• Maoo [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    This is a valuable thing to internalize (and to spread) and expand upon, especially if you want to be effective irl. People that do terrible things and want you and yours dead can be very nice. They can be your current friends, family members that you value. Scratch that liberal and you will find they support your murder at the hands of the cops, they knee-jerk support fascists so long as they fit the hegemonic mold (Israeli, Ukrainian, KMT, Hindutva).

    And then you have to work around it, evaluating how you will subvert those tendencies. Maybe it’s recruiting from young people so you can get them into a political education pipeline that heads this off. Maybe you try to address them directly and weaken their positions. Maybe you just Isolate them.

    Either way, this bleeds over into our own spaces and our own organizing. The people we try to organize and radicalize are not there with us yet, they are not conscious. They won’t always let you know that they are your enemy. They might call the cops on you or snitch to your boss even though they called you a comrade a week ago.

    For this reason, it is imperative that we weed this out in spaces where trust is necessary. We cannot build trust in a culture that doesn’t require solidarity and explain its meaning. And we need trust, because what we do will be illegal and then criminal soon enough, if it isn’t already.

    • jol
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      1 year ago

      Was renting a boat at the river last summer with my gay friends to this adorable German grandma in the outskirts of Berlin/Brandenburg. When we were done and back, we were resting and I sat between the legs on my partner. No kissing, groping or anything, we were sitting and holding hands. She became really agravated and started shouting at us slurs and other things.

      So yeah. Many bigots are nice people most of the time. They’re still bigots.

  • thisonethatone [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    They are human beings who choose to pursue hate because it’s an easy choice and looking at themselves, and questioning the system that they participate in, would be too much for them. Fuck em.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      They’re people that are so opportunistic and parasitic that they’re fine with others being mass murdered and looted if it means the treats keep flowing in.

      It’s just colonialism happening closer to home. grillman

  • professionalduster [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    I genuinely really struggle with this. Not in a “this is wrong” way, I agree with the screenshot, but if someone who is obviously bad appears to be nice, smiley, friendly, down to earth all of a sudden, I’ll find it really hard to stay mad at them. Definitely a weakness of mine.

      • One of the greatest emotional advances I made in my life was realizing that I had control over who I gave my empathy to. I was being heavily manipulated by many people in my life prior to that and it applies to fascists, too. Fascists get the, “they’re such normal people if you follow them around for a day” treatment by default. And that is a political choice, one we can reject.

        • TheDialectic [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          I think I have the opposite problem. I want to be in a place where I have empathy for everyone. I feel like it is important to be able to fully math out why some people deserve the choppy. Cause like. Try to picture the full scope and beauty of a human life and then they fuck it up by being a nazi chop chop

        • mayo_cider [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          I used to be a people pleaser, but as I started understanding and trying to get rid of my internalized bigotry and toxic attitudes, I basically managed to channel the misplaced empathy from people taking advantage of me to marginalized people

          Of course there were shitloads of other factors to growing a spine, but when it finally came to cutting off people, I didn’t feel any guilt because it was easy to see how misplaced the empathy had been

      • Tachanka [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        it’s not even necessarily a tactic. Some fascists just like to pet their dogs and kiss their babies and say howdy neighbor. Then you ask them about marginalized people or economics and the jaws of hell open up.

        • I think many people who are abusive or subversive in some nefarious way are not doing some with 100% intentionality or consciousness. But when it comes to their views of how the general public would react to their innermost demons, they are correct and have adjusted accordingly. This is part of where the conservative persecution complex comes from. They rightfully feel judged for their beliefs. Similarly, a lot of abuse is compounded by the fact that the abuser knows their dynamic would be harshly judged if people saw it for what it was.

        • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Unfortunately it’s true, and it’s important that it’s true - they are humans with the full range of choice in their actions, and they chose fascism. They’re not inhuman beasts incapable of acting on more than instinct, they are people who chose to kill an oppress others, which is why punishment is justified.

          • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Hitler didn’t bewitch Germany he merely took advantage of the latent issues within German society

            it’s like how drink doesn’t bring out anything that isn’t there already

    • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      nah fuck this the whole idea of nazi (or similar to nazi people) being inhuman is what brought us this mess. They’re still just human, just as capable of the full human experience as you are, and this is not a defense