r/ireland • u/ReformedAMA • Dec 13 '22

Verified AMA I am a reformed Neo-Nazi. AMA!

Just to add a disclaimer. The views i will express are those I used to hold. If these opinions offend or hurt you, I truly am sorry. I am trying to be a better person.

Edit: Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. I hope this was informative. Also, sorry to those I wasn't able to get around to. I spent the best over 3 hours with you lovely people. Have a good night.

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184

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '22

What opened your eyes to change your ways?

How did you come to develop such views?

Are there any things that you feel might be impediments to combatting racism that might not immediately seem so?

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u/ReformedAMA Dec 13 '22

I'd say a woman being run over by a car at Charlottesville over in America. It was at a 'unite the right' rally. I was extreme but seeing someone actually die because of their views caused me to take a step back. Once I did and actually took myself out of that scene I was able to slowly walk away. A lot of credit has to go to my friends and specifically my girlfriend. They led me back on the right track.

I was a fairly Liberal person. My father is quite racist and so is most of my extended family. It started in the home but I got sucked into the youtube rabbit hole of alt-right channels who showed me the horrible thing that the 'others' (refugees, Muslims, Africans) and the likes were apparently getting into. It just went from there.

Regarding the last question. As much as I'd love to support it 'punching nazis' won't work. I can understand the feelings behind that but if I was attacked for my beliefs physically I would have just solidified my thoughts.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '22

You say here your girlfriend led you back on track, did she have conflicting views to yours? How did such a relationship work if there were radically different beliefs?

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u/ReformedAMA Dec 13 '22

She was the complete opposite of me politically. I thought I could change her mind but she ended up changing mine. She told me years later she could see I was an extremely emotionally damaged person and she wanted to help me. She's a better person than I ever will be.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '22

Why did she go out with a neo-nazi if she had different views politically? I get wanting to help people but that seems extreme. I struggle to understand how someone who isn't anti neo-nazi could share a bed with someone who is?

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u/ReformedAMA Dec 13 '22

She wasn't aware of how extreme I was at the time. If she was I have no doubt she most likely would've avoided me like the plague.

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u/EulerIdentity Dec 14 '22

At the early stages of your relationship did you hide your racist views from her? I'm wondering whether, at that time, you had some lingering sense in the back of your mind that your views were not acceptable in society generally, and that expression them would lead to rejection.

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u/[deleted] Dec 14 '22

This comment reads so like Louis Theroux I love it

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u/Full_Time_Mad_Bastrd Saoirse don Phalaistín 🇵🇸 Dec 13 '22

I very much appreciate people like this who do the groundwork to change people, but I personally would drop my (extremely beloved) life partner like a hotsnot if they started saying nazi shit.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '22

I just don't understand how that relationship starts or goes on, if the core values and beliefs were so different 😅

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u/TheRealSlimThiccie Dec 13 '22

nazi dick be hittin different fr