How would you approach persuading a far extreme liberal toward center? What would you set as a realistic goal for a productive discourse? Would it be better attempt to do so in person rather than online?
Might be a good idea to define what you consider an “extreme liberal”. Nowadays, an extreme liberal can often times be used as a label for people advocating for human rights and calling out the bad faith actors while a moderate is someone who says “Hold on, let’s hear out why these people are ethnically cleansing a population. Maybe they make good points”.
In other threads on this platform I’ve been called an “Extreme liberal” for wanting free lunch for schoolchildren. So, I think the title is just kind of applied to “anyone who disagrees with me”
Maybe try advocating for free lunch for white kids only in the future? Makes you seem more reasonable.
/s
How are you defining “far extreme liberal”?
Someone who cares about others. It’s a terrible affliction to go through life like that.
I think privatising social security is a terrible idea and medicare for all is a good idea. So I’m basically a communist.
/s
Anyone who isn’t in a cult worshipping one of the most overtly corrupt con men the world has ever seen.
deprogram an extreme liberal
Read Das Kapital to them
towards center
They’re already in the “center”
“Deprogramming” makes sense in the sense for the far right because there is a lot of misinformation and fake news and outrage bait and all that kind of stuff. Getting people out of those trappings is good because it allows them to see how things really are, rather than what people want them to think.
That isn’t really a problem with the left. I mean, I’m sure you could find some extreme subreddit somewhere where people want to bring out the guillotine to kill all capitalists or cut everyone’s genitals off in the name of gender equality… But ultimately they’re much rarer than the equivalent alt right spaces.
Extreme conservatives are very common and an existential threat to many groups. Extreme liberals are a mild curiosity that need to go out and touch grass.
That should hopefully explain the votes, saying that you need to deprogram “extreme liberals” brings up questions about what you actually mean by “extreme liberal” given that it really isn’t that big an issue in society.
… Or maybe all this is just my biases.
Deprogram them from what, exactly? From not being hateful little shits that wanna get rid of everything and everyone that isn’t exactly like them?
Wow I did not interpret the term “liberal” at all in the same way that you have. Liberalism as an ideology is centrist at best, right of center at worst if you consider the overton window in developed nations other than the US.
When I encounter an extreme right or left person, I back away slowly and avoid eye contact.
You can’t go wrong just asking questions.
deleted by creator
Accept them. Understand them and what they say and why. Have fun and tell a joke they’ll like. Let go of trying to change them and let it happen naturally over time.
Interesting to contrast the votes on this with the other thread about conservatives.
No problem with extremists as long as they’re our extremists.
Except the “other side” from conservatism would usually be progressivism. Maybe this is my US bias showing, but all mainline political thought is based on liberalism here: it’s the nonliberals who are the extremists, whether they’re progressive or regressive in their authoritarianism.
