how do we work with people who are emotionally reactionary about all of their insecurities, many of which they have connected to their ideological reactionary tendencies? this is emblematic of most online conversation, people tend to be very willing to express their most volatile and defensive thoughts online without a second thought in a way that they never would if body language was involved, but there's a real throughline here to certain kinds of reactionary behavior in reality too. conservative boomers who have to convince themselves that trump is helping everyone. liberals who have to convince themselves that the party cannot fail it can only be failed. the ignorant who are too embarrassed at their ignorance to be willing to work on learning. i work with early high school students and their disinterest in engaging with the basic idea of learning is a very similar psychological phenomenon to all of these. a repulsion at introspection. genuinely, does anyone have tips here? i feel like a thing i'm truly missing is a good understanding of how the vanguardists actually convinced people to support them, how the soviet education system got so successful in encouraging student efforts. this particular reactionary take from yugo is also a similar common sin of hasan-smash : casting their own frustration at emotionally immature and proudly unintrospective people as a form of mental illness.

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Do you mean specifically how to handle it online? If so, I think some of it can be simplified very easily: If you're actually trying to agitate or something like that, you need to abandon any ideas of moralizing and treat them gently so as to discourage them from acting defensively, make an effort to understand whatever dogshit worldview they are propounding, and then patiently try to explain things to them from the standpoint of seeking to help them, which is part of what the goal should be. They are unlikely to listen to you until you have won their confidence, and if you view things in terms of what they "deserve" then you will never get anywhere.

The actual execution is very complex, but I think the organizing principle for what type of response to have is genuinely that simple most of the time.

[–] Llituro@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

no, i'm already with you on what it takes to genuinely dissuade someone from reactionary beliefs and insecurities. i'm more focused on getting people to be willing to engage at all. what's required of them in what you laid out about how to help these people work through their reactionary beliefs is emotional vulnerability and honesty. i have no idea how to prompt this out of them, and it seems to me that we live in times where people feel less and less able to actually genuinely socially connect in a way that builds up more resilient and well-developed humans. and that's online and in person. maybe my sample just sucks though, y'know?

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I see . . . Yeah, if I knew about how to do that one then my life would be completely different. Exhibiting a mild degree of emotional vulnerability yourself can be helpful and so can expressing interest in what they have to say, but I don't really have any good suggestions for you that you haven't already though of. Sorry about that.

[–] Llituro@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

Ok, we're on the same page. Fair enough purpleworm. I'm with you entirely, don't worry about it.