this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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A British woman was shot dead by her father last year after the pair had argued about President Donald Trump earlier that day. Lucy Harrison, 23, was fatally shot on Jan. 10, 2025 while visiting her father, Kris Harrison, in suburban Dallas at his home in Prosper, Texas. Harrison moved to the U.S. when Lucy was a child.

Prosper police originally investigated her death as a possible case of manslaughter, but a criminal case in Texas was not brought after a grand jury in Collin County opted not to indict him. Her death is being investigated in Cheshire Coroner’s Court in England.

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[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

don't do that. calling it anything other than a cult only provides them with more fuel to burn in their "us vs them" hate machine.

yes, they are deranged. yes, they are psychotic. yes, they are a danger to the general population. no, it's not a syndrome. it's a lack of education that empowers domestic terrorists to manipulate and brainwash people susceptible to suggestion, IE a "cult".

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

They don't see themselves as a cult. You calling them a cult just allows them to ignore everything else you have to say. You have to meet them with their own doublespeak if you want to break the cultish brainwashing, and force them to question themselves.

Antagonistic conversion will only entrench their beliefs. The way you have to deradicalize them is to earnestly question things until they can no longer deny the hypocrisy and doublethink/ doublespeak.

Remember who you were when you were 2 years old, and "why" was the greatest question in the world, but force them to provide receipts. Make them explain the joke that you "innocently" don't understand. Make them say the quiet parts out loud, because you "don't understand." Either they will deradicalize themselves, or they will stop talking to you permanently.

"Why is that funny?," and "You aren't being the neighbor that Fred Rogers knew you could be," are effectively a social chemical (gas) weapon and a social nuclear weapon, respectively, when deployed correctly in the US. They must be deployed with an innocent and loving tone.

Follow this up with, "No. I need to understand, you're supposed to teach me to be a good person. Explain this please." Or something similar, and you can literally watch people deprogramming themselves.

"The Dragon is a bad thing! The Dragon ate my grandma!" Resonates with everyone, even those that haven't heard it yet.

[–] forrgott 1 points 3 weeks ago

Eh, no.

There is only one thing that gives any chance - compassion. And that's got a snowball's chances in surviving hell. But there is nothing else but compassion that'll give you any chance at all.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

They don't see themselves as a cult.

people in cults never do.

You calling them a cult just allows them to ignore everything else you have to say.

people in cults usually do.

You have to meet them with their own doublespeak if you want to break the cultish brainwashing, and force them to question themselves.

no I don't. breaking programming requires one of two things. force or logic. logic won't work with this cult, and force is unscalable without collaterall damage.

Antagonistic conversion will only entrench their beliefs.

correct, which is why you shouldn't ever try to "double speak" them.

The way you have to deradicalize them is to earnestly question things until they can no longer deny the hypocrisy and doublethink/ doublespeak.

as I said, logic won't work with this cult.

I'm not even going to finish reading your comment because you clearly have a lack of experience or understanding of how programming and cults work. this is especially true since many of the members of this cult have had their programming fortified over the last 20 years. put simply, they are entrenched and the only thing that may work is a shock to their system. even that though, is unlikely to work.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

How many have you successfully reached? I've been deprogramming them for decades. I know of at least 6 people that I successfully deradicalized this way in the last 2 decades, and as many as 18 over the last 4.

For one person that isn't exactly nothing. These people all exist in The Bible Belt, aka Trump Country, and I have lived in California for the last decade.

[–] forrgott 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Your technique is irrelevant. That you had the compassion to stick with it is what matters.

I'm not trying to be an ass. Really. But to think that you have a universal technique to deprogram anyone is dangerously naive.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Nah, you're probably correct on your assessment about having the stubbornness needed. I was just mainly arguing that logic won't work with people that didn't logic themselves into their beliefs on the first place.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

As I thought. Your methods have resulted in 0 positive results.

My methods have resulted in the better part of 2 dozen positive results. Not a great percentage, but better than 0. Emotions work much better than logic with these people, despite my objections to that.

The definition of insanity is trying the same failed methods over and over expecting different results.

[–] MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I wonder if we can scale those methods up with AI, perhaps?