Antifascist Alligator  🐊

I'm saying this not because I believe conservative nationalists are irredeemable but because I've actually seen how and when they change organically. The ones who do are generally uneasy with the ideology in the first place but they don't understand how to move beyond it.

If they get to the point where they're willing to have dialogue with leftists - not pandering, but dialogue that includes real positive solutions for the issues they face - then a lot can happen! But "bonding over hating Clinton/Biden" is meaningless.

If you look at the three groups who form the core of the quarantine protests - Trumpist business owners, fundies, Proud Boys - they're terrible conversion targets because their ideology is so wrapped up in their identity and they also receive so many material benefits from it.

Plus, the Proud Boys have a lot of Nazi members and the ones who aren't Nazis are Nazi sympathizers. If you aren't aware of this fact and you're a leftist the most charitable thing to say is that you haven't been paying attention and should be quiet on the subject.

Also, because there's not a lot of good data on political conversion, anecdata takes its place. And anecdata is heavily weighted toward change-on-a-dime political flakes. Political flakes are a TINY percentage of the population but they're flashy and attract a lot of attention.

"From Trotskyist to Monarchist!" "From TradWife to Anarchist"! "From Third Way Democrat to AnCap!" Those sorts of people. I'm not saying everyone who makes a big political leap is a flake. But the ones who get the most attention are, because that's what it's about for them.

Converting liberals (I'm NOT talking about pundits or think tank people, I'm talking about everyday sociocultural liberals who don't think much about economics) involves less effort and danger. Their trust in the state, the rule of law, and capitalism is there, but not absolute.

They already have the conception that protest against unjust laws is moral, but they've been indoctrinated (as we all have) that there's a certain line you can't cross. So we involve them in positive projects and keep explaining that that line is bullshit.

And if you're doing activism the right way, they'll agree! You have to give people something to fight for, not just fight against. That might sound weird coming from someone with "anti" in their name but the whole rationale is that communities are worth defending against fascism.

This also explains why the enlist-liberals "Refuse Fascism" political model (they're a front group for the RCP) is so pointless. Their thesis is that mass protests will coalesce around hatred of Trump/Pence and so they organize liberal-type protests but with tankie-type imagery.