Also point out how social programs often end up costing less in taxes in the long run.

Our healthcare system is the most expensive per person in taxes in the world but we get nothing from it if we switched to universal healthcare we would likely end up saving money in taxes

Use all of the things that conservatives say they value and point out how right wing ideas do not actually uphold these values

Small government

Ice agents rounding everyone up isn’t very small government now is it? Its also very expensive

The constitution

Point out how our constitutional rights are being taken away from us right now

Freedom

Is it really freedom to be controlled by corporations?

Meritocracy

Point out how the game is rigged in favor of the rich

Patriotism

Is it really patriotic to be in favor of laws that hurt your fellow Americans?

agreed. some people are completely unwilling to consider other ideas because they don’t want to be wrong when presented with anything that conflicts with their world view they will double down instead you can see this with cults that make a doomsday prediction a lot of people will still stay in the cult even after the doomsday prediction has been undeniably proven to be wrong they will find a way to continue to rationalize their beliefs and stay in the cult.

I still feel like there must be a way to get through to these kinds of people after all people do still leave cults even after being in them for many years but I’m not sure how to do that.

I find the idea that your politics are ingrained from birth to be harmful and a similar mindset has been used by the right to demonize the mentally ill and criminals I am a strong believer in rehabilitative justice most people are not completely doomed to be bad people even nazis can change their ways.

in my case I considered myself a rightwing libertarian I always had a bit of an anti-authoritarian mindset but it was misdirected by my upbringing and education. I do think there are a lot of right wing people who don’t necessarily like authority you can see this with their skepticism of the government, big pharma, their propensity for conspiracy theories about “elites” but it has been co-opted in a way that does not actually challenge authority.

the right teaches people that instead of rightfully blaming the problems of capitalism on capitalism they find other groups of people for you to blame these problems on and since the education system is so biased a lot of people will just buy into this they don’t know any better they have been lied to in some cases their whole life. I blame the education system so much for the rise of the far right.

I did buy into some bigoted ideas I was transphobic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant learning the actual facts about this learning that I have been lied to about all of these people I changed my mind and it taught me an important lesson about myself I am capable of hate. a lot of people who are bigoted don’t see it as hatred because they are not seething with anger, for example with my transphobia I thought that they were mentally ill and needed treatment to “fix” them it didn’t come from a place of hatred but pity it is still just as harmful.

my mindset is not the same as it used it has definitely changed can it change again sure but I highly doubt I would ever become right wing again because most of their ideas are thoroughly based off of misinformation and I have spent a lot of time deconstructing that and I also try my best to change people’s minds so I am exposed to right wing bullshit on a regular basis I know exactly why these people are wrong and if I don’t I research.

knowledge is power

mid 20s

I do think it’s possible for older people to change their mind but the longer that they hold on to these ideas the more entrenched they become in their minds and the harder it is for them to change

It worked on me 🤷‍♀️

I used to be rightwing but after learning things about how the world actually works the contradictions were too much and I changed my mind about many things and now I am a filthy socialist.

I have also been able to change a few peoples minds on some things.