Hi, There are many people I know and also many comment sections I see online that are just parroting Israeli and US state department propaganda and I feel like it is driving me insane. They seem to repeat arguments using almost every common propaganda technique available and it seems like the majority of people is just falling for it without any critical thinking and this is depressing as hell.
They are portraying fascism as the only solution to all problems and as a justified position but don’t even want to name it as such, saying everyone else is the fascist.
I think I am going mad what should I do, I feel like arguing against it is like speaking to a wall most of the time.
I’ve had some luck by working backwards to things you agree on, then stepping forward until you start to diverge. You need to be genuinely engaged in their thought process, though, so prepare for psychological damage.
E.g. for immigration, you can start from “this is super fucked up and I don’t think we should do it. Why do y’all support it?”
It make take a few "why"s, but I think their reasoning will ultimately end up at:
Which is wrong, but at least is a logical progression that you can challenge. They believe that the social benefits of deporting people outweigh the human costs of doing so. It’s “for the greater good” and “you gotta break a few eggs to make bread.”
You now get the privilege of talking about the real cause of low wages and high prices being capitalism. You’re in your element and should have a DEEP bag of examples. As usual, tailor to your audience, make it simple, and try to avoid trigger words like any -isms.
If you convince them that capitalism is the problem, not supply and demand, then there’s no longer any benefit to deporting people and it’s only a fucked up thing to do.
They’ll have weak, residual arguments like “but they’re breaking The Law” or “but maybe it’s a little supply and demand too, as a treat?”
At that point, you’ve won. You can provide weaker pushback on these, and start looking for a way to end the conversation.
There is no world in which it ends in “oh. actually you’re right” - our brains take time to change. Your goal is just for them to think about it by themselves.
Thank you, also for the examples, but I am from Germany, so the US examples are not really applicable for me
Ah, yeah that’s a very US-centric example.
Idk if y’all are dealing with the same “feminism is actually bad” stuff we are, but I posted this comment shortly after the above post and using the same template.
Disclaimer: I’m decently new to discussing with people on the internet, where it’s harder to ask a lot of questions. I think the general logic tracks, but in person I wouldn’t recommend jumping to conclusions like I did there.
Edit: other examples: