this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025

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243

Has anybody here actually succeeded in getting an online conservative/right-winger to reflect and legitimately and long term shift their views left? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by cm0002@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

135 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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?

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[–] Mallspice@lemm.ee 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe but I feel I’ve made it worse sometimes too.

There’s a couple sayings. ‘The smart man sounds like crazy man to the stupid man’ and ‘You can’t win an argument with an idiot’.

As complex as it can be, it usually boils down to that or you just find out they’re rich, selfish, like control, and love schadenfreude.

[–] notastatist@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But what is if I think the conservative/fashist sounds crazy to me? Is he smart then?? Am I the stupid?

[–] Baaahb 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

All people who are crazy are crazy. Not all people who seem crazy are crazy.

Maybe the fascist seems crazy cause he's crazy, but maybe he seems crazy cause you're the stupid.

I'll claim the role of the smart man here. Fascists are stupid or self serving and short sighted.