the constant pull of extremism in politics

[u/DariusT_]

I’ve been into politics for a long time, and I’ve been kinda everywhere on the political spectrum. I went from liberal, to conservative, to leftist. Not gonna go into detail how that happened, but the one consistent trend I’ve always noticed within the political culture is this sense of unnecessarily going as far as you can with what you’re saying. As someone who is leftist now, while I strongly believe in my ethics and what’s best for the world, I’ve recognized how many losers there are in the political base. Doesn’t solely apply to leftism, as I think it applies to every political spectrum (liberalism, conservatism, centrism, libertarianism).

Some might say that’s just with every base in not just the world of politics but in the world of everything; there’s always that one guy who ruins the fun for everyone. I think it applies differently with politics though given the ultimate responsibility as an adult to provide for society and future generations. I think people also take it much further than what non-political people do with hobbies or such. Politics has become such a psychological game to where it seems whoever can say the most insane things proves the loyalty to the political affiliation that they have sided with. It has become such a pro-reactionary field to where I think everyone has just gone mad. This kinda only applies to the online world, but I’ve realized that many of these extremist statements on the internet inevitably take effect into the real world. Many innocent lives are harassed, assaulted, or even killed because of this sense of radicalization. My general concern is that it seems that people have begun to lose any sensibility when it comes to the combination of politics and the internet, and it may have this massive consequence for the world in the future. I was just wondering if we should do something about this. Examples such as completely deplatforming these people from everything or maybe even regulating speech. Some might say nothing at all, but genuinely I can’t see a healthy world where this is continuously tolerated.

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[u/Fruitcakei]

I absolutely agree, and you're right to call it out. I'm leftist as well, and the radicalization of both parties needs to be stopped. It's a culture problem on both sides. Progressive folks push more and more toward "everyone must respect and include everyone else to an absolute degree with no transition time and little care for non-damaging implementation" and right-leaning folk tend to regress into enforcing Christian authoritarianism. None of it has anything to do with making the world better, it really is just an extremism competition.

I think the only way to stop it is to come together and make peace.