They certainly meant the former, whether they're lying to us or to themselves is the more pertinent question.
They appear to be making the claim that unlike the soft left, they are heroically and manfully exposing themself to the raw truth.
However he doesn't really seem that bothered to have discovered that he's some kind of pure specimen that can deal with the "reality" that the Nazis were right and it, hey who would have guessed, it turns out he is better than the minority groups and women that they target. What a bitter pill that must have been for him to swallow.
There's layers of irony here, so he could be genuinely warning people that they will turn into an unlikable asshole like he feels he has, it's hard to decipher all the layers.
They appear to be making the claim that unlike the soft left, they are heroically and manfully exposing themself to the raw truth.
However he doesn't really seem that bothered to have discovered that he's some kind of pure specimen that can deal with the "reality" that the Nazis were right and it, hey who would have guessed, it turns out he is better than the minority groups and women that they target. What a bitter pill that must have been for him to swallow.
There's layers of irony here, so he could be genuinely warning people that they will turn into an unlikable asshole like he feels he has, it's hard to decipher all the layers.