General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Can someone help me understand my wing nut friends? [View all]bhikkhu
(10,716 posts)addressing little issues as they go along just goes in one ear and out the other, as they have a fundamentally different worldview that supports their perspective and undermines ours.
They believe that people are basically worthless, lazy, immoral, corrupt, bad characters, who wouldn't work a day if they had someone to pay their way, and who inevitably get or take more than they deserve in life.
Then they see themselves as belonging to a group of the elect who have overcome these fundamental deficiencies in character, whether by effort or through good breeding (really!). The bulk of the "tribe", who are generally not very well educated or fortunately employed, imagine that the only reason they don't have all that they deserve themselves is all those others who refuse to pay their way and selfishly hoover-up the world's wealth and resources. They see the RW agenda themselves as putting things back in balance.
The way to address that is incremental - any thing that can emphasize the general goodness of people or the value of kindness as a fundamental good; in practice, if they listen to hate-radio and fox news all day, they have so much reinforcement for their petty perspective that there are few cracks where daylight might enter.