Thread by @SecretGamerGrrl

So, as "deradicalization" is a topic of the day, hello. I'm pretty damn well versed, studied up, and active in the field when it comes to far right groups, their radicalization process, various "false flag" tricks and recruitment efforts, the actual deradicalization process, and

what it looks like when someone has actually left a hate group and what it looks like when someone is pretending to.

The main thing people really seem to need to have stressed here is that in no way does a "deradicalized nazi" turn into some sort of equally zealous and crusading

"anti-nazi." That does not happen, ever. It's not like you go from a level 5 chaotic evil fighter to a level 5 lawful good one.

When someone actually stops being a nazi, they STOP. No more hanging around nazi hangouts, talking to their nazi friends, dealing with politics at all,

and if they're having any interaction at all with "the other side" it's trying to find some way to apologize to the specific individuals they've terrorized.

Meanwhile, a nazi trying to recruit people looks like literally this, because that's what this is.

https://twitter.com/della_morte_/status/1332452319334690818

"Hey kids, look at these 4chan memes full of nazi symbols. Here's how you can use all the hate you have for people and any desire you have to attack people to make the world better! Let's talk political theory! I'm trustworthy!"

And people who really don't understand that make

the constant mistake that even if a nazi is attempting to recruit, it's going to be totally ineffectual if they're doing it in leftist spaces/with such language. You recruit far right radicals from spaces that are actually really right-leaning, right? No. Not at all how it works.

The TACTICS are what get instilled in people first. Whoever you think are the bad guys now, go ahead and keep thinking they're the bad guys while you get taught how to deal with that. It's OK to spy on people, lie about them, and ruin their lives if they're bad, right? Changing

who you think of as "bad" comes much later. It's slow and gradual, and honestly involves less propaganda and more just relying on the natural reactions that decent people have when they see the results of someone being radicalized. You start absolutely terrorizing people, people

around you freak out about you doing that, you resent them, they're "the real enemy now" and nobody even had to give you a speech about the evil trans jewish conspiracy... but you'd buy it now because screw those people.

So again, genuinely turning people away from that cannot

happen with any sort of "there are no bad tactics, just bad targets" approach. That's the self-correcting end. Actually deradicalizing someone is all about getting them away from their current environment, and engaged in things that aren't attacking people. Frankly, people need

to get all the way off the internet. Especially hotbeds of radicalization like the chans, reddit, youtube, and twitter. Engaging in life, being around positive influences, getting deprogrammed out of all the hateful garbage.

And really I just cannot possibly convey just how much

experience I have under my belt with "former nazis" deciding the best thing for them to do is really rub elbows with the most prominent people they can find on the left. And then with absolutely stunning consistency, after a month or two, maybe even a year, there they are being a

radical terrorist again, using any information or resources they were trusted with to be much more effective at it and usually getting cover early on from those new friends who "know they used to be bad, but they've changed."

Sometimes they go back to flying the proper nazi flag

like that Cheong creep people are so incapable of honoring my requests to keep off my feed. Sometimes they just kinda start their own club just recruiting a lot of new blood like the "tankies" or the "antis"/"puriteens," or they'll join some other hate group with less of a public

image problem ("the gender critical movement" for instance is absolutely crawling with "former" GGers), and a good number avoid ever really FORMALLY "revealing their power level" again and just kinda try to keep the "I'm good now though" grift going perpetually, like Shoe there.

Now, I'm not saying it's impossible for people to grow and change. Deradicalization is a real thing. But it's also a very rare thing, and when it does actually happen for real, it is a deeply humbling experience. You don't come out of that all glib and impetuous and edgelordy.

Also when people tell you not to trust a nazi (former or otherwise) that's personally threatened their lives, do not argue with them about it. They almost certainly know better than you do, but even if they don't, there are some obvious old wounds there they don't need picked at.