100%

It’s easier to convert a lib, generally a progressive lib, than it is to convert a Nazi. Especially if it’s a dyed-in-the-wool Nazi and you are hoping for a lifelong conversion without them reverting back to being a reactionary at some stage.

If converting Nazis is really your jam idk, whatever, it’s not my place to tell you how to live your life.

But if you feel that it’s your political mission then you need to understand that you’re pissing very limited time and resources up a wall that provides extremely limited results.

It might feel super gratifying to eventually convert a Nazi but there’s a reason why the Yugoslavian partisan effort to convert Nazis was one where they converted them into fertiliser and not into allies.

I am deeply skeptical of ex-Nazis and I think we all need to be. The reason for why people are attracted to fascism is a major concern and it’s hard to bring someone out of that - either it’s about power and the justification for feeling righteous in committing acts of violence and persecution of oppressed groups or it’s about a sense of ideological alignment, sometimes both. You don’t commit to living that way without it requiring years of deprogramming and serious self-work and work from the community around that individual. And this requires a genuine willingness and commitment from the person who is breaking free from it too.

I’m not saying that it’s impossible or it shouldn’t ever be done but I am saying that it’s more difficult and it’s less common than online debatebros would have you believing (because see - they managed to convert a Nazi in a debate in the space of two hours!! Aren’t they wonderful and doing so much for “the movement”? Now ignore the thumbnails in their goon folder and start donating to their Patreon…)

I also am very strongly opposed to appointing ex-fash to leadership positions, whether in organisations or as so-called “thought leaders” (ugh) like Azov ᛋᛋomething - that’s a quick way to get infiltrators and to have your movement being led astray by people who haven’t done the political work to fully break free from their former beliefs.

If you were born into fascism you have my deepest sympathies and I’m going to be a lot softer on you, especially if you started breaking free early in your life, but idk most people don’t just walk down the street one day and trip over to fall into face-first into fascist beliefs, y’know what I’m saying?

This sums it up. Some of them are too far gone, but if you can be very practical about it, it can be worth it in some instances. I just tend to assume that any Nazi who could be prone to becoming better will eventually do so in due time, but like you said, it’s not the biggest thing to focus on when advocating for leftism.

Young people that fall into reactionary thoughts because they’re disillusioned by capitalism might still be brought over to some extent

These people usually aren’t actually fascists, at least in my understanding.

They get duped by fallacious narratives and impressive video edits and some edgelord takes online but they aren’t dedicated to serious political efforts to understand and advance fascism. They are just misguided larpers who need to have someone shake a bit of sense into them.

The next level up from that is when these people get recruited into fascist groups or they fall in with fascistic street gangs. It’s common for a person who is born into fascism to reach this level and those people who grew up indoctrinated and with the full weight of family/social conformity pushing them to be a fascist, I think, are still very much capable of redemption. It’s also not out of the realms of possibility for a person in this situation whose political development hasn’t reached its full maturity to break free from this too. Some people grow up rough and fall in with the wrong crowd - sometimes by bad luck that rough crowd happens to be fascistic (or the group develops into fascistic tendencies and it carries its members along with it.)

Once you’re past that level though, you’re looking at actual, legitimate, devoted fascists. Ones who are ideologically aligned to fascism and who enact fascism in their lives, whether through violence, politics, or being a crypto who is just waiting for the right season in the political landscape where they can finally bloom (think modern-day Italy under Georgia Meloni).

With these people I think the best position is to consider them a lost cause unless an individual genuinely proves to be otherwise but you should maintain a high level of skepticism and watch closely - you want to understand how they developed out of fascism, how long that took, and you want to carefully observe their development in politics and values going forward.

Imo a good rule of thumb is however long a person has identified as a reactionary (whatever it is - TERF, MRA, fascist etc.) is roughly how long it’s going to take for them to truly shake off their former politics, assuming that they actually commit to the change.

The only thing atomwafgen is good for is when they kill each other, and even then it’s pyrrhic because one survive

For sure.

But a lot of the times it’s a losing battle especially if you’re under attack by fascists, the only option is to kill them, not re-educate them with limited resources.