They will think people are what they think they are regardless because a demagogue told them to. Like covid is a hoax while they watch people around them literally die from it. We're not talking about rational or reasonable people here, we're talking about people who are so lost they need professional help.
It's not the same view if one is defensive and the other is offensive. You don't communicate a Nazi out of being a Nazi, it takes a willingness to hear things that are hard to hear. It's commonly referred to as the just world fallacy and they don't just need to be communicated with, they need therapy.
But to avoid this you could run a VM and restore to a snapshot but that's not really switching to Linux. Windows/Mac users should generally not just jump into Linux but transition to it.
I want to move out of the US for the same reason but I ultimately think I shouldn't. If I run I leave others to fight for what is right without me. I'd rather die in a shit hole than watch my shit hole become fascist from afar.
To me it looks like they think of the Internet like corporations do and needing growth to justify investment. I think that's fair reasoning for sites that are profit driven but Lemmy isn't.
My first complaint with Tesla is the shit tablet for everything. I don't want to have to look at a screen while trying to drive. Elon is a shit but every publicly traded company is going to be owned in some regard by a billionaire fascist.
But some VPNs do provide you a little protection on things you might click on. Ublock and not being a dummy will get you around most of that use but for general users it is more safe.
Fewer deaths