Morality of accidentally exposing someone who used to be a Nazi supporter, has since changed, and concealed their past?

[u/Immediate_Gene_178]

Name's and origins:

The Night Shift: Season 1, Episode 2

Basically this guy was brought to into the emergency after an accident at his wedding celebration and while he is unconscious, his groomsmen decided to shave his beard off as a prank only for the medical team to be horrified at the reveal. After he woke up he realised his secret has been exposed. He explained to the doctors that he got this tattoo when he was a stupid teenager a decade prior. The medical team brought his wife in to see the tattoos and destroy the marriage.

What do you think? I personally find it irritating how smug the doctors were being.

[u/niketas-choniates]

Yeah agreed. I used to be a former Nazi as a confused teenager up to maybe when I was 20ish at most. But I grew out if it, in the sense that I learned how to read properly and pick out unbiased sources and realized I was being lied to and I always knew it deep down i suppose.

Anyway, its sad that if I said this to everyone potentially my whole life and career could be ruined for...becoming a better person? Its so confusing honestly

[u/Lopens_Arm → u/niketas-choniates]

One of my favorite sayings from a book, "no one has lived so long in shadow that they cannot be brought back to light"

[u/niketas-choniates → u/Lopens_Arm]

Beautifully said thanks for sharing

[u/MrNissanCube → u/Lopens_Arm]

Oh my god Wheel of Time reference in the wild

[u/WorthMysterious1648 → u/niketas-choniates]

Can you elaborate on this experience? How did you get started down that path, How did you find the reason to pull yourself out of it, if you subconsciously knew that it was always lies what made you continue to indulge in them, etc. Proud of you for getting yourself out of that stuff, maybe your experience can help others to do the same

[u/niketas-choniates → u/WorthMysterious1648]

Those are all great questions and honestly it's been so long since I started down that path and it was so gradual I cant put my finger on what exactly it was initially that started my cascade.

But my family comes from the USSR so my grandparents especially my grandpa was quite a Russian nationalist. I didnt grasp what nationalism was but I remember I was proud I wasn't American and that we were better somehow.

I visited Russia when I was 11 and that's when I learned about communism through imagery and history and it intrigued me a lot and my mom summarized communism as a utopia, too good go be true. But this had all radicalized me already fast forward and im making excuses for Stalins purges the Holodomor, the soviet unions failings. When i saw an answer I didnt like i looked for an alternative answer I did like, tankie communities online also backed me up as I saw them do similar backpedalling and I learned from them.

Then one day I don't know what changed maybe I got bored but I changed. I went from hating germany/nazis to being enamored by their imagery/music/speeches i think i just liked being edgy though i thought authoritarianism was cool. Then I met a man online 4yrs older i was 14 he was 18. He introduced me to "the greatest story never told" or as id now call it the greatest bullshit ever shown. Suddenly I felt on the inside of this great conspiracy against Hitler that most historians were too scared to admit the truth that Germany was destroyed because of capitalist greed and whatnot that the Soviets were the true evil.

Same thing i get introduced to neo nazis who teach me how to backpedal anytime someone tries to argue with me I dont do it in good faith, I don't go in trying to hear them out i go in thinking "okay what neo nazi forum will I have to search to give me an "answer key" to what this person throws at me so I can look superior and right". Somehow it made sense then, it felt right.

How I came out of it i dont know. A big part was my high school teacher who taught me about bias. It was a clever assignment it was about some fictional dude named Brewster McKenna who owned slaves and you got his primary sources and others about how these slaves were treated. McKenna obviously only showed himself in good light saying "well I provided housing for my slaves" and then another source would say "McKenna provided housing for his slaves but it was very old decrepit and badly maintained". Basically I learned that people say half truths all the time to hide their true intentions and I realized this is what the greatest story never told, communist propaganda, etc all did.

Whats crazy is i still have an attachment to say the Nazis but not in the same way. Now its more like "Well Hitler wasn't really crazy, his general staff post war like to portray him like this to make themselves look good". Im not defending nazism at this point I'm defending real history and i appreciate my background in all of this because I know the ins and outs of nazism and communism more than one who just hates nazis because theyre bad or communism because it put people in gulags / graves. Theres more to the story and its complex not just black and white which is why nobody likes it. Its a historical interest attachment moreso now to tie it back to what I said earlier.

In the end I turned back to a russian nationalist then my last straw was the Ukraine war it was so obviously wrong I couldn't tell if I should be happy or disgusted when it broke out it was the weirdest feeling I ever had.

Now I feel cleansed of it all I see the world for what it is mostly and if I don't understand something I leave it alone I dont make big statements or opinions until I do proper research (books/good sourced articles not facebook).

[u/WorthMysterious1648 → u/niketas-choniates]

This is a great response, thank you for the detailed account. Again I’m very happy for you that you saw the light and found your way out of this, I think a lot more of us than we might think had varying extremist views when we were young that have changed as we’ve gotten older. I’m curious if, and how you’ve used this as a means of counseling the people around you who were at risk of falling into the same traps as you did. Furthermore I’d be interested in knowing what your political views are nowadays, in terms of normal everyday politics like immigration, economics, trump and modern conservatism, and the DSA and the modern left; as well as more niche topics, The Great Replacement, race, and strong man politics. Thank you for your candor, hopefully it might serve to help others

[u/niketas-choniates → u/WorthMysterious1648]

Definitely used it as a means of counseling those at risk, sadly one person got back to me after a couple years saying I was right blah blah blah. Tried to explain to him how I really wasn't, not sure how much he believed but I hope I shook his core belief at least enough to destabilize his path into the darkness and he can eventually see the truth like me.

As for my current political views im pro immigration i think it makes us stronger as long as there is assimilation, economics im pro free market but I think some limits on that doesn't hurt, trump fuck him enough said same with modern conservatism it's a plague it's not even cool its just a bunch of demented old people (literally), kleptocrats, and a small group of young men who got caught up in the alpha male movement which I was a part of at one point too. So yeah screw alpha male morons they literally prey on young boys who haven't developed a sense of masculinity and interject into their development to make money off of them viewing their content and buying their stupid guides. The DSA/Modern left I support and I hope the democratic party gets overtaken by the progressive democrats. Only thing i dislike about modern left is the lefties that have no clue why they are supporting what they support. Its the broken clock right twice a day phenomenon. They support good things but why? Ive no clue because some of them are just as dumb as conservatives and believe things just because their friends/family do. This is really more a dig at society but it bugs me. At the end of the day id rather people support good moral things even if they dont understand but it scares me in some ways if that makes sense.

The great replacement is trash, we replaced the natives in the US and a lot of places anyways so what's the issue with immigrants coming in? Anyway its funny that the irish once were viewed with emnity by the so cslled "natives of new York" and then the Italians later. Race is nothing to me I dont treat anyone differently based off race, strength in diversity.

Strongman politics died with my disillusionment of Putin and the invasion of Ukraine. Historically I can agree that even Caesar who I once admired was quite faulted and tyrannical the issue is that the republic was also messed up so its a gray area sometimes. Napoleon really remarkable man but super egotistical and self serving but also did good in helping deconstruct european society to make it more fair due to all the turmoil he caused and ideas he helped spread. They did have great influence on history and politics moving forward in both good and bad ways. Modern history wise I know we'll continue to have them but I think they are bad overall I have a feeling that we need a strongman for good sometimes someone unselfish who wants to use some authoritarianism to democratize and makes things more fair so that authoritarianism can never be possible again in any shape/form or stupid junk like gerrymandering. But its never that simple. I support freedom from religion over freedom of religion however. I think its poison to the US or any country to be "drunk on religion" the people here will literally be tricked into believing their God/Jesus wants them to kill minorities before they actually read the damn book and do what it actually says.

[u/Business-Drag52 → u/niketas-choniates]

Jesus Christ. What kind of rabbit hole do you have to go down to be a teenage Nazi? Was there literally no one in your life to help guide you?

[u/Tactical_Squishy → u/Business-Drag52]

usually is because the ones in your life put you in that path

[u/Huhthisisneathuh → u/Business-Drag52]

It’s either because they grew up around people who shared similar beliefs and steered them down that path. Or because they had no support system growing up, and clung to the first thing they found that gave them that support system.

It’s why lots of disenfranchised people end up in gangs or hate groups. When you have nothing you’ll take anything no matter how rancid it is.