Comment by dkarl

With that kind of thinking, tribalism is inevitable.

But you don't have to see it that way. That way of thinking is making excuses for Nazis and Trump supporters. You're saying that once they heard the honeyed words of thinly veiled edgelords on the internet, they couldn't help but be sucked in. Sorry, they could help it. If the only way to stop someone from being a white supremacist is to protect them from the so so compelling case for white supremacy that people are making on 4chan or gaming Discords or wherever that stuff happens, that's on them. They hear the other side as well. They hear enough to understand that the "tiny steps" bringing them to white supremacy aren't arguments, they're little tastes of a way of thinking that can't stand on its own intellectually but offers them comfort and validation. They choose it for social and emotional comfort. You can't rationalize it as intellectual seduction.

The upside of that is, the ideas themselves don't have any power over you if you don't feel an aching need for the warm comforting embrace of a bunch of Nazis. The ideas aren't persuasive. They're the thinnest possible cover for an emotional decision.