Thanks for your reply. Some random tidbits:

Nor do I wish anyone any harm, just that they come to the necessary insights.

I separate empathy from sympathy. You can empathize with an enemy as in trying to see things from their perspective, without having sympathy for their cause.

The influence he is under, will only stop when the leader and the system die. I learned as much from "The Rape of the Mind" by J.A.M. Meerlo, M.D., which he wrote in the fifties. The author describes his experiences as a resistance fighter in the Netherlands, and later as a psychiatrist evaluating US POWs that seemed to have succumbed under communist influence.

To corroborate your point of not befriending paranoids, yesterday I finished watching the Netflix documentary about John E. du Pont's wrestling team and his descent into madness. He ended up shooting the one guy that still wanted to care for him.