extremism – rnbn

“One of the great perceived attractions to becoming involved in extremism is it presents a simple way of understanding a complicated world”

Source: Faith Goldy, Toronto’s White-Nationalist Poster Girl

MAGA is a rejection of the foregrounding of the complexity, nuance, and spectrums of humanity. It is a rejection of pluralism and democracy.

For those who are tired of complexity and debate and politics, there are autocrats ready to relieve them of the burden.

4/ About 1/3 of the population are inclined toward authoritarianism.
They’re averse to complexity & diversity (conservatives, OTOH, are averse to change).

Authoritarians are “biased against different ‘others’—racial and ethnic out-groups, immigrants, refugees, ‘deviants,’” etc. pic.twitter.com/xwmq0pJPi2

— Teri Kanefield (@Teri_Kanefield) July 20, 2018

5/ Liberal democracy (representative government under the principles of classical liberalism) tends to become more diverse and more complex.

For example: Expanding citizenship and voting rights, and striving for inclusivity (liberal values) naturally creates diversity. pic.twitter.com/ndQW2p6Xuu

— Teri Kanefield (@Teri_Kanefield) July 20, 2018

6/ Growing diversity creates a powerful reaction in authoritarians: They become angry. They can be violent, cruel, and tolerate cruelty in others (like what we’re seeing at the border).

Thus, a cycle: As liberal democracy expands, authoritarians react.

— Teri Kanefield (@Teri_Kanefield) July 20, 2018

7/ Trump happened because liberal democracy in America exceeded many people’s capacity to tolerate it.

Thus, our current authoritarian moment is not a momentary madness—it always sits beneath the surface of liberal democracy. pic.twitter.com/dBvfkCR5e6

— Teri Kanefield (@Teri_Kanefield) July 20, 2018