What is the value of (frame-parameter nil 'font-backend)?
I ran this in *scratch*:
(message "%s" (frame-parameter nil 'font-backend))
and it says
(ftcrhb x)
Does it help to run (set-frame-parameter nil 'font-backend (remove 'x
(frame-parameter nil 'font-backend)))?
I reinstalled google-fonts using
pkg install google-fonts
as su (root) followed by
xset fp rehash
This caused the problem to occur again and emacs -Q stalled completely. I then restarted emacs with emacs -Q without opening the problem file (which contains a single ⿰). In the new Emacs window I copy-pasted the above code and ran 'eval-buffer' then I used C-x C-f to load the file containing the ⿰ single character. I then started typing this email, and it is still unable to load the file containing the ⿰ even as I am typing now. It finally loaded after several minutes, but the ⿰ character is not displayed, instead there is a box with 2FF0 in it.
Here is a screenshot if it helps: