Trump Derangement Syndrome - Orange man bad. Read the OP! (ᴛʜɪs ᴛʜʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪs ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴋɪᴡɪ ғᴀʀᴍs ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡs ɴᴏᴡ) 🗿🗿🗿🗿

[breadandcircuses]

I think there was one to impeach down to Pelosi, she names Hillary as her VP, then resigns.

 

[ProgKing of the North]

I think there was one to impeach down to Pelosi, she names Hillary as her VP, then resigns.

Can you even impeach prez and veep at the same time (if they had cause, which they don’t) or would they have to get rid of Trump and then get rid of Pence, hoping to do it before he installed his own veep?

 

[TowinKarz]

Can you even impeach prez and veep at the same time (if they had cause, which they don’t) or would they have to get rid of Trump and then get rid of Pence, hoping to do it before he installed his own veep?

Yes you can do it, "at the same time" meaning concurrently, but not in the same articles, they have to be brought against single specific people, one at a time, no impeaching a whole administration for being Republican, people forget they had to maneuver Spiro Agnew into resigning before they went after Nixon himself.....

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Honey, have you seen the average SJW? Massive, rotund, and full of hot air.

Last time, the average SJW did some excercises with Jane Fonda.

 

[Jigglyjogglers]

I think the funniest part of that whole "Let's arrest Putin for vague crimes, I'm sure his country would thank us" is that it's absolutely the kind of thing they were reeeeeing about and mocking when we went into Iraq. Just that then we had like twenty other countries all agreeing with us and helping us do it, as opposed to just slapping the cuffs on somebody at an airport the moment they step onto our soil for a supposed diplomatic meeting.

 

[Vorhtbame]

The deep irony about this "Arrest Putin" business is that they think their own candidate would do it.

But arrest the president of another nation on transparently flimsy charges after you invited him to visit? I'm pretty sure that would bring down the condemnation of the Beloved U.N., and literally start World War III (now with 300% more nuclear wastelands!).

Starting a global war, in which we are the bad guys, because you wanted to score brownie points? I'd say that would be an impeachable offense.

But what do I know, I don't have a Cluster-B personality disorder so maybe I just don't understand the appeal.

 

[Vulpes Incunta]

r/chomsky - I used to be a Trumpist: My experience with the alt-right pipeline

337 votes and 81 comments so far on Reddit

www.reddit.com

Spoiler: Full autistic post

Hi. I was inspired by this other post that was posted on the BreadTube sub to share my story of my experience with the alt-right, specifically their pipeline that they pull you through in an attempt to radicalize people. I need to note that I was never truly alt-right at any point; however, at worst, I was alt-lite, which is dangerously close, and I was a huge Trumpist back in the day. I was able to break out of the pipeline before heading into truly dangerous territory. That being said, this is my story.
In June of 2015, Donald Trump announced his campaign for president of the United States. Originally unenthused, I started supporting him not much more than two weeks later. I voted for him on November 8, 2016. Almost three years later, my position on him flipped from seemingly unending enthusiasm to deep regret. What the hell happened?
First, some background. My father is a conservative type who in my youth would peddle many conspiracy theories in my direction, and so very early on my acceptance towards more "alternative" ideas would become deep-seated. Fast forward a few years into the future and I'd find more "alternative" information through the internet. Long story short, I was falling into a deep well of racism and bigotry disguised as the red-pill. This would start to get serious around the time of GamerGate. A huge, divisive scandal happening all around the gaming community was something I couldn't get my eyes off of. I would lurk 8chan day after day getting the latest news on what pink-haired feminist was getting harassed this time, and the inevitable conclusion from all of this was that gaming journalism was not to be trusted even a little, and as an extension of that, mainstream media shouldn't either. This was further supported with some pretty evocative imagery (such as this image; the words "listen and believe" don't portray a great message in the eyes of a conspiracy theorist who will very soon be a reactionary) and the fact that games like Gone Home seemed to be gaining critical praise for no reason that I could understand at the time. I was also into edgy humor, and along my journey it served a minor role in normalizing ideas I would now consider to be completely wrong. In other words, I was a pawn who thought I was a spirited free-thinker, but in reality, my anxieties as a person were being exploited for political gain and crafted into an objectively wrong worldview that neo-Nazis have created to put me through the alt-right pipeline.
With the seeds planted, I was now growing into a pretty reactionary personality. GamerGate would frame my perception of the world for the next few years. I couldn't trust a word of the mainstream media, and because I also fancied myself a bit of an enlightened centrist at this point, I'd also be pretty skeptical of alternative media sometimes, though not to the same degree. What I was not skeptical of, however, was the opinions of the figures on YouTube and elsewhere who actually live in this world like most of us do. To me, the idea of the SJW menace was a pretty real one at this point, one that was actively trying to battle for female supremacy as well as trying to dilute the value of culture. It was infecting the education system and seething itself into any corner of the internet that didn't support free speech. Of course, that isn't really true. That was a hoax. That combined with my conspiratorial fear of the government doesn't mix very healthily. As far as these YouTubers go, however, I occasionally watched Steven Crowder and Stefan Molyneux and Internet Aristocrat (aka Mister Metokur) for my doses of right-wing content whenever I desired it. I'd also sometimes watch Sargon of Akkad and there were a bunch of miscellaneous channels that I'd go to laugh at the stupid SJWs. While my approach to politics wasn't very serious, there were serious implications to the overarching narratives being presented. The important thing is that throughout all of this, I was not encouraged to think for myself whatsoever, because I felt as if the conclusions had already been made and there was no need to investigate further. This is one of the points I need to stress: these beliefs I was fostering was based purely on anecdotes from other people, with a huge emphasis on feelings over facts, in spite of the fact that they accuse their opposition of the exact same. What these people were saying was scary. This monolithic SJW menace seizing all possible avenues of society, when you're presented the narrative, it makes you feel powerless. This set me up perfectly to go down the pipeline. I need to stress that fear and anxiety is at the very core of the alt-right pipeline. Here's a list of each and every primary fear that you're supposed to experience at some point when going down this rabbit hole. Many of these were beliefs I sincerely held at some point.

• Fear of the white identity being rendered meaningless
  • Alternately, fear of the American identity being changed
• Fear of the white population dwindling into minority status (The Great Replacement)
• Fear of non-whites
  • Huge stereotypes such as blacks doing more crime or Muslims engaging in terrorist attacks
• Fear of an abstract monolith pulling the world's strings in the name of supremacy (Jews, big government)
  • Fear of dystopia as a result of this
• Fear of being instantly eradicated from society by saying the wrong words (wrongthink)
  • This is why many alt-righters go to echo chambers in the first place, as they don't feel like they have any other place to belong, and therefore their false ideas can't be corrected
• Fear of being discriminated against for being white and/or male
• Fear of the quality of culture being deteriorated
  • This is a weird one that I could talk about for ages, but it basically comes down to the subjective ideas of "forced diversity" and a "forced political agenda" in movies and video games. These claims often have zero actual merit to them
• Fear of degeneracy and the decadence of western civilization
• Fear of established rights being taken away (free speech)
• Fear of socialism/communism

As a pawn in the alt-right's scam program, these are beliefs that you're effectively manipulated into having. And for me, most of these fears were very real. Whenever I'd see a personality be taken down for a racist thing that they said, whether it was 1 week ago or 10 years ago, that scared me. From the framework of the alt-right pipeline, you interpret that as an indicator that you can never be appeased, and that the left can never be satisfied. This tells me that political correctness is a terrible invention, as people who would otherwise be deserving of a job will be stripped of their reputation and ability to contribute to society simply by uttering the wrong words. Of course, now I know that words can hurt and that it's surprisingly easy to not be racist, but that's not the message that's being taken away when there are huge mobs on twitter going to war over people they've never interacted with. There's a huge element of "this can happen to you" at play here, and that's where the alt-right really comes in. They take advantage of this fear to then provide you a safe space in the form of YouTube channels and other right-wing thoughtspaces. Now you don't have to be afraid to say what you really feel! Do you not feel racist or bigoted even if you really are? Don't worry, you won't be ridiculed here! Suffice to say, The_Donald and places like it provide an avenue to say what's really on their mind, something that the left doesn't provide for them. And thus, they will lie within their echo chambers, which I certainly did. It works to the extent that immersing in these spaces without interruption continually perpetuates these same ideas over and over again to the point of feeling true. Since I didn't trust the mainstream media, what other choice did I have?
So this racist and bigoted framework has now been made. This is where I get to the 2016 election. Soon after Trump announced his campaign for the first time, I watched his announcement. I was pretty indifferent at the time. About two weeks later, though, drama would start ensuing. The mainstream media promoted Donald Trump in a way where my attention simply could not veer away from him. It was pretty funny to watch his takedown of the mainstream media, and his way with words was refreshingly straightforward for a politician. It avoided all the same sort of talking points I'd usually hear from a politician. Soon after, my enthusiasm for Trump would go from mere amusement to being deadly serious. I'd watch him more and more, and hot damn, I actually agreed with him a lot! Here's the thing: he was speaking my language. My emotional language, that is. Even though Donald Trump is a billionaire, he was saying exactly what I was thinking at the time. It all came down to emotional security: while the right was giving me this safe space to immerse myself in, Donald Trump was taking these thoughts these spaces were providing and giving them a huge platform that no other republican was taking advantage of. The fact that he was the only one to do this and that he did not have to do itlegitimized everything for me that much more. Without any reason to doubt the guy, he gave me massive amounts of emotional security. I could feel safe knowing that he was providing my voice. I saw him as a venerable hero who put his own reputation on the line just to support us. Also, his rallies were incredible. Have you actually seen a Trump rally? If not, I recommend you look at at least one if you can stomach it. If you don't understand how these people believe he's one of them in spite of having millions more dollars than the average American, his rallies are the answer to that. His language is blunt, and it speaks to all of the issues that Trump supporters care about the most. Trump speaks in their language. When you speak someone's emotional language, you've won them over, and that grants them unlimited amounts of security.
As the campaign went further down the line, my viewpoints would exponentially strengthen, and I would go down the alt-right pipeline even further. Any perceived shortcomings of Trump would be dismissed as being political strategy ("4D Chess") as to me, he was practically infallible. With that being established, I needed only to take one look at his opposition to get my take on them. Hillary Clinton was a disaster of a candidate (which I think we can all agree with regardless of our political differences) and Bernie Sanders was literally going to turn the country into a communist hive. The mainstream media and late night talk show hosts immediately let me know that I am not a good person (Seriously, Drumpf?! How is that any different to calling Obama Obozo or some shit like that?) and so the conclusions I previously had were effectively confirmed. I could feel the weight of them on my shoulders. Let me put it this way: it was as if some random asshole on the internet called me a dick. That person isn't my friend. There is no incentive for me to look into myself and see if I'm wrong about anything. In fact, after that same thing happens too many times to count, I'm going to hate a lot of the country. But if a friend of mine were to say the same thing, I'd be worried. Am I really being a dick? Is there something I'm missing that's hurting the people around me? But none of our metaphorical "friends" are ever saying that. At worst, some personalities were scrutinized for not liking Trump enough. That's the extent of the level of introspection we're dealing with. So hey, now I know who my enemies are, that's very convenient! From my perspective, this election was a battle between two sides: not republican versus democrat, but nationalism vs. globalism; capitalism vs. communism; peace vs. chaos; safety vs. terrorism and crime; family values vs. decadence and degeneracy; our country vs. the uncivilized world; and so on. The cherry on top of all of that was that it was honestly fun to be a Trump supporter at the time. There were memes, jokes, shitposts, and hilarious videos (The "You Can't Stump the Trump" videos were absolute gold at the time) and while I did feel powerless in the face of the SJW menace, the alt-right didn't just give me hope; it gave me a home. It made me feel like I could take the enemy down. These perceived injustices I had against the world: I had the opportunity to combat them, and not just that, but I could also laugh along the way while doing so.
Now that the gears were set in motion for me, I was in a perfect position to be effectively manipulated into voting for Trump. At the time, I did legitimately agree with a ton of his policies, but as I would find out, most if not all of these things were based in outright falsehoods. Not only did I have anxiety about the government and mainstream media, but also my identity as a white person, as these alt-right circles would frequently cite many leftist figures as being anti-white. I've never felt that I was racist in my heart, but I certainly bought into race realism. When you're uninformed and you don't know the totality of the mindset behind how people behave, an idea like, for example, banning immigration from the middle east, makes sense. After all, you hear news of there being tons and tons of terrorist attacks (never mind that the alt-right has produced their own terrorists) and many of these being in European countries and the U.S., it's just going to support your already preconceived notions about the world. This can disguise itself when the phrasing you use to describe all Muslims is something like "radical Islamic terrorists" because that's a very specific phrase that leaves some room for reasonable doubt if you really are being Islamophobic. In reality though, at this point, the brain doesn't actually make the distinction between so-called "radical Islamic terrorists" and your ordinary Muslim. When you see a Muslim, you get goose bumps at the very sight of them, because that hugely toxic association has already been made. So every time when I would see Trump say something obviously racist, I wouldn't see anything wrong with it, because underneath the racism lies a layer where there's plausible deniability. In other words, my inability to comprehend actual racism was because of an ideological mask that prevented me from actually seeing it in plain sight. I was deluded into thinking that I was rational in interpreting what Trump was saying when in hindsight, it so obviously was not true. I was drinking the alt-right's kool-aid without question. Between the conspiracies and the emotionally captivating propaganda being thrown my way, I was unwilling to question any of it, because I felt like I had already reached my conclusions.
The last couple of months leading up to the election were incredibly invigorating for me. Trump outwitted shittalked every single republican, and all that was left was Hillary Clinton herself. I believed at the time that if Hillary were elected, the country would be in almost irreversible turmoil due to her sheer incompetency. Also, if she were elected, my only chance to pose a threat to the deep state would have failed, something my fears would not let happen unchecked. Based on everything I was made to believe up to that point, a Clinton presidency would've been incredibly isolating to me. If it had happened, fear would've paralyzed me permanently. Up until this point, I had been lurking The_Donald almost every single day to see the latest news, ingesting tons of propaganda, absorbing tons of fear-mongering. Needless to say, I thought this was hugely important. The conspiracies were abundant, you couldn't miss them. I didn't believe each and every single one, but there were certainly plenty I did believe in. I think this is another element of my indoctrination through the pipeline; there were hundreds of conspiracies I was exposed to in that time, and from that point of view, every single bit of corruption was stemming from the democrats. Things like, for example, PizzaGate, implicated democrats in really vile ways (These theories conveniently never happen to republicans, I wonder why?) and I was willing to believe it because, well, why wouldn't I believe it? These conspiracies scale up like massive mountains that take days to climb. Again, it's all a part of that red-pill cinematic universe. And they stack up in such a way where the gravity of it becomes so huge that you believe in it even more. When you believe these conspiracy theories, it has the false effect (an illusion, if you will) that feels like the equivalent of seeing a new color no human has ever seen before. You begin to believe that you know more than the experts do, because you have intense knowledge of the "other side of the story." There was nothing like this against Trump, of course, so it seemed as if his record was clean. That being said, there was also the Access Hollywood tape, which was like Trump's own 47% ordeal, but when it happened I had no reason to believe it would damage his campaign. At that point, I think most people had already solidified their opinions since Trump was such a controversial figure to begin with. Nothing about the tape was so incriminating that it would derail him, so I considered it a victory. At this point, the mainstream media put so much energy into negatively covering Trump, showing things Trump had said years and years ago, and that was the worst thing they could show? To me that only confirmed Trump's legitimacy. He wasn't controlled by the government and he wouldn't give in to the Radical Left. Him talking about grabbing women's pussies was nothing compared to the countless conspiracies involving corruption, pedophilia, and world domination.
November 8 would come and go. Sure, I would laugh at that one video where The Young Turks were throwing a hissy-fit over the election results and gawk at that one guy from CNN who called the results a "whitelash" but it felt like a legitimate victory for me. I owned the libs! I cucked the SJWs! Under all that, however, was the serious feeling of dodging a bullet. I thought I had dodged many more years of war and hatred. I thought that the SJW monolith that was seizing control of and diluting western values was defeated. I thought that I defeated the big bad evil globalism, socialism, and God forbid, communism. It was like the stars had aligned perfectly to shape the government, and by extension, society, the way I wanted to see it. For the first couple of years, I had remained steady in my support of Trump. My political interest at that point was purely in seeing how Trump's presidency would play out now that I voted him into office. He did seem to make good on many of his immigration promises, including the wall (ignoring the fact that he would say Mexico would pay for it). Foreign policy seems to be doing okay from a distance (though, in hindsight, things have certainly been better than they have now). He did end up signing more executive orders than I perhaps wanted, but I didn't care at the time. As long as the president's agenda was being pushed, I didn't mind. I was beginning to see that perhaps Trump's presidency wasn't going to go as gracefully as I wanted it to, but I still showed support. After all, the government is corrupt and I already understood that the president's power was limited under the executive branch, so what did I expect? Sure, he may have overpromised a fair bit, but it's all gonna be okay, right?
Subtle signs of doubt would start quietly emerging within me. Trump is definitely underperforming in areas that I thought he would excel in as a businessman and a leader. And something simply didn't feel right. It's been over a year at this point, and the swamp Trump has been talking about has had no signs of being drained. These anxieties I had about the government and the deep state were not being addressed, and in fact, they appeared to be ignored. Deep inside, I wanted to be right all along. But it seemed as if something wasn't adding up.
Then, I discovered ContraPoints. When I discovered her channel, everything changed. I'm not gonna overhype her channel, because we all know how amazing her content is and she doesn't like being seen as being so hugely significant, but it's honestly because of her that I strayed away from the alt-right. As a transgender woman, her videos completely changed the way I thought about transgendered people. Before, I was just indifferent, erring on the side of the transphobes who would constantly say that transgenderism is a mental disorder, and therefore waiting to see from the scientific community if that is in fact true. I've never had any trans friends, and all the information I had gotten about the trans community from that point was from the internet, so how would I know any better? However, her channel instantly flipped my position from indifference to undying support. Sure, I still had my questions, but her videos on the topic as well as her outspoken and well formulated points instantly disproved any preconceived notions I had. This was the catalyst that would lead me to where I am now. She was completely unlike anyone else I had ever seen in that her videos are not antagonistic. She was a voice of reason that rose above the chaotic sea of noise. All the right had was pseudo-intellectual dogma and memes whose sole purpose is to be loud, offensive, and most importantly, pander to the people that believe it. ContraPoints succeeded where the mainstream media failed in conveying the actual reasoning behind why these racist, bigoted people online were really racist and really bigoted. If the right were so massively wrong here, then it clearly had to go much further. My other ideas didn't instantly flip from that moment on, though. I would continue to battle these ideas that I've held in my head for a very long time, and it would still take me several months before my support for Trump would go to zero.
Fast forward to now. Pretty much everything I thought I was advocating for has either been debunked or revealed to be outright lies altogether. Recently, as you all know, Trump has said for four democratic congresswomen to leave the country for doing the unthinkable act of... criticizing it. You know, the thing Trump himself has been doing years and years before running for president??? Even if I had never encountered ContraPoints, I'm positive that this would've struck a nerve with me. Here he was, in the white house completely undeserved, saying that congresswomen can't criticize the country, when he himself said on the campaign trail that he "whines until he wins." This president initially stuck out to me on the campaign because he was relentless in criticizing the country, and now nobody can do the same without being deemed unpatriotic? At this point, this goes beyond mere partisanship. It's not even justanti-American to suggest that your government that you are a part of is beyond criticism. It's barbaric. It's fascist. For years and years, I deflected any and all allegations that Trump even remotely espousing fascist rhetoric, and here I am, coming full circle and seeing in plain unedited sight the person that Trump really is. One thing was clear: my decision to vote for the guy was based on historically bad judgement. The cherry on top of it all was the "send her back" chanting at the rally that happened afterwards. There's plausible deniability that all immigrants are legitimate actors, but are you really to suggest that because one of our congresswomen was born in Somalia, that they don't have a right to their free speech? Sure, it wasn't an outright declaration that she'd be deported, but if the president truly had that power, I'd be shocked if he didn't exercise it.
Honestly, I'm torn on who I should blame for my severely awful judgement. At least part of the blame most certainly lies on me, though. I should've known something was off when Trump appeared on Alex Jones' show even though I didn't even like Alex Jones any point before or afterwards. I should've known something was off when known racists like David Duke publicly showed their nationalist support towards Trump. I should've known something was off when reading The_Donald on a daily basis and only seeing an echo chamber where facts go to die. I should've known something was off when Trump would constantly wibble-wobble his way through answers. I should've known something was off when the pro-Trump propagandist organization Project Veritas was discredited by the mainstream media by lying in their face on video about it. I should've known something was off when many of Trump's supporters were promoting blatant hatred and fear mongering. None of that mattered, though. I bought into it anyway, and now I feel like a humongous idiot for giving into it even a single bit, let alone actually voting for the guy. I truly do feel like I should share all of the blame for my stupidity, because it was right there and I refused to see it. Like I said though, I was manipulated into swinging my vote his way. In the same way that a technologically illiterate person would fall for a Nigerian prince email scam, my politically illiterate self was being played by scammers. Like I said, I was a pawn in the alt-right's conservative machine. Exploited by billionaires and lobbyists with more money than any one person would know what to do with and ACTUAL RACISTS AND FASCISTS. Our world is extremely fucked up to allow such dishonest things to happen.
So, yeah. I believe my values were in the right place this whole time, but because of an overarching narrative that is only marginally based in even a little truth, I was effectively manipulated into voting for Trump. I was swindled. I was conned. I was made to believe that the government and globalists were actively working against the interests of the world while SJWs sought to capitalize on first wave feminism while degrading the value of western culture. I bought into all their rhetoric, their lies, and their scams. It's no coincidence that now you're seeing people start to turn away from the alt-right and go back to reality. I'm most certainly not alone in this. This is where I need to make clear that yes, it is in fact possible to deradicalize significant fractions of those going through the pipeline. It may seem like a daunting or even impossible task, but given that we are one of the most powerful nations on Earth, I believe it is compulsory to act now to deradicalize and prevent further radicalization. I hope that by reading this, you've learned a bit about what the pipeline is all about from the perspective of someone who has gone through it, and how you can do your part in preventing this from continuing. Not everyone can be deradicalized, unfortunately; some people are just too thick to get through and others are so deep down the rabbit hole that it's impossible to get to them. For every single person that does get out of the rabbit hole, however, that figure will lower over time. This isn't about winning elections or telling people what to think. This is NOT a partisan issue. It's about preventing people from being scammed by con artists. It's about teaching people how to critically think and think past their preconceived biases. It's about equipping them to recognize when they're being scammed and lied to.
I know there will be detractors that look at this post and say that I've just flipped from one extreme to another or that I'm still a brainwashed zombie that still thinks that I'm free just because I'm watching BreadTube now. Let me assure you that with my transition of my political leanings, that has come with a massive increase in critical thought. Let me say this in all caps just so we're clear here: THE ALT-RIGHT DOES NOT WANT YOU TO QUESTION ANYTHING. RIGHT-LEANING FIGURES LIKE STEVEN CROWDER ARE NOT ACTING IN THE INTEREST OF RATIONAL DISCOURSE. That is the difference between BreadTube and the right-leaning sphere on YouTube. When I'm watching ContraPoints, Philosophy Tube and hbomberguy, I'm engaging in an environment in which dissenting opinions and thoughts are allowed, and dialogue and critical thinking are encouraged. None of these things are true of the alt-right. Steven Crowder is the ultimate example of this: his Change My Mind series is him having debates with people that are not skilled in the art of debate, therefore not allowing the best possible versions of the opposing argument to be dissected. I watched this series and I was satisfied when my biases were confirmed for the 57th time while falsely believing I was watching proper dialogue happening. Listen, if you're a human being, you're never going to eliminate your own personal biases. That's simply unavoidable. Now, however, when I'm watching these videos, I am cognizant of my own biases and acknowledge that they may be framing what I personally believe. I still look for the best possible counter-arguments wherever they may come, and I'm unopposed to watching anything and dissecting it in a logical fashion. The big difference with the alt-right is that if you're an innocent person going down the pipeline, they DO NOT want you to become aware of this. The alt-right CAN'T win on rational discourse, so they have to resort to more exploitative means to pull in followers. They can't say in your face what they truly are, because that isn't their winning strategy. As long as these dishonest people are working to further divide the country, we have to be vigilant in preventing more stories like these from happening. These inhumane ideologies cannot be allowed to thrive any longer. I truly believe that the experience I went through was a crime against humanity, in which I and thousands, if not millions of others are the victims. Was I an idiot for even falling for their trap to begin with? Sure. But the world doesn't deserve to get punished for my failure to think.
In conclusion, I took the time to write all of this because I'm mad. I'm mad at Donald Trump for presenting me a false image of the world. I'm mad at the right for being self-serving assholes who only care about egotism and feelings over rational discourse. I'm mad at Steven Crowder and Stefan Molyneux for pandering to me at every single opportunity, in doing so fueling the echo chamber. I'm mad at the mainstream media for doing jack shit about this and instead of working to deradicalize the population, just serve out the facts cold-handed with no persuasive ability and no understanding of what the people on the alt-right are actually about. I'm mad at the billionaires and lobbyists that fund this crap to fill their own pockets at the expense of the American people. I'm mad at the Russian government for effectively stabbing this country in the throat just for their political gain.
But most of all, I'm mad at the fascists, Nazis, and disinformation agents for actively dividing this country and running it into the brink of civil war. I'm just one single human being. I didn't ask to exist in this world, and what I get in exchange for it is an existence where I have to constantly contemplate how there are thousands and thousands of humans whose sole purpose in life is to undermine the goals of humanity. Thanks for making life worse for all of us, you assholes.
You were able to fool me once, but I'll be damned if I let it slide by without any repercussion.
Fuck the fascists. Fuck the Nazis.
Fuck them all.

Complete with Gamergate and Contra points.

 

[Jigglyjogglers]

>I was a huge Trumpist

Press X to doubt.

This just sounds like someone trying to put a fresh new spin on that "Roleplay as right-wingers" directive some leftist activist group put out among other guidelines.

 

[Godzilla@1989]

Taylor Swift continues to channel her inner Dobson at the VMAS by bashing Trump for his lack of interest in te Equality Act.

Taylor Swift calls out Trump administration at MTV Video Music Awards

"You voting for the video means that you want a world where we're all treated equally under the law, regardless of who we love, regardless of how we identify," Swift told fans

www.cbsnews.com

 

[It's HK-47]

>I was a huge Trumpist

Press X to doubt.

This just sounds like someone trying to put a fresh new spin on that "Roleplay as right-wingers" directive some leftist activist group put out among other guidelines.

That Reddit post is nearly as long as the fucking Communist Manifesto, there's no way on God's green earth that it wasn't written by someone who's always been wandering around on the far Left side of the fence. I was almost willing to buy it until he started sucking off Contrapoints so loudly that I could hear it from another room. You don't just flip from right-to-left because of Contrapoints. Their shit isn't nearly provocative and unique enough to cause that sort of change.

For that matter that's sort of another interesting point: There is no pipeline from Right to Left. Politics is only flowing in one direction right now because left-leaning forces are actively pushing moderates away from the party, and any attempt that people make to move to the Left is met with open hostility if they don't move all the way to the Left. If you're not willing to embrace open borders and trans bathrooms and white guilt and gun confiscation, you're not allowed to get anywhere near them without them screaming like wild animals.

The right, meanwhile, is standing on the other side of the fence going, "Hey man come on over, let's laugh at morons who still think Warren is a Native American." It's only getting bigger, too. Even in somewhere as obscure as the Farms I've seen a lot of people over the last few months who outright hated Trump a year ago suddenly start to think he's not all that bad, and that these people need to calm the fuck down. But they're not doing that, are they? They're still getting worse, and it's about to get a whole lot fucking crazier because Andrew McCabe's indictment is right around the corner (Hence why he hopped on CNN as quickly as possible), and the Horowitz report is hopefully going to be landing sometime in the next few weeks.

If people think they're acting crazy now, just wait until "Spygate" is in full swing.

 

[RandallB]

That Reddit post is nearly as long as the fucking Communist Manifesto, there's no way on God's green earth that it wasn't written by someone who's always been wandering around on the far Left side of the fence. I was almost willing to buy it until he started sucking off Contrapoints so loudly that I could hear it from another room. You don't just flip from right-to-left because of Contrapoints. Their shit isn't nearly provocative and unique enough to cause that sort of change.

For that matter that's sort of another interesting point: There is no pipeline from Right to Left. Politics is only flowing in one direction right now because left-leaning forces are actively pushing moderates away from the party, and any attempt that people make to move to the Left is met with open hostility if they don't move all the way to the Left. If you're not willing to embrace open borders and trans bathrooms and white guilt and gun confiscation, you're not allowed to get anywhere near them without them screaming like wild animals.

The right, meanwhile, is standing on the other side of the fence going, "Hey man come on over, let's laugh at morons who still think Warren is a Native American." It's only getting bigger, too. Even in somewhere as obscure as the Farms I've seen a lot of people over the last few months who outright hated Trump a year ago suddenly start to think he's not all that bad, and that these people need to calm the fuck down. But they're not doing that, are they? They're still getting worse, and it's about to get a whole lot fucking crazier because Andrew McCabe's indictment is right around the corner (Hence why he hopped on CNN as quickly as possible), and the Horowitz report is hopefully going to be landing sometime in the next few weeks.

If people think they're acting crazy now, just wait until "Spygate" is in full swing.

I have tried, so hard, to understand why someone would go to the left at this point. Throughout my life being a lefty was always the easy, default option, so it has a certain social draw, but I could never justify it to myself. But that was when the dems had actual policy, just policy i didn't necessarily like or agree with.

Now, the dems don't have that. What do they have? Raw utter hatred of everything positive? Because that's how it feels. It's gotta be gloom and doom and the world is ending and everyone's a rapist racist (But its ok when our guys do it).

I mean, "kids in cages" is a nice rallying cry, but can anyone propose a solution to try? Oh wait, there already is one, it's called "Congress is in charge of funding".

It just seems like more than ever they're relying on mindless feel-goodery, but they've forgotten to have anything to feel good about.

 

[ES 195]

r/chomsky - I used to be a Trumpist: My experience with the alt-right pipeline

337 votes and 81 comments so far on Reddit

www.reddit.com

X
This reads like an extreme-leftist's wet dream. This is an example of the literal evil they think is going on and the exact way they think to convert people. The guy probably had a stray thought about some mildly conservatives ideas and freaked out because his 'friends' wouldn't like him anymore and basically pulled an SJW rosary reading.
I'm not sure what's worse, the disingenuous bullshit he's spewing or the fact he wrote War and Peace to get his story out.

EDIT: Quoted the wrong post like the retard I am, proper post added.

 

[heyitsmike]

Any Republican that is eager to take John McCain's spot as the Democrats' favorite Republican really should attend more baseball games with Bernie Sanders supporters.

So Senator Romney, do you prefer first base side or third base side?

Enjoy the play game!

 

[Adamska]

X
This reads like an extreme-leftist's wet dream. This is an example of the literal evil they think is going on and the exact way they think to convert people. The guy probably had a stray thought about some mildly conservatives ideas and freaked out because his 'friends' wouldn't like him anymore and basically pulled an SJW rosary reading.
I'm not sure what's worse, the disingenuous bullshit he's spewing or the fact he wrote War and Peace to get his story out.

EDIT: Quoted the wrong post like the exceptional individual I am.

I barely started reading that drivel and I've already got his measure. He's doing the same thing that fundies would do to denigrate something they like in a book or for a show or megachurch event. They would have a fairly unknown pastor or friend play pretend as whatever immoral subject they'll talk about that day.

Geoff the man who ran evil porn sites is in reality Pastor McKinnon of "X ministry, sister of Y ministry". Hank the ex-DnD player is really Henry, an old, nonassociated with the church friend of Pastor Shamsalot.

He's blatantly lying and pretending he ever was a former right wing guy, and like the fundie crowd, these regressives and brainlets will eat it up.

 

[Flexo]

Getting caught up here. On the Trump chosen one thing? I knew @Vorhtbame would just LOVE to here from our favorite TDS ridden Catholic who has actually been calling Trump and antichrist for years at this point.

https://mobile.twitter.com/search?q=@chezami antichrist&src=typed_query

(It seriously goes on for awhile.)

He also had to blog about it.

"Many will come in my Name saying, 'I am he.'"

So the other day, our President decided to scold America's Jews for "disloyalty" if they voted Democrat. This ancient anti-semitic trope, typical for a man who declares Nazis "very fine people" was, of course, laughed off by his cult even as they affirmed it. "He supports Israel!" they said...

www.patheos.com

It "didn't go well" just because the person she endorsed lost? By that standard literally everyone who's ever endorsed a losing candidate should never comment on politics again.

That sounds like a great idea to me.

A lot of these people also believe that they can do enough impeachments to eventually get a Democrat in the White House.

Laws and politics in general aren't exactly their intellectual strong suits, no matter how much they crow about them daily.

They have adopted not just a cargo cult mentality, but one based around fiction. "Oh things work out for the hero & friends because they're the good guys. We're good guys so of course things will work out for us. We're just like Harry Potter."

You may think I joke but just look at that insipid phrase "love wins." Yeah, it has meaning in Christianity but not outside of it.

 

[Doctor of Autism]

I remember some dingbats on Twitter or something coming up with hypothetical situations involving impeachments and bullying until such a point Hillary could be appointed president and take "her turn" as should have happened.

One was to impeach all the way down to Pelosi, then she steps aside to be Hilldawg's VP, Another was impeach Trump, then bully Pence into resigning, then somehow install Hillary. There were other ideas I can't remember. All were completely unrealistic and stupid. When the bad orange man simply must go, feasibility isn't really a concern.

I think there was one to impeach down to Pelosi, she names Hillary as her VP, then resigns.

I remembered our resident lolcow Chris had this idea to install Hillary

 

[Cloacan]

r/chomsky - I used to be a Trumpist: My experience with the alt-right pipeline

337 votes and 81 comments so far on Reddit

www.reddit.com

Spoiler: Full autistic post

Hi. I was inspired by this other post that was posted on the BreadTube sub to share my story of my experience with the alt-right, specifically their pipeline that they pull you through in an attempt to radicalize people. I need to note that I was never truly alt-right at any point; however, at worst, I was alt-lite, which is dangerously close, and I was a huge Trumpist back in the day. I was able to break out of the pipeline before heading into truly dangerous territory. That being said, this is my story.
In June of 2015, Donald Trump announced his campaign for president of the United States. Originally unenthused, I started supporting him not much more than two weeks later. I voted for him on November 8, 2016. Almost three years later, my position on him flipped from seemingly unending enthusiasm to deep regret. What the hell happened?
First, some background. My father is a conservative type who in my youth would peddle many conspiracy theories in my direction, and so very early on my acceptance towards more "alternative" ideas would become deep-seated. Fast forward a few years into the future and I'd find more "alternative" information through the internet. Long story short, I was falling into a deep well of racism and bigotry disguised as the red-pill. This would start to get serious around the time of GamerGate. A huge, divisive scandal happening all around the gaming community was something I couldn't get my eyes off of. I would lurk 8chan day after day getting the latest news on what pink-haired feminist was getting harassed this time, and the inevitable conclusion from all of this was that gaming journalism was not to be trusted even a little, and as an extension of that, mainstream media shouldn't either. This was further supported with some pretty evocative imagery (such as this image; the words "listen and believe" don't portray a great message in the eyes of a conspiracy theorist who will very soon be a reactionary) and the fact that games like Gone Home seemed to be gaining critical praise for no reason that I could understand at the time. I was also into edgy humor, and along my journey it served a minor role in normalizing ideas I would now consider to be completely wrong. In other words, I was a pawn who thought I was a spirited free-thinker, but in reality, my anxieties as a person were being exploited for political gain and crafted into an objectively wrong worldview that neo-Nazis have created to put me through the alt-right pipeline.
With the seeds planted, I was now growing into a pretty reactionary personality. GamerGate would frame my perception of the world for the next few years. I couldn't trust a word of the mainstream media, and because I also fancied myself a bit of an enlightened centrist at this point, I'd also be pretty skeptical of alternative media sometimes, though not to the same degree. What I was not skeptical of, however, was the opinions of the figures on YouTube and elsewhere who actually live in this world like most of us do. To me, the idea of the SJW menace was a pretty real one at this point, one that was actively trying to battle for female supremacy as well as trying to dilute the value of culture. It was infecting the education system and seething itself into any corner of the internet that didn't support free speech. Of course, that isn't really true. That was a hoax. That combined with my conspiratorial fear of the government doesn't mix very healthily. As far as these YouTubers go, however, I occasionally watched Steven Crowder and Stefan Molyneux and Internet Aristocrat (aka Mister Metokur) for my doses of right-wing content whenever I desired it. I'd also sometimes watch Sargon of Akkad and there were a bunch of miscellaneous channels that I'd go to laugh at the stupid SJWs. While my approach to politics wasn't very serious, there were serious implications to the overarching narratives being presented. The important thing is that throughout all of this, I was not encouraged to think for myself whatsoever, because I felt as if the conclusions had already been made and there was no need to investigate further. This is one of the points I need to stress: these beliefs I was fostering was based purely on anecdotes from other people, with a huge emphasis on feelings over facts, in spite of the fact that they accuse their opposition of the exact same. What these people were saying was scary. This monolithic SJW menace seizing all possible avenues of society, when you're presented the narrative, it makes you feel powerless. This set me up perfectly to go down the pipeline. I need to stress that fear and anxiety is at the very core of the alt-right pipeline. Here's a list of each and every primary fear that you're supposed to experience at some point when going down this rabbit hole. Many of these were beliefs I sincerely held at some point.

• Fear of the white identity being rendered meaningless
  • Alternately, fear of the American identity being changed
• Fear of the white population dwindling into minority status (The Great Replacement)
• Fear of non-whites
  • Huge stereotypes such as blacks doing more crime or Muslims engaging in terrorist attacks
• Fear of an abstract monolith pulling the world's strings in the name of supremacy (Jews, big government)
  • Fear of dystopia as a result of this
• Fear of being instantly eradicated from society by saying the wrong words (wrongthink)
  • This is why many alt-righters go to echo chambers in the first place, as they don't feel like they have any other place to belong, and therefore their false ideas can't be corrected
• Fear of being discriminated against for being white and/or male
• Fear of the quality of culture being deteriorated
  • This is a weird one that I could talk about for ages, but it basically comes down to the subjective ideas of "forced diversity" and a "forced political agenda" in movies and video games. These claims often have zero actual merit to them
• Fear of degeneracy and the decadence of western civilization
• Fear of established rights being taken away (free speech)
• Fear of socialism/communism

As a pawn in the alt-right's scam program, these are beliefs that you're effectively manipulated into having. And for me, most of these fears were very real. Whenever I'd see a personality be taken down for a racist thing that they said, whether it was 1 week ago or 10 years ago, that scared me. From the framework of the alt-right pipeline, you interpret that as an indicator that you can never be appeased, and that the left can never be satisfied. This tells me that political correctness is a terrible invention, as people who would otherwise be deserving of a job will be stripped of their reputation and ability to contribute to society simply by uttering the wrong words. Of course, now I know that words can hurt and that it's surprisingly easy to not be racist, but that's not the message that's being taken away when there are huge mobs on twitter going to war over people they've never interacted with. There's a huge element of "this can happen to you" at play here, and that's where the alt-right really comes in. They take advantage of this fear to then provide you a safe space in the form of YouTube channels and other right-wing thoughtspaces. Now you don't have to be afraid to say what you really feel! Do you not feel racist or bigoted even if you really are? Don't worry, you won't be ridiculed here! Suffice to say, The_Donald and places like it provide an avenue to say what's really on their mind, something that the left doesn't provide for them. And thus, they will lie within their echo chambers, which I certainly did. It works to the extent that immersing in these spaces without interruption continually perpetuates these same ideas over and over again to the point of feeling true. Since I didn't trust the mainstream media, what other choice did I have?
So this racist and bigoted framework has now been made. This is where I get to the 2016 election. Soon after Trump announced his campaign for the first time, I watched his announcement. I was pretty indifferent at the time. About two weeks later, though, drama would start ensuing. The mainstream media promoted Donald Trump in a way where my attention simply could not veer away from him. It was pretty funny to watch his takedown of the mainstream media, and his way with words was refreshingly straightforward for a politician. It avoided all the same sort of talking points I'd usually hear from a politician. Soon after, my enthusiasm for Trump would go from mere amusement to being deadly serious. I'd watch him more and more, and hot damn, I actually agreed with him a lot! Here's the thing: he was speaking my language. My emotional language, that is. Even though Donald Trump is a billionaire, he was saying exactly what I was thinking at the time. It all came down to emotional security: while the right was giving me this safe space to immerse myself in, Donald Trump was taking these thoughts these spaces were providing and giving them a huge platform that no other republican was taking advantage of. The fact that he was the only one to do this and that he did not have to do itlegitimized everything for me that much more. Without any reason to doubt the guy, he gave me massive amounts of emotional security. I could feel safe knowing that he was providing my voice. I saw him as a venerable hero who put his own reputation on the line just to support us. Also, his rallies were incredible. Have you actually seen a Trump rally? If not, I recommend you look at at least one if you can stomach it. If you don't understand how these people believe he's one of them in spite of having millions more dollars than the average American, his rallies are the answer to that. His language is blunt, and it speaks to all of the issues that Trump supporters care about the most. Trump speaks in their language. When you speak someone's emotional language, you've won them over, and that grants them unlimited amounts of security.
As the campaign went further down the line, my viewpoints would exponentially strengthen, and I would go down the alt-right pipeline even further. Any perceived shortcomings of Trump would be dismissed as being political strategy ("4D Chess") as to me, he was practically infallible. With that being established, I needed only to take one look at his opposition to get my take on them. Hillary Clinton was a disaster of a candidate (which I think we can all agree with regardless of our political differences) and Bernie Sanders was literally going to turn the country into a communist hive. The mainstream media and late night talk show hosts immediately let me know that I am not a good person (Seriously, Drumpf?! How is that any different to calling Obama Obozo or some shit like that?) and so the conclusions I previously had were effectively confirmed. I could feel the weight of them on my shoulders. Let me put it this way: it was as if some random asshole on the internet called me a dick. That person isn't my friend. There is no incentive for me to look into myself and see if I'm wrong about anything. In fact, after that same thing happens too many times to count, I'm going to hate a lot of the country. But if a friend of mine were to say the same thing, I'd be worried. Am I really being a dick? Is there something I'm missing that's hurting the people around me? But none of our metaphorical "friends" are ever saying that. At worst, some personalities were scrutinized for not liking Trump enough. That's the extent of the level of introspection we're dealing with. So hey, now I know who my enemies are, that's very convenient! From my perspective, this election was a battle between two sides: not republican versus democrat, but nationalism vs. globalism; capitalism vs. communism; peace vs. chaos; safety vs. terrorism and crime; family values vs. decadence and degeneracy; our country vs. the uncivilized world; and so on. The cherry on top of all of that was that it was honestly fun to be a Trump supporter at the time. There were memes, jokes, shitposts, and hilarious videos (The "You Can't Stump the Trump" videos were absolute gold at the time) and while I did feel powerless in the face of the SJW menace, the alt-right didn't just give me hope; it gave me a home. It made me feel like I could take the enemy down. These perceived injustices I had against the world: I had the opportunity to combat them, and not just that, but I could also laugh along the way while doing so.
Now that the gears were set in motion for me, I was in a perfect position to be effectively manipulated into voting for Trump. At the time, I did legitimately agree with a ton of his policies, but as I would find out, most if not all of these things were based in outright falsehoods. Not only did I have anxiety about the government and mainstream media, but also my identity as a white person, as these alt-right circles would frequently cite many leftist figures as being anti-white. I've never felt that I was racist in my heart, but I certainly bought into race realism. When you're uninformed and you don't know the totality of the mindset behind how people behave, an idea like, for example, banning immigration from the middle east, makes sense. After all, you hear news of there being tons and tons of terrorist attacks (never mind that the alt-right has produced their own terrorists) and many of these being in European countries and the U.S., it's just going to support your already preconceived notions about the world. This can disguise itself when the phrasing you use to describe all Muslims is something like "radical Islamic terrorists" because that's a very specific phrase that leaves some room for reasonable doubt if you really are being Islamophobic. In reality though, at this point, the brain doesn't actually make the distinction between so-called "radical Islamic terrorists" and your ordinary Muslim. When you see a Muslim, you get goose bumps at the very sight of them, because that hugely toxic association has already been made. So every time when I would see Trump say something obviously racist, I wouldn't see anything wrong with it, because underneath the racism lies a layer where there's plausible deniability. In other words, my inability to comprehend actual racism was because of an ideological mask that prevented me from actually seeing it in plain sight. I was deluded into thinking that I was rational in interpreting what Trump was saying when in hindsight, it so obviously was not true. I was drinking the alt-right's kool-aid without question. Between the conspiracies and the emotionally captivating propaganda being thrown my way, I was unwilling to question any of it, because I felt like I had already reached my conclusions.
The last couple of months leading up to the election were incredibly invigorating for me. Trump outwitted shittalked every single republican, and all that was left was Hillary Clinton herself. I believed at the time that if Hillary were elected, the country would be in almost irreversible turmoil due to her sheer incompetency. Also, if she were elected, my only chance to pose a threat to the deep state would have failed, something my fears would not let happen unchecked. Based on everything I was made to believe up to that point, a Clinton presidency would've been incredibly isolating to me. If it had happened, fear would've paralyzed me permanently. Up until this point, I had been lurking The_Donald almost every single day to see the latest news, ingesting tons of propaganda, absorbing tons of fear-mongering. Needless to say, I thought this was hugely important. The conspiracies were abundant, you couldn't miss them. I didn't believe each and every single one, but there were certainly plenty I did believe in. I think this is another element of my indoctrination through the pipeline; there were hundreds of conspiracies I was exposed to in that time, and from that point of view, every single bit of corruption was stemming from the democrats. Things like, for example, PizzaGate, implicated democrats in really vile ways (These theories conveniently never happen to republicans, I wonder why?) and I was willing to believe it because, well, why wouldn't I believe it? These conspiracies scale up like massive mountains that take days to climb. Again, it's all a part of that red-pill cinematic universe. And they stack up in such a way where the gravity of it becomes so huge that you believe in it even more. When you believe these conspiracy theories, it has the false effect (an illusion, if you will) that feels like the equivalent of seeing a new color no human has ever seen before. You begin to believe that you know more than the experts do, because you have intense knowledge of the "other side of the story." There was nothing like this against Trump, of course, so it seemed as if his record was clean. That being said, there was also the Access Hollywood tape, which was like Trump's own 47% ordeal, but when it happened I had no reason to believe it would damage his campaign. At that point, I think most people had already solidified their opinions since Trump was such a controversial figure to begin with. Nothing about the tape was so incriminating that it would derail him, so I considered it a victory. At this point, the mainstream media put so much energy into negatively covering Trump, showing things Trump had said years and years ago, and that was the worst thing they could show? To me that only confirmed Trump's legitimacy. He wasn't controlled by the government and he wouldn't give in to the Radical Left. Him talking about grabbing women's pussies was nothing compared to the countless conspiracies involving corruption, pedophilia, and world domination.
November 8 would come and go. Sure, I would laugh at that one video where The Young Turks were throwing a hissy-fit over the election results and gawk at that one guy from CNN who called the results a "whitelash" but it felt like a legitimate victory for me. I owned the libs! I cucked the SJWs! Under all that, however, was the serious feeling of dodging a bullet. I thought I had dodged many more years of war and hatred. I thought that the SJW monolith that was seizing control of and diluting western values was defeated. I thought that I defeated the big bad evil globalism, socialism, and God forbid, communism. It was like the stars had aligned perfectly to shape the government, and by extension, society, the way I wanted to see it. For the first couple of years, I had remained steady in my support of Trump. My political interest at that point was purely in seeing how Trump's presidency would play out now that I voted him into office. He did seem to make good on many of his immigration promises, including the wall (ignoring the fact that he would say Mexico would pay for it). Foreign policy seems to be doing okay from a distance (though, in hindsight, things have certainly been better than they have now). He did end up signing more executive orders than I perhaps wanted, but I didn't care at the time. As long as the president's agenda was being pushed, I didn't mind. I was beginning to see that perhaps Trump's presidency wasn't going to go as gracefully as I wanted it to, but I still showed support. After all, the government is corrupt and I already understood that the president's power was limited under the executive branch, so what did I expect? Sure, he may have overpromised a fair bit, but it's all gonna be okay, right?
Subtle signs of doubt would start quietly emerging within me. Trump is definitely underperforming in areas that I thought he would excel in as a businessman and a leader. And something simply didn't feel right. It's been over a year at this point, and the swamp Trump has been talking about has had no signs of being drained. These anxieties I had about the government and the deep state were not being addressed, and in fact, they appeared to be ignored. Deep inside, I wanted to be right all along. But it seemed as if something wasn't adding up.
Then, I discovered ContraPoints. When I discovered her channel, everything changed. I'm not gonna overhype her channel, because we all know how amazing her content is and she doesn't like being seen as being so hugely significant, but it's honestly because of her that I strayed away from the alt-right. As a transgender woman, her videos completely changed the way I thought about transgendered people. Before, I was just indifferent, erring on the side of the transphobes who would constantly say that transgenderism is a mental disorder, and therefore waiting to see from the scientific community if that is in fact true. I've never had any trans friends, and all the information I had gotten about the trans community from that point was from the internet, so how would I know any better? However, her channel instantly flipped my position from indifference to undying support. Sure, I still had my questions, but her videos on the topic as well as her outspoken and well formulated points instantly disproved any preconceived notions I had. This was the catalyst that would lead me to where I am now. She was completely unlike anyone else I had ever seen in that her videos are not antagonistic. She was a voice of reason that rose above the chaotic sea of noise. All the right had was pseudo-intellectual dogma and memes whose sole purpose is to be loud, offensive, and most importantly, pander to the people that believe it. ContraPoints succeeded where the mainstream media failed in conveying the actual reasoning behind why these racist, bigoted people online were really racist and really bigoted. If the right were so massively wrong here, then it clearly had to go much further. My other ideas didn't instantly flip from that moment on, though. I would continue to battle these ideas that I've held in my head for a very long time, and it would still take me several months before my support for Trump would go to zero.
Fast forward to now. Pretty much everything I thought I was advocating for has either been debunked or revealed to be outright lies altogether. Recently, as you all know, Trump has said for four democratic congresswomen to leave the country for doing the unthinkable act of... criticizing it. You know, the thing Trump himself has been doing years and years before running for president??? Even if I had never encountered ContraPoints, I'm positive that this would've struck a nerve with me. Here he was, in the white house completely undeserved, saying that congresswomen can't criticize the country, when he himself said on the campaign trail that he "whines until he wins." This president initially stuck out to me on the campaign because he was relentless in criticizing the country, and now nobody can do the same without being deemed unpatriotic? At this point, this goes beyond mere partisanship. It's not even justanti-American to suggest that your government that you are a part of is beyond criticism. It's barbaric. It's fascist. For years and years, I deflected any and all allegations that Trump even remotely espousing fascist rhetoric, and here I am, coming full circle and seeing in plain unedited sight the person that Trump really is. One thing was clear: my decision to vote for the guy was based on historically bad judgement. The cherry on top of it all was the "send her back" chanting at the rally that happened afterwards. There's plausible deniability that all immigrants are legitimate actors, but are you really to suggest that because one of our congresswomen was born in Somalia, that they don't have a right to their free speech? Sure, it wasn't an outright declaration that she'd be deported, but if the president truly had that power, I'd be shocked if he didn't exercise it.
Honestly, I'm torn on who I should blame for my severely awful judgement. At least part of the blame most certainly lies on me, though. I should've known something was off when Trump appeared on Alex Jones' show even though I didn't even like Alex Jones any point before or afterwards. I should've known something was off when known racists like David Duke publicly showed their nationalist support towards Trump. I should've known something was off when reading The_Donald on a daily basis and only seeing an echo chamber where facts go to die. I should've known something was off when Trump would constantly wibble-wobble his way through answers. I should've known something was off when the pro-Trump propagandist organization Project Veritas was discredited by the mainstream media by lying in their face on video about it. I should've known something was off when many of Trump's supporters were promoting blatant hatred and fear mongering. None of that mattered, though. I bought into it anyway, and now I feel like a humongous idiot for giving into it even a single bit, let alone actually voting for the guy. I truly do feel like I should share all of the blame for my stupidity, because it was right there and I refused to see it. Like I said though, I was manipulated into swinging my vote his way. In the same way that a technologically illiterate person would fall for a Nigerian prince email scam, my politically illiterate self was being played by scammers. Like I said, I was a pawn in the alt-right's conservative machine. Exploited by billionaires and lobbyists with more money than any one person would know what to do with and ACTUAL RACISTS AND FASCISTS. Our world is extremely fucked up to allow such dishonest things to happen.
So, yeah. I believe my values were in the right place this whole time, but because of an overarching narrative that is only marginally based in even a little truth, I was effectively manipulated into voting for Trump. I was swindled. I was conned. I was made to believe that the government and globalists were actively working against the interests of the world while SJWs sought to capitalize on first wave feminism while degrading the value of western culture. I bought into all their rhetoric, their lies, and their scams. It's no coincidence that now you're seeing people start to turn away from the alt-right and go back to reality. I'm most certainly not alone in this. This is where I need to make clear that yes, it is in fact possible to deradicalize significant fractions of those going through the pipeline. It may seem like a daunting or even impossible task, but given that we are one of the most powerful nations on Earth, I believe it is compulsory to act now to deradicalize and prevent further radicalization. I hope that by reading this, you've learned a bit about what the pipeline is all about from the perspective of someone who has gone through it, and how you can do your part in preventing this from continuing. Not everyone can be deradicalized, unfortunately; some people are just too thick to get through and others are so deep down the rabbit hole that it's impossible to get to them. For every single person that does get out of the rabbit hole, however, that figure will lower over time. This isn't about winning elections or telling people what to think. This is NOT a partisan issue. It's about preventing people from being scammed by con artists. It's about teaching people how to critically think and think past their preconceived biases. It's about equipping them to recognize when they're being scammed and lied to.
I know there will be detractors that look at this post and say that I've just flipped from one extreme to another or that I'm still a brainwashed zombie that still thinks that I'm free just because I'm watching BreadTube now. Let me assure you that with my transition of my political leanings, that has come with a massive increase in critical thought. Let me say this in all caps just so we're clear here: THE ALT-RIGHT DOES NOT WANT YOU TO QUESTION ANYTHING. RIGHT-LEANING FIGURES LIKE STEVEN CROWDER ARE NOT ACTING IN THE INTEREST OF RATIONAL DISCOURSE. That is the difference between BreadTube and the right-leaning sphere on YouTube. When I'm watching ContraPoints, Philosophy Tube and hbomberguy, I'm engaging in an environment in which dissenting opinions and thoughts are allowed, and dialogue and critical thinking are encouraged. None of these things are true of the alt-right. Steven Crowder is the ultimate example of this: his Change My Mind series is him having debates with people that are not skilled in the art of debate, therefore not allowing the best possible versions of the opposing argument to be dissected. I watched this series and I was satisfied when my biases were confirmed for the 57th time while falsely believing I was watching proper dialogue happening. Listen, if you're a human being, you're never going to eliminate your own personal biases. That's simply unavoidable. Now, however, when I'm watching these videos, I am cognizant of my own biases and acknowledge that they may be framing what I personally believe. I still look for the best possible counter-arguments wherever they may come, and I'm unopposed to watching anything and dissecting it in a logical fashion. The big difference with the alt-right is that if you're an innocent person going down the pipeline, they DO NOT want you to become aware of this. The alt-right CAN'T win on rational discourse, so they have to resort to more exploitative means to pull in followers. They can't say in your face what they truly are, because that isn't their winning strategy. As long as these dishonest people are working to further divide the country, we have to be vigilant in preventing more stories like these from happening. These inhumane ideologies cannot be allowed to thrive any longer. I truly believe that the experience I went through was a crime against humanity, in which I and thousands, if not millions of others are the victims. Was I an idiot for even falling for their trap to begin with? Sure. But the world doesn't deserve to get punished for my failure to think.
In conclusion, I took the time to write all of this because I'm mad. I'm mad at Donald Trump for presenting me a false image of the world. I'm mad at the right for being self-serving assholes who only care about egotism and feelings over rational discourse. I'm mad at Steven Crowder and Stefan Molyneux for pandering to me at every single opportunity, in doing so fueling the echo chamber. I'm mad at the mainstream media for doing jack shit about this and instead of working to deradicalize the population, just serve out the facts cold-handed with no persuasive ability and no understanding of what the people on the alt-right are actually about. I'm mad at the billionaires and lobbyists that fund this crap to fill their own pockets at the expense of the American people. I'm mad at the Russian government for effectively stabbing this country in the throat just for their political gain.
But most of all, I'm mad at the fascists, Nazis, and disinformation agents for actively dividing this country and running it into the brink of civil war. I'm just one single human being. I didn't ask to exist in this world, and what I get in exchange for it is an existence where I have to constantly contemplate how there are thousands and thousands of humans whose sole purpose in life is to undermine the goals of humanity. Thanks for making life worse for all of us, you assholes.
You were able to fool me once, but I'll be damned if I let it slide by without any repercussion.
Fuck the fascists. Fuck the Nazis.
Fuck them all.

Complete with Gamergate and Contra points.

Let me say this in all caps just so we're clear here: THE ALT-RIGHT DOES NOT WANT YOU TO QUESTION ANYTHING. RIGHT-LEANING FIGURES LIKE STEVEN CROWDER ARE NOT ACTING IN THE INTEREST OF RATIONAL DISCOURSE. That is the difference between BreadTube and the right-leaning sphere on YouTube. When I'm watching ContraPoints, Philosophy Tube and hbomberguy, I'm engaging in an environment in which dissenting opinions and thoughts are allowed, and dialogue and critical thinking are encouraged.

The comments aren't much fun, as I doubt anyone read that long, rambling, poorly-formatted block of tripe in its entirety, but even grasping the gist its obvious its either bunkum or retardation. I'm betting since is Chomsky forum he was yay for Trump in high school, but now is in college and the pressure to conform to collegiate idiocy is strong, he thinks he has finally found the light.


Mayor Pete, please save us!



They end with:

Fuck the fascists. Fuck the Nazis.
Fuck them all.

He claims he was once radicalized and has now been set free by the righteous in-group he's chosen to conform to, but really seems to now be definitely, scarily radicalized. "I was once a Drumphist, but now I'm Antifa. And here's why that's not an utterly batshit transition to make." Delicious irony.

 

[IV 445]

 

[JambledUpWords]

Taylor Swift continues to channel her inner Dobson at the VMAS by bashing Trump for his lack of interest in te Equality Act.

Taylor Swift calls out Trump administration at MTV Video Music Awards

"You voting for the video means that you want a world where we're all treated equally under the law, regardless of who we love, regardless of how we identify," Swift told fans

www.cbsnews.com

The acceptance speech was like reciting leftist dogma. In the speech, Taylor mentions that people should be able to live “authentically”, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Here’s the video in question:

Taylor mentions the petition for the Equality Act as well that she had at the end of her “You Need to Calm Down” music video. Apparently the petition reached 500,000 signatures and petitions like that need 50,000 to garner a response from the White House. Trump hasn’t responded to it yet probably because there are more pressing issues at the moment. To add to this, in the United States the LGBT community is probably one of the most protected classes at the moment.

 

[IV 445]

“You Need to Calm Down”

This is rich coming from them.