The best and most effective way to break people out of the fascist doom-spiral is to block all channels of information that make them mad and whose purpose is to arouse feelings of rage, as you have suggested, and instead push them towards things that make them happy.
I remember one Reddit user said that they blocked all the right-wing Facebook groups on their grandfather’s computer, and then subscribed him to golfing and fishing groups instead, which over several months caused him to be a happier and less politically extreme person, whereas before, politics was all he thought about.
Problem is that the people I was close to were so incredibly addicted to being angry that it was all they knew.
They’d lie to my face that they’d given it up and then later drop some new nonsense on me, I look it up later and oh dear god its QAnon bullshit I’ve yet to hear about.
Also, I feel its worth mentioning that a similar kind of thing can happen to … basically extremely neurotic, self centered leftists as well. I’ve know people who became tankies to the point they were just as delusional and emotionally unstable as QAnon morons, and also some people can truly overdose on becoming every possible kind of victim to the point that you can’t say anything to them without them interpreting everything as uncharitably as possible, masters of inventing excuses for all of their bad behavior that turn anyone pointing out their bad behavior into an evil bigot.
If you’ve ever met someone who basically never goes outside and has been consistently using Tumblr for a decade +, you probably know what I mean.
The best and most effective way to break people out of the fascist doom-spiral is to block all channels of information that make them mad and whose purpose is to arouse feelings of rage, as you have suggested, and instead push them towards things that make them happy.
I remember one Reddit user said that they blocked all the right-wing Facebook groups on their grandfather’s computer, and then subscribed him to golfing and fishing groups instead, which over several months caused him to be a happier and less politically extreme person, whereas before, politics was all he thought about.
Yep, agreed.
Problem is that the people I was close to were so incredibly addicted to being angry that it was all they knew.
They’d lie to my face that they’d given it up and then later drop some new nonsense on me, I look it up later and oh dear god its QAnon bullshit I’ve yet to hear about.
Also, I feel its worth mentioning that a similar kind of thing can happen to … basically extremely neurotic, self centered leftists as well. I’ve know people who became tankies to the point they were just as delusional and emotionally unstable as QAnon morons, and also some people can truly overdose on becoming every possible kind of victim to the point that you can’t say anything to them without them interpreting everything as uncharitably as possible, masters of inventing excuses for all of their bad behavior that turn anyone pointing out their bad behavior into an evil bigot.
If you’ve ever met someone who basically never goes outside and has been consistently using Tumblr for a decade +, you probably know what I mean.