf before finally getting married. I never felt like that was a loss in not speaking to him when I barely spoke to him growing up anyway. People don't deserve an audience for their cruelty, no matter how passive or joking it may be.

Ugh, today in the pub there were a couple of guys chatting to the staff about how 'you can't even say snowman anymore!'.

why can't you say snowman?

global warming

'Snowman' was banned around the same time as Christmas iirc.

xxxp I have no doubt this second cousin of mine expects there to be a class at the academy called "How to shoot African-Americans for fun and profit."

Ugh, today in the pub there were a couple of guys chatting to the staff about how 'you can't even say snowman anymore!'.

did you give them all the clues

I'd presume that notion is based on the apocryphal "race board" holding an important meeting about stopping people from saying the word Snowman. Which is obv a dual white supremacy/western christianity symbol that is oddly made out of snowflakes, which are lefty libs in disguise!

nah, it's supposed to be "snowperson"

Just 'person', really.

I know this because my Indian mother-in-law forwarded an offensive Australian whatsapp meme that contained this very "joke" to my wife a few weeks ago

i'm still furious about all those SJW's swaying Lucas to call them "Sand People" and not "Sand Men"

I can't even find the Bitches & Hoes section of my local DIY store these days.

This is an interesting article by a woman who went to high school with someone I'm not familiar with, but who is apparently a fairly prominent alt-right/neo-Nazi spokesmodel. Sort of a "how did my friend go insane?" piece.

I got through most of that but she doesn't seem like much of a mystery really - a sociopath with daddy issues

reminds me of this twitter thread by someone who went to school with Lena Epstein, the now-defeated candidate who invited a messianic jew to speak following the recent synagogue shooting

This ad with my name on is going out in today's metro-Detroit Jewish News. We include Dems, libertarians, even an aide to a GOP rep. I wanted to explain why we purchased it, why most of us who grew up with @LenaEpstein are strongly urging voters to choose anyone else. pic.twitter.com/EmclPCkTQN

— Seth M. Fisher (@Misopogon) November 1, 2018

My extremely pro-brexit cousin now thinks that there may be some 'short term' economic issues, and maybe a recession but

a) This can lead to a short period of 'crisis capitalism', which is good because thats when disruption occurs
b) The EU is going to fall apart anyway

The second seems a more typical run of the mill viewpoint, its not enough for us to get our thing, our enemy must also suffer in some ways or the victory is hollow. The first feels out of the remit of this thread. Really doesn't sound like the language of the brainworm infected footsoldier at all! More the language of the infector than the infected! Though in some ways it reflects it. He, as one of the 'good ones', believes he will not suffer any of the ill effects. Its a change though, from 'there will be no ill effects' to 'there may be some ill effects but in fact this is actually good'

sounds like he's ready for you to cut him off for his own good and bring about the hallowed disrupting time

The EU is going to fall apart anyway....and the UK will rise like a phoenix from the ashes

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/i-gathered-stories-of-people-transformed-by-fox-news.html

That article is really something. All these Fox News orphans.

I called my mother two weeks ago and funerals, wills, things like that came up. She was very upset that I have absolutely no intention of returning for anyone's funeral. I People are alive now; any sentiments or changes can be made now. When you're dead, who cares.

This is really for the other thread, but this backs up my view that Bernie should absolutely go on Fox news (and that Katie Halper, Kyle Kulinski etc are right to do so as well - as long as you're going on there to push your message and not shit on the left like Greenwald did/does)

This is unfettered mainline access to a huge audience. We're so obsessed with no-platforming we do it to ourselves and encourage people to pass up one of the biggest platforms there is). If it is brainwashing people, then damn get on there asap!

yeah, the upside may be fairly small but I think the downside is even smaller. if Fox wants to demonize you they're gonna do that regardless. and I agree this is a separate issue from Greenwald types and also a separate issue from the argument over whether the DNC should let Fox host one of its debates, which I don't think it should do.

should probably murder them

I've got a cousin who has always been conservative, but was very, very vocally anti-Trump. Not sure what changed, but in the last two months he's turned into a super Trump booster and shares the most ridiculous anti-Muslim memes and talking points at a frantic pace. I just don't understand what happens to make these things happen so rapidly and so intensely.

if Fox wants to demonize you they're gonna do that regardless

Sure, but they don't have to do so with your permission and active participation.

I can barely understand it too. I haven't had cable tv since the early 2000s and only use youtube for music. I can't even imagine choosing to surround myself with conspiracy, bigoted trash all day long. The small amount of cable news videos I see online are enough. But of course I've been brainwashed by college.

I just don't understand what happens to make these things happen so rapidly and so intensely.

How often have I heard these same sentiments after some loser has carried out a terrorist attck.

Like those excerpts in the article about people choosing to be alone, in the dark, in their hate and misery instead of making another choice is so spot on.

I just don't understand what happens to make these things happen so rapidly and so intensely.

It isn't quick, it takes a long time, its happening in them without you noticing it. Its true in reverse too, people coming away from Trump and/or conservatism. Trump does something ludicrous and his polls numbers stay unchanged, then they seem to drop for no reason at all in a quieter period.

Fox works because of absolute hammering repetition. The only thing that matters is exposure and attention. A lot of the Fox audience are on that trajectory but they aren't all TooFarGones, and we shouldn't treat them as such - unless we want more TooFarGones. Fox plays the long game with its audience, and we don't notice. We think its overnight, it isn't, thats not how this works

my father-in-law just suggested on Facebook that the US begin the process of deporting Rep. Omar. rad.

How can you be fb friends with him without trolling the shit out of him all the time?

can't lie i'm actually a little shocked that politically motivated murders and attempted murders by fever swamp white nationalist trump fans have coincided with a solidifying of his popularity/ double-downing of yr avg republican voter in this country.

nope nothing bad'll come of that.

I thought this was a good look at how kids are getting groomed into the alt-right:

https://www.washingtonian.com/2019/05/05/what-happened-after-my-13-year-old-son-joined-the-alt-right/

first they're terrorized by the liberal state

First few paragraphs read like this story is entirely made up.

aw but anonymous stories are usually so reliable!

Short essay. “Then I had no son.”

So you guys are just fake-newsing this? Ok.

no, i dont doubt that her son had this dalliance with the alt right, but anonymous memoir pieces like this are susceptible to distortion

So you guys are just fake-newsing this? Ok.

― DJI, Monday, May 6, 2019 9:37 PM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol i sure as hell am

the part i didn't believe was the happy ending.

maybe nagle wrote it to sell books to normie parents with shitty sullen teenage boys who won't shut the fuck up about rare pepes

/r/creativewritingprompts

"How I left the alt-right" seems like its becoming something of a cottage industry.

I saw the Faraday Speaks video, half a million views in 6 weeks. It was well done but alarm bells ringing. I've read people suggesting he's a troll/plant - 'be welcomed by the libs to own the libs'?, but I can't see to what end. A more likely reason is he is just a grifter

But also, I don't really see 'right-wing brainworms' and 'the alt-right' as quite the same thing. Overlapping, sure, but distinct enough