How do you think the alt-right can be de-radicalised?

[entremet]

The alt-right is decentralized movement. Gonna be very hard. I predict they will mostly age out like the older conservatives did. Meaning, they will be replaced by something else.

I also think their peak is done as well. The Deplora Ball isn't a huge thing anymore. All the previous Alt Right darlings have moved on.

 

[Baji Boxer]

Love your optimism.

Click to shrink...

He's not entirely wrong. Without a drastic ideological shift of the Republican Party, the alt-right is going to be around for a long time. Best bet I think is chipping away at the margins, implementing fair election policy, and combating youth indoctrination. They are a political minority, even peeling off 1% of their support hurts them in elections, and with representative elections they can't win majority support.

 

[Sidebuster]

I have no idea. My best guess is to find what kind of starts all of this and fix it. Maybe just fix systemic issues we're having and they'll straighten themselves out? Like do such a good job making us have better lives that they don't fall for bullshit. Because lets be honest, everyone is struggling and there are bad actors out there using the opportunity to point the finger at their enemies/wrong people. It'll go a long way to de-platform them, but if you don't fix the deeper issue then new talking heads will pop up spouting the same shit maybe even more extreme.

 

[Ithil]

Delete 4chan.

 

[bluepolicebox]

Fallen victim is not the right term imo. Exposed as

Click to shrink...

I agree. These people already want to make themselves the victims every chance they get. Let's not encourage them in that regard.

People who get wrapped up in racism, homophobia, and misogyny are completely devoid of empathy and critical thinking, skills you develop as a child. How do you teach someone to care about others if they don't already do? I think most of them are just a lost cause who won't change their voting patterns unless they find a reason that benefits them. It's the same reason most non-voters won't budge: they just don't care about other people nearly as much as they care about themselves.

 

[PhoenixDawn]

Keep on reminding them them that what they are saying is bullshit. Never let them say their hate without being confronted on it. Continue deplatforming as you can. Even if they move on to another channel/figurehead it will splinter them even further and I feel like the vast majority of the movement only has strength because they live in an echo chamber where they are free to say their hate freely and are reinforced by the loads of other people doing the same thing. I would bet that most of them wouldn't be so willing to support those ideas if they were the only one in a room or discussion form. Of course all of that still probably won't completely work as long as the shithead in chief is in office. But it definitely could still work to weaken the alt right.

 

[krazen]

The alt-right is decentralized movement. Gonna be very hard. I predict they will mostly age out like the older conservatives did. Meaning, they will be replaced by something else.

I also think their peak is done as well. The Deplora Ball isn't a huge thing anymore. All the previous Alt Right darlings have moved on.

Click to shrink...

Problem is the 'something else' is always worse...while its hopped on 4chan juice there's a reason why you're going to find a bunch of tea partiers on that side of the fence.

Your Milo, your Alex Jones are on the way out, but now you've got touring academics on the same basic wavelength but right under the edge making dollars; their ideas which would have seen as breaking a social more years ago are now more mainstream as the Overton window moves; its not out of the realm of possibility that a Milo figure in 2029 would pop back and be seen as more center-right.

We've gone from where a David Duke figure would get outright condemned by everyone, to a Steven King who basically pushed and prodded PAST Duke's ideology and only got caught cause he literally said 'white supremacy' in a nytimes interview.

 

[Wraith]

The Republicans need a charismatic chosen one that represents republican values and not alt right values. They need to call for a purge of that sickness from the party. I don't think this will happen until the Republicans are on their very last leg though.

Click to shrink...

I've wondered for a while what the Republican party will do post-Trump. Do they keep leaning into alt-right populism/MAGA-ism hoping it works for them again, do they steer back to the pre-Tea Party Republicanism of Reagan/Bush/Bush, or do they try to find that middle ground where they can pretend they're distancing themselves from Trump while still pandering to the redhats.

 

[TheGhost]

I've wondered for a while what the Republican party will do post-Trump. Do they keep leaning into alt-right populism/MAGA-ism hoping it works for them again, do they steer back to the pre-Tea Party Republicanism of Reagan/Bush/Bush, or do they try to find that middle ground where they can pretend they're distancing themselves from Trump while still pandering to the redhats.

Click to shrink...

I know people here don't like Reagan/bush
But I rather see the opposition back at that stage than where it is at now.

I think right now they are stuck with trump. Definitely hit with that "better to want than to have"

They had complete control, but with a mad man behind the wheel so that should be a wake up call for them. How to get back there with out relying on having a KKK friendly candidate.

Normally I'm a "two years of Republicans? Give me a Democrat? Two years of Democrats? Give me a republican"

But Trump is not a republican, he is the Alt Right candidate. He needs to be the last and he needs to only have one term.

 

[Civilstrife]

I sometimes wonder if you've got to give them an out. If they believe there is absolutely no place for them in the real world, it'll be like pulling teeth. And honestly, maybe that's what they deserve. But research shows people need some kind of cognitive "excuse" to grease the wheels of changing their minds.

Even something like "lots of smart people were taken in" or "It was a tough time in the nation's collective consciousness" helps people come around moreso than confronting their obvious racism and bigotry directly.

Though I worry that this method is far more kind to them than they ever were to the people and groups of people they targeted.

I'm not sure which is worse, giving these people a pass for years of active bigotry, or not giving them any easy outs but potentially lengthening those years of active bigotry, especially as it places the largest burden on marginalized peoples.

I think Natalie Wynn of Contrapoints has a great method. She hijacks search terms of popular altright phrases to get to people before they're radicalized in the first place. See "Are Traps Gay".

 

[Mona]

boogie needs to pull them to the center

 

[Kthulhu]

For some of them I think you can. I don't know exactly how you'd go about doing it, but it's possible.

You need to deplatform the Alt Right leaders to stop their bullshit from spreading. That's the first step in the right direction.

Click to shrink...

This too

 

[Amnixia]

Deplatform the leaders, and educate the followers.

You're not going to cure all of them, but even if 33% is possible we need to try.

Don't tolerate your racist uncle, brother, friend or coworker.

Argue with them and try to convince them that hate isn't the answer.

 

[Kthulhu]

Delete 4chan.

Click to shrink...

4chan is probably gonna delete itself eventually. I doubt many companies want to advertise on it.

 

[Pomerlaw]

You have to deplatform the most extreme and dangerous ideas. We have to challenge those ideas.

People can change.

 

[Deleted member 41638]

I listen to some conservative talk radio when driving to work and the personalities on that are a huge problem too. Especially the rhetoric they use, like the left is evil, progressives want to destroy America, there's nothing worse for your kid than college. There's also a lot of talk about how America is 'theirs', the conservative christian America is the correct America and any big changes are a threat that could destroy the country. If someone listens solely to that shit daily and takes it seriously I can understand why they would be scared and angry.

The misinformation hurts too in fact it probably hurts more than anything. Conservative media is loving the line that AOC wants to get rid of air travel, even though it's been made clear, on Fox News no less that AOC wants to get to a point where we are not so reliant on air travel and the huge amount of fossil fuels it relies on.

 

[EddyLovesTunaRolls]

I've gotten to the point where I fucking hate the sound of Ben Shapiro's whiny little voice. I don't know why the bullshit people like him peddle can get otherwise sane rational people to foam at the mouth and come up to me talking about how "That Ocasio loon is going to try to tax us all 70% and destroy the country"

There's got to be a counter for this right? I'm tired of going through life either having to excuse myself from the conversation, give them the ole "Oh really? I didn't know that", or even worse half heartedly agree with them so my work life won't be hell.

 

[Deleted member 19066]

With social workers and other professionals. Best laypeople like us can do is try to nip it in the bud - to practice prevention instead of deradicalization. Encourage healthier relationships and outlets for their frustration and anger.

 

[whiskeystrike]

What are the options? Words, deplatforming, authoritative measures, social ostracization or violence?

The first option is the trickiest and most time-consuming but the most necessary I believe. Unfortunately conversation is a lost art online but in the real world it's where you have to put in the most effort and demonstrate with logic and reason.



This is probably one of the most uncomfortable videos I've ever watched and I remember being geuninely chilled throughout. To me it served as a demonstration on how I was completely incapable and unprepared to demonstrably show how wrong and illogical the alt-right are. It served as a catalyst to be someone who can do more than call people immoral or racist.

On the plus side, since watching the video I started to lurk an alt-right subreddit and thankfully 90% of them are genuine idiots. There is constant infighting about if Trump is still one of them or not, are Jews secretly controlling Trump, are conservatives in denial about what they really are, is it okay to race-mix with Asians, are atheists okay, should minorities be allowed to own guns, can gay men be trusted in positions dealing with children, socialism vs capitalism, etc. It's a nice sliver of entertainment considering how insane these idiots are and effectively have no power.

 

[It’s Time To Go]

It gets really tiring arguing with alt right types specially IRL. Mainly because unlike online, its quite difficult to end a conversation on a topic that you can tell you won't change their mind on.