Is my friend getting radicalized or just bigotted?
EDIT: I'm removing small details so people can focus on the topic at hand. This is not a troll post. I don't have a problem with what my friend's beliefs are. I have a problem with his attitude. I have a problem with the fact that his beliefs are "beliefs" that he blindly accepts not opinions that should be debated over. I have a problem because this is so not like him. I have a problem with his descent into bigotry.
Recently had a series of uncomfortable interactions with a good friend.
The guy has his own prejudices (don't we all?) and is a bit of a difficult character but I've never been this upset. Dare I say, I feel traumatized by the recent interactions.
He casually brings up super general and catchy but false statements (ie. Statements like "All cops are Fascist assholes"/"Rich people are evil" if you're a far leftie or "all liberals are depraved satan-worshippers"/ something something super anti-Semitic if you're a far-rightie). Whenever I ask him to explain, he always brings up some anecdotal examples.
Whenever I try to tell him what he perceives may be far from the truth and try to convince him to really think about it objectively, it seems like he can't even try to be open-minded. He seems to have already made up his mind and is just parroting whatever narrative he believes in. Whenever I try to bring up other view points, he is very dismissive and just tells me "shut up, you don't know anything".
He claims that he's believes in certain "isms" but whenever I ask him to explain what those mean or what the fundamental principles are, he can't give me a straight answer. This slow decline in critical thinking seems to have started since he joined some politicial activist group. I read into this group and it looks like a cesspool of ideologues who don't do much reading besides "literature" of their own beliefs that perpetuates this weird ideological circle jerk.
I've met idiots who are on Twitter 24/7 and have nothing intelligent to say about the world. But my friend used to be an intelligent and quick witted person. The decline in his critical thinking and listening abilities just pains me greatly. I don't know if I should feel angry, concerned, or both. It's even impacting my mental health a bit and I can't stop thinking about it for some reason.
Has anyone gone through a similar experience? And how did you handle it?
Well, I agree China is not as bad as you think. There's a lot of propaganda in the West. I have friends there who are mostly wealthy, happy, and are free to speak out to their friends and others about their government as long as they don't get a megaphone and start drawing attention.
What the literal fuck man? Please read before you comment.
I did. It sounds like you equate lower critical thinking skills with someone with happens to have different beliefs than you. "The decline in his critical thinking and listening abilities just pains me greatly. I don't know if I should feel angry, concerned, or both." I'm just curious what makes you think that you're a beacon of wisdom, such that you ought to be able to judge his critical thinking skills? Why should his personal beliefs make you angry? I am personally someone who believes very strongly in capitalism, but I just recognize my own biases.
EDIT: I feel like you guys who are giving me downvotes must still be pretty young. I am fully against almost all forms of socialism, but you're seriously immature if you feel literally "traumatized" because someone has different beliefs than you. Go about your life. You really have to have absolutely no life if one of your friend's political beliefs keep you up at night.
And I have friends from there who didn't grow up wealthy and have said that they would literally rather die than go back if they can't stay in the US, and will move to Europe if they have to leave. Seems like its nice if you have money I guess, but hey, when is that not the case? I also like the comment about "start drawing attention" lol like the government is going to arrest them because they don't want to listen to their people. Sounds sick bro. I fucking love my Chinese friends and worry for their situation because immigration in this country is ballz.
China itself isn’t bad. It’s got a sophisticated culture, an impressive history, and Chinese people are great to interact with. But the CCP is power hungry and dangerous
They aren't that bad they are just openly committing genocide, operating concentration camps, forcing them to denounce their religion, gang raping uyghur women, forcibly sterilizing them, making uyghurs quarter Haan Chinese CCP reps in their homes, and shaving the Uyghurs bald to make wigs to sell to America. They also turned Xinjiang into an absolute security state with facial recognition software cameras on every single street corner and social credit scores deciding what "freedoms" you have. Not to mention the blatant disregard for the two state rule with Hong Kong. The protest organizers are literally fleeing the country out of fear for their lives. Also their sweeping "national security law" that essentially says if you disrespect the government we will disappear you. Did you see Jack Ma's hostage video? China is quite literally under a terrorist dictatorship that is funded by fortune 500 companies while the companies tell white people to stop being so oppressive and make them go through HR programs similar to Coca Cola's we saw this weekend. Your post is not only incredibly stupid, but wildly offensive.
Hey sorry to tell you this, I really don't want this kind of attitude in this thread.
I'm not trying to mindlessly bash China here. The US has done lots of terrible shit and still is. In fact most countries have done something terrible in the past or still is.
If people keep on tagging on to specific details about my OP and not the gist of what I'm saying, I'm going to remove those details.
I can’t tell if this is a troll post
https://nypost.com/2021/02/20/president-bidens-horrific-excuses-for-bei…
Cringe x 100000000000000000 to you.
I'm making a point about how concerned I am about my friend.
I'm not trying to bash China. Most countries have done something wrong in fact, including the US. Ie Japan still won't officially apologize to all the countries it exploited and massacred people of in WW2.
If people keep focusing on small details of the OP and not the message, I'm going to remove those details.
whatever
just pointing out your acquaintance is dead wrong but the average american is conditioned to share that view
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