Steven Hassan on Talking to Maga cultists

[jmbar2]

This is timely advice before the holidays. They will soon enough feel the impacts of Trump's destruction. It may be an opportunity to help them out of the cult.

Link to tweet

[gordianot]

1. F that no more f's to give or for that matter take.

Stay away mine are all dead to me.

[cadoman]

2. oh fuck, family holiday events coming up...

I had completely forgotten...

[peregrinus]

3. Or you could attack them from the right

Meet an incel and emasculate them further so that they think that they aren’t even wanted in their own tribe.

[Mariana]

4. I think we should ask them to make their predictions

about what is going to happen after January 20. Don't argue with them, just listen and write down what they say. In the future when none of their predictions play out, they're going to deny that they ever said those things, but you'll have evidence that they did.

Very few of them will change their minds, of course. In many cases these are essentially religious beliefs, sustained entirely by faith. No amount of evidence will make any difference.

[jmbar2]

6. I like this approach

[yardwork]

5. Seems hopeless, based on the responses.

About evenly split between Democrats saying hell no and Republicans saying it's liberals who are brainwashed.

My personal approach is that I'm going to speak up more often when falsehoods are repeated by Republicans. I'm not going to call people names or yell. But, when somebody says something that is demonstrably false or bigoted, I'm going to speak up and say I disagree. Politely but firmly. If they want to have a conversation then, great. In my experience, though, they just mumble angry things and retreat.

I think that Democrats have lost by playing by rules while Republicans ignore rules.

[MagickMuffin]

8. I just did this to a small group

Someone posted that a * appointed fed judge ruled against a Biden’s agenda for overtime pay. There was a video attached as well.

Another poster replied it was disinformation because * hadn’t taken office yet.

I checked the video and discovered that this federal judge was appointed by 45 and therefore it wasn’t disinformation.

They had to make an excuse by implying I didn’t state that upfront. I then had to explain I didn’t create the post but decided to shine a light on the truth.

[Mariana]

9. They had to make an excuse by implying I didn't state that upfront.

"I just made up a bullshit answer, but it's your fault that my made-up bullshit answer turned out to be false!"

[MagickMuffin]

10. Yep exactly

And too damn lazy to see who posted it in the first place. That appears to be a norm now, makes statements based on zero curiosity about the truth.

The truth hurts them somehow. Haven’t figured it out why, I guess it’s because it’s easier to be lazy but then pretend they know the truth.

I just know people are extremely gullible and easily manipulated. It saves them time from thinking for themselves.

[usonian]

7. There's no talking to a cult member. Change the subject.

Like at Thanksgiving dinner, mention that (REDACTED) has poisoned turkeys.
Or whatever.

Like the OP says, they'll soon find out that all the promises were lies.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=19732585

Just survive for now.
Better yet, boycott.

For crying out loud, restaurants offer Thanksgiving specials, and say that some big shot (have fun thinking about who) invited you and it could mean a fortune.

[GenThePerservering]

11. Laugh and mock. nt