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this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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Guy was my best friend in middle school. We reconnected after I graduated from college, played and beat L4D and L4D2 together. Then he started sending me political memes, and they were all fascist.
I tried to reason with him, but then he refused to engage with anything that was longer than like a page, or any video/audio source longer than about five minutes, but didn't seem to have any problem sending me stuff way longer than that.
I still wonder if there was more I could have done. But I just didn't need that in my life. I'm not some hero, I'm a downwardly-mobile working-class schlub who's pretty good at playing piano and riding a bike. I shouldn't be responsible for dragging this dipshit back from the depths of fascism just because he sat next to me in seventh grade history class, and honestly, with some of the things he claimed to believe, I probably didn't even want him on my side anymore.
That's what I tell myself, anyway.
You did good. Don't underestimate how valuable just telling a leer their behavior is unacceptable is. So many folks with horrible views have them in part because no one is challenging them.
I think it's kind of a lost cause most of the time. My parents spend hours a day watching fox news and right wing youtubers. I'm not going to change their minds, I don't have the time. You aren't going to offset however much time his beliefs are getting reinforced with whatever time you spend with him.
If not you, then who?
I don't think it's your responsibility to cure him, but as somone close to him I think it's your responsibility to try, because if not you then who? But it sounds like you did that to some extent
Oh, I did. I argued with him for months, and he just kept getting more and more toxic and more and more spiteful.