Are they becoming a far right extremist?

[imALittleunsure]

Name change obviously. I have an elderly friend who has in the last few months has been spouting the Britain's First is the only Christian group that is serving the needs of Christians! Sharing their speeches and saying we need to keep England pure! I know WTF!!! I've tried to explain that these are extremists who twist Christianity to justify the vileness of their cause. I'm Christian, I go to church, but apparently I don't go to the right church!! And therefore I am indoctrinated by liberalism & don't understand the purity of their message! I'm concerned that this is a vulnerable elderly person who may be exploited by these scum bags. Nothing I say, and I am extremely reasonable in these conversations has any sway. Do I need to report to prevent or am I being OTT. This is someone who I viewed to be a decent individual, but the stuff he is spouting is unnerving - he is becoming unrecognisable. Or do I take it as someone who is just getting on & wants to be grumpy - free speech et all. I suppose what I am saying, is that I don't want to over react, am I over reacting? I want to run for the flaming hills & unfriend them.

You can either try to understand where they are coming from and what the motivation is, or avoid. You can't 'report' someone for having dodgy political views, unless you think they are planning to blow something up as result of dodgy views. That's it really.

I would suspect they've always held these views, but in the light of events this year feel emboldened to air these vile views in public.

Unless they are inciting violence with these posts, then there is nothing to report as being a hard of thinking racist berk in itself isn't a crime.

Thank you, I thought I was over thinking, but just wasn't quite sure. I'm just going to cut them off, I don't need that type of hatred in my life.

I would just cut this person out of your life.

I'm pretty sure they've probably always been a massive racist but have only recently felt it was OK to share their views. When you've got mainstream newspapers running columns by Hatey Hopkins in which she openly called for refugees to be drowned and compared them to cockroaches, people are going to feel that their extreme views are validated and will become more confident about sharing them.

I would cut them out immediately. BF are vile hate preachers and as anti-Christian as they come!

BF and their horrifying chums use 'Christian' to mean 'white' or 'non-Muslims' - as an ethnic category designed to foster a sense of white British beleagueredness, rather than anything to do with the good bits of the NT that urge tolerance, charity and compassion for all.

If you can bear to have a final conversation with this person before ending the friendship, assuming they are actually a Christian and capable of some rational thought, ask whether they think Jesus (a ME Jew, remember) would be joining BF or whether he'd be more likely to be a refugee activist.

What sparked it off?

I've cut them off, I've tried reasonable conversation over the last few months. No idea what set them off, it has got worse, they genuinely believe the BF videos and that it is not hate speech. It's their right etc & the country must be saved .... They were I thought a decent person, but they can't have been, or perhaps that part of them is now hidden deep down?

There's so much weirdery out there at the moment. It makes the atmosphere febrile and otherwise nice people susceptible to craziness.

hey were I thought a decent person, but they can't have been, or perhaps that part of them is now hidden deep down?

I have had to cut similar people out of my life - you aren't over thinking it at all.

Also, remember people are complicated, it's not often that someone is "all good" or "all bad" - usually people who are overtly racist are the least dangerous in most civilised societies because they are so obvious. It's the insidious subtle every day racism that is far more difficult to expose and contend with.

However, I could never be friend with someone like what you describe, it's utterly horrifying, the implications of their beliefs. One can only hope that they are so ignorant that they genuinely don't understand the broader implications rather than they do understand and just don't care.

A very close relative is becoming more and more right-wing as he gets older; not at BF stage yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if he gets there one day. Can't cut him off as is family, so somewhat complicated. He used to be a decent person, if generally grumpy and irritable, and still is to those he still respects

Well done for taking a stand, OP.

I'm a Christian too, and it makes me so angry how BF and similar hate-groups appropriate the 'Christian' label to dupe a certain demographic of white, elderly, working-class people who might just be feeling a bit confused and isolated within neighbourhoods and communities that have suddenly become more diverse. OP it's good that you take a stand against it. I just hide from my Facebook wall the BF crap from certain church corners, and silently seethe at the posters. It needs challenging, though, it does.