They should be encouraged to get counseling to help prevent them from radicalizing into fascists and/or committing hate crimes. But they should not be punished for having mental issues, that's just horrible.
So... People with mental issues (which are HARDER to fix than mere views) should be encouraged to get counseling but fascists should be isolated and hurt? Don't you see any contradiction?
The way to defeat any form of radicalism is to get them out of their echo chamber not to isolate them there. Sure, pushing those people out of YOUR internet for your convenience is a comfortable option but easy solutions are rarely the right solutions.
So first off, the fascist position is to isolate and hurt people with mental issues (plus anything that the fascist considers an issue, like ethnicity or sexuality). Fascists only want tolerance (like "free speech") as far as it assists their intolerant agenda. This may seem like an impossible paradox, but it's actually quite simple: Don't tolerate intolerance. I can be against violence and still attack a spree shooter. I guess it's a mix of moral calculus and basic common sense.
Every "free speech platform" has been banning the obvious stuff, of course, but it turns out they go further and make sure their chosen ideology is the "freest" speech. They're just liars. Grifters and true believers alike are fine with lying to get what they want.
You know what happens when you try to engage with one of these chuckleheads with actual facts and logic? Look into their studies? Their arguments get absolutely destroyed... and it *doesn't help*. They might spam some "LGBT are grooming!" nonsense in a dozen places and influence thousands of people, and then when you call them on it they'll literally go "I don't care that the article is factually incorrect, LGBT are still groomers". They didn't reason themselves into the position so they cannot be reasoned out of it.
That's not everybody, obviously. How do we reach the targets of this bad-faith propaganda? Engaging the propagandists DOES NOT WORK for that, as youtube debate-bro culture has shown. I figure there are two main situations:
1) Motivated rational people with free time will look into the studies and figure out the truth on their own
2) You feature the targeted minorities in popular culture until they don't appear so strange and scary anymore.
And like, part of situation 1 is making sure those studies and articles are around for anyone who cares to look. That's how my mind was changed on a few things. I would get in emotional and pointless arguments about an issue, enjoy some endorphins, and then someone else would drop some studies and refuse to engage me further. The low-effort and low-pressure is what makes that a good strategy. It got the information to me in a way I could untangle my feelings on my own time. And the low-effort is VITAL to stop the
deliberate misinformation campaign we're up against.
I'm not worried not too worried about people in echo-chambers. They're fine to hang out in, but they're inherently
boring. Someone hanging out in a radical space is already radicalized, and there's not much we can do (except celebrate the ones who find their way out!). What radicalizes people is someone on national TV offering a scapegoat for all the Everyman's problems: """those people"""
(This is neither a purely left/right thing, but the tankies haven't mobilized a coup here recently. They're not nearly so emboldened, partially because leftists keep dunking on them. Justifiably so. The right is much less principled.)
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