Is it possible to deprogram someone from a cult by reprogramming them to something else? Maybe.
A person online posted a technique to "deprogram" their parents from Qanonsense. How did they do this? Well, as you might expect, the parents, being old and not very bright (hence following Qanonsense) were always stepping in the dogshit with their phones and computer - loading viruses or useless toolbars, bloatware, and other add-ons, until the computer or phone slows to a crawl.
So the son or daughter goes in and cleans things out and notices that their search history has links to lots of Qanonsense sites. They delete the search history and cookies (so those sites don't come up as suggestions on Google) and clear all their cookies, and then unsubscribe from the newsletters and YouTube channels, and then enter all the URLs for Qanonsense sites into their router's "blocked sites" list. Now, when Mom or Dad goes on the computer, Google doesn't auto-fill with suggestions to Qanonsense sites. YouTube doesn't show Qanonsense as the first five hits. And Qanonsense newsletters don't appear in their inbox.
Similarly, on Facebook, the son or daughter has hit "dislike" on any Qanonsense postings and "unfriended" any Qanonsense believers. When Mom or Dad go on Facebook, the first thing they see are postings from their loving children and relatives, not horrible misinformation and hate-speech memes from Qanonsense followers or anti-vaxxers or whatever.
On the phone, they delete text messages from Qanonsense sources and block their numbers (and also type "STOP" to unsubscribe, if that is an option).
But that's not enough. The parents have been trained on Qanonsense, and as my knitting experiment posting showed, the system will revert back to bad habits in a short period of time, unless you can "train" the algoritm on something else. You are, in effect, training two neural networks - the Google AI and your parents' brains.
Oh, you believe in "free will" and all of that? Hahahahahahahahahh.. Sorry. It doesn't really exist. We are all influenced by our environment, including other people, whether they are in-person or online or on television. And for some reason, people find it easier to be influenced by an electronic avatar than by someone in-person, even their own child (particularly their own child - what the heck do they know!).
So you have to re-program the cult member with new data. You can't just cut ties to the old cult - it will find its way back into their brain, one way or another.
So, subscribe Mom and Dad to bird-watching channels. Maybe Dad would like to watch videos of old muscle cars. Get them on a mailing list for a cruise line - maybe they'll go. It is a better waste of money that Qanonsense, for sure. And yes, knitting or needlepoint channels and subscriptions are also a good idea. Whatever hobbies or interests you can think of - cars, model airplanes, cooking, gardening, travel, whatever. Make sure you sign them up on Facebook, YouTube, e-mail subscriptions, and text messages as well.
It wouldn't hurt to throw in some physical media as well. Sign them up for subscriptions to hobby magazines and the like. Southern Home or Better Homes and Gardens. Maybe it would encourage them to get off the Internet and paint the family room. Cooking magazines are also a good idea. Instead of being glued to the TeeVee and Tucker Carlson, they might decide to make a gourmet meal.
You are only limited by your own imagination - the idea is to put other things in front of them to make them realize there is more to life than obsessing about conspiracy theories and politics. The worst thing you could do is to try to steer their political beliefs by subscribing them to left-leaning websites or channels debunking Qanonsense. That would just tip your hand in the matter and also further entrench their crazy ideas. Head-on attacks rarely work - but flanking maneuvers are effective almost every time.
Then hand them back their phones and pads and laptops and tell them you cleaned up all those nasty viruses and bloatware for them. Then watch the fun begin.
Would this idea work? Beats me. The author claims it would, provided the subjects were not aware they were being manipulated (not hard to do, as they were not aware they were being manipulated by Qanonsense!). Oftentimes, making a good example is all it takes to turn people around. It is easy to hate on the gays when they are "other people" wearing weird costumes in a gay pride parade in the gay ghetto. You can demonize them - make them less-than-human. But when they are your next-door neighbor, maybe things might be different. It is much harder to hate on a minority when you actually know some.
Gentle persuasion works better than a head-on attack. When you attack someone's beliefs, they think you are attacking them and they shut down and entrench themselves further.
Some have critiqued the proposed idea on the grounds that it is unfair manipulation - basically using the same propaganda techniques as the Qanonsense, Anti-Vaxxers, and Flat-Earthers use. Perhaps, but all's fair in love and war, as they say, and if you really love your parents, maybe misdirecting them isn't such a bad idea. After all, the people harming their minds have no qualms about manipulating them, do they?
Of course, this idea appeared on the Internet, so whether it really happened or is just someone's wet dream is hard to know - people make up stuff on the Internet all the time. Sometimes they do it just to see if people are dumb enough to go along with it. The Flat-Earth thing I think started out as a joke. And the "birds aren't real" was a joke but apparently it is so over-the-top there are a few true believers.
I don't think it is evil to steer someone away from hatred and conspiracy theories and extreme politics and toward knitting. In fact, the world would be a better place for it. No one ever died or went to jail from knitting, as far as I know!
