As in, not known to you IRL.
I’ve occasionally brought it up before, but a while back in my reddit days I was in a thread where a “professional deprogrammer” had popped in and was talking about how to “deprogram” conservatives and get them to shift left in their views. It centered around restoring their sense of community and belonging with more balanced viewpoint folks IRL and away from their online echo chambers.
I asked them if they had any way to convert someone you encounter wholly online and they said that it was basically impossible, IRL you have a decent chance, but not online.
I’ve been thinking about that quite a bit, so now I’m curious if anybody here has actually gotten an online conservative to come to the dark side light side?
I’ve had small success with my aunt by focusing on her love of children, explaining how many are dying under the needlessly cruel boot of Israel
From what I have figured out:
They need to already respect you in some way, this does not work on random strangers unless you are a top tier communicator or public figure
You need to identify the levers, for my aunt it is babies in danger. It will be different for different people, you need to do your homework
INFINITE PATIENCE and consistently reiterating your own genuine respect for them (this can be hard, you may need to dig deep), you need to show them that they aren’t your enemy and that they have been lied to by people they have trusted for nefarious purposes
Play on the rights inherent distrust for the elite, Muskrat and co ARE the elite! Look at what he’s doing to medicare!
It will take many, many sessions and you CANNOT falter or get impatient or it gives them an excuse to dismiss everything before
It’s not easy, it takes time and effort, though it is doable
Yea, IRL it’s possible, but it’s much got damn work. I’m doing this rn for some family members, and it’s been a few years and I think I’m starting to make a breakthrough on one.
I’ve needed to stoop to some “drastic” measures though, like manipulating their favored corporate social media algorithms away from the alt-right bubbles or drastically artificially slowing down certain places like Facebook so that it’s “painful to use”
I’ve failed at #3 on multiple people IRL. It’s so hard arguing with a brick wall…
And I’ve had a lot more setbacks than successes, my aunt isn’t the only one I’ve been working on but she’s the only one to make progress.
Don’t give up! There is a hopeful future at the end of all of this if we can just get 10% of them to understand