I'm currently reading an interesting book from the library called American Extremists, by John George & Laird Wilcox (Prometheus, 1996). Basically it's a brief history of many of the far-right and far-left extremist groups in the United States, from communists to John Birchers.
What really caught my attention, though, was a section on trying to identify if one can be considered 'extremist'. In it the authors give 22 general characteristics, and as I was reading I started thinking about not only others whom I think a bit loopy, but also myself. Am I an extremist in how I criticize others? "If it's a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed." (Kahlil Gibron, 1923).
On most of these I will just list the headings, but I will make other notes in italics that are mine, and quote interesting things the author says about some of the points.
1. Character assassination.
2. Name calling and labeling.
3. Irresponsible sweeping generalizations. "The sloppy use of analogy is a treacherous form of logic and has a high potential for false conclusions."
4. Inadequate proof for assertions. How many emails are written each day that people forward on assuming they are true? "They tend to project wished-for conclusions and to exaggerate the significance of information that confirms their beliefs while derogating or ignoring information that contradicts them."
5. Advocacy of double standards.
6. Tendency to view opponents and critics as essentially evil.
7. Manichaean worldview. There is no middle-ground, everything is absolute. Thus, your candidate is wholly evil, mine is wholly good.
8. Advocacy of some degree of censorship or repression of their opponents and/or critics. "Extremists would prefer that you listen only to them."
9. Tendency to identify themselves in terms of who their enemies are.
10. Tendency to use argument by intimidation. How much do we do this in the church? Quickly when somebody says something we don't like, we threaten their position or seek to kick them out of the church.
11. Use of slogans, buzzwords, and thought-stop cliches. Like, 'Freedom is not Free!'?
12. Assumption of moral superiority over others.
13. Doomsday thinking. (Whatever problem they predict), "it's just around the corner unless we follow their program and listen to their special insight and wisdom, to which only the truly enlightened have access. For extremists, any setback or defeat is 'the beginning of the end'."
14. Belief that it's okay to do bad things in the service of a 'good' cause. "Defeating an 'enemy' becomes an all-encompassing goal to which other values are subordinate. With extremists, the end justifies the means."
15. Emphasis on emotional responses and, correspondingly, a de-emphasis on reasoning and logical analysis.
16. Hypersensitivity and vigilance. See my previous post on John Waddey, who saw himself as the sole guardian against the heretical barbarians at the gate.
17. Use of supernatural rationales for beliefs and actions.
18. Problems tolerating ambiguity and uncertainty. "The more laws or rules there are that regulate the behavior of others--particularly their 'enemies'-the more secure extremists feel." Particularly, when it comes to many Christians, there is a need to be able to interpret every Scripture within a particular framework. To deny the ability to do this makes many, many people nervous.
19. Inclination toward 'groupthink'. "Groupthink involves a tendency to conform to group norms and to preserve solidarity and concurrence at the expense of distorting members' observations of facts, conflicting evidence, and disquieting observations that would call into question the shared assumptions and beliefs of the group. Right-wingers (or left-wingers), for example, talk mostly to one another, read only the material that reflects their own views, and can be almost phobic about the 'propaganda' of the 'other side'." It is remarkable to me that the same people who continually think of the news media as having a liberal bias will only listen to Rush Limbaugh and watch Fox News. Anything else is to be ignored.
20. Tendency to personalize hostility.
21. Extremists often feel that the system is no good unless they win. "For example, if they lose an election, then it was 'rigged'. If public opinion turns against them, it is because of 'brainwashing'....The test of the rightness or wrongness of the system is how it has an impact on them."
22. Extremists tend to believe in far-reaching conspiracy theories.
