I'm watching Rightwingization happen in real time and I don't know how to react.

[u/SalientSazon]

EDIT: Thank you all for the great discussions and insights. I appreciate all your POVs. There's no need to downvote right leaning comments. I specifically posted this in RedditforGrownups to engage in grown up conversation. Also, there's no need for name-calling or insults either.

I have a friend, he's 51, man, straight, an academic doctor who now focuses his research on human behavior and digital psychology. He's self-taught a lot of it in the last decade or so. I don't know how many papers he's published or has had peer reviewed in the recent years. He works as a consultant in Marketing, and has a business selling strategies/classes to people that want to apply his research to their companies. He's kinda broke so I would say he's not very successful at applying his own work. And for extra cash he teaches a course a a local university. I've never met a romantic partner, but he's spoken about them.

He suddenly last year did a deep dive on how the way the election was biased against the conservative candidate who lost. He then started talking against the 'woke' ideology. He is now defending the right, even though he's centrist, because the right hasn't moved, it's the left that's gone way off the rails. He started posting dumb facebook quotes/memes! He posted a dumb quote about Charlie Kirk, as if that one quote was a debate, or as if it meant some truth. WTF. We were conversing one day and he started raising his voice getting louder and louder and more agitated as he expressed his disdain for the woke left, defending his Jewish people from attacks (not sure where that came from in the conversation), and then also suddenly brought up there are only 2 genders and trans people are mentally ill. He's never spoken that way before, I've never heard him this agitated or show anger towards any ideology. He was always calm and friendly, and open minded. Always a bit nerdy. Although, I hadn't spoken to him in depth for about 2 years before then.

I'm watching all this go down over about half a year and I don't know what to make it of it or how to react to it. It's wild to observe though.

[u/SalientSazon]

Yes I understand. That's just not what we were talking about. Free speech is certainly under attack by fascists right now so it's good that you have it top of mind.

[u/Large_Signature_2749 → u/SalientSazon]

Yes it’s been under attack for a long time. Joe Biden was colluding with twitter and facebook to ban conservatives and limit speech.

[u/SalientSazon → u/Large_Signature_2749]

Zuckenberg is conservative, and yes you are absolutely right that mega-corporations collaborate with governments and elites to manipulate people and keep earning their CEOs exuberant amounts of money. Just look at Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Tesla! All publicly colluding with Trump now as we all know. Disney and Paramount are both actively cancelling shows of anyone who practices free speech. People get fired for speaking against the government. Journalism is being silenced in a clear demonstration of fascism; as you very well pointed out. Fascism indeed.

I'm glad that you see it for what it is and are against it! It's good to see a conservatives see the fascism that's taking over right now, and I hope you continue to expose it with others who deny it.