These “people” are so off-the-wall genocidal that even calling them liberals feels somehow misleading. I know that liberalism is the moderate wing of fascism, but it feels as though there is no moderate wing left. I know this is not so much a departure from there normal mode of thinking as a particularly ugly contextual manifestation of the white supremacy they hold so dear. But my God, things are rapidly getting out of hand.
Best case scenario, I see them frame the conflict in Palestine as a conflict between religious extremists. How far up your own ass do you have to be to make such a claim? Pushing back on this idea, insisting instead that the operative identities here are colonizer and colonized, oppressor and oppressed, and that the conflict will only end when the oppression ends, someone was more than happy to call me a “terrorist sympathizer” (lol) and told me that I should be gassed.
“Israel’s right to exist” is a thinly veiled dogwhistle for genocide apologia. “Terrorist” is functionally a racial slur, now more than ever. “It’s a complex situation” is a lazy yet effective strategy for muddying the waters long enough for their Final Solution to be enacted yet again. Shaking liberals awake causes them to lash out violently and retreat into the dark crevices of racism and profound ignorance. It feels so hopeless.
I feel like I am in some kind of nightmare, where all of these people I previously thought could be reached have gone fully mask off and revealed themselves to be monsters with scarcely a soul to share. They are subhuman, blood-sucking fiends who need to be eradicated like one might eradicate cancer.
The worst thing, as I’ve already revealed, is that it makes me into the worse fucking person imaginable. I genuinely wish all these people would be shot. I find myself regularly thinking that the population needs to be culled, decimated until these psychopaths no longer disgust me with their breathing. Surely, if we just get rid of the bad people, everything will improve! Now look who’s Hitler.
I just don’t know what to do anymore.
If you’re trying to convince a person, you should first assess the situation. Ask yourself this - “is this person willing to listen to you?”. If so - you probably should, though in a careful and controlled manner. If not - don’t bombard them with facts and history, maybe you should try developing the required conditions, mainly - they must be made responsive, they must want to listen to you. Also - some people won’t ever listen to you, for example when they have a material interest in this or that thing. I would not even try arguing with the bourgeoisie - they clearly have a material interest in capitalism and its preservation.
Perhaps you should try asking questions. When they give you typical “dumb liberal” answers - challenge them by creating a logical contradiction (“if that is really so, then why didn’t X happen?”), which will make them think. That means you should be bulletproof when it comes to knowledge of theory and history. Dig deeper until you hit the root cause of their ignorance, and then explain to them the real reasons behind what is currently happening.
Convincing takes time. Think twice before committing time to this task - there may be better things to spend it on, especially given the fact that most libs won’t be receptive to new ideas straight away, that may only happen when the material conditions around them worsen so much that they would not accept the status quo anymore.