Rise of Radicalism

[Whitney Edwards]

The World should put this on alert. There's a growing trend of radicalism throughout the world in different forms. Far Right groups and even radicalized leftists on the rise in almost every major nation. From fundamentalist Christian groups going ballistic to terror outfits in the Middle East, Hindutuva in the Indian subcontinent and maoist tensions in China to Boko Haram in Africa, antisemitism already on the rise in parts of US and Europe and not to mention the Far Right growing in central and Eastern Europe. In no time it will be every nation's job to control far right (as well as fanatic left like Antifa) domestic terrorism. It is something on the rise with extreme polarization of political opinion in the world, the media(mostly identity politics and divisive rhetoric, also the rise of fascist and extremist rhetoric on both Far Right and Far left ) is partially to be blamed for this social anomaly adding to our everyday woes. The chapter has only begun. 

 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by Buck Edwards

[Philipp]

Radicalization is crazy nowadays. 

It really kickstarted during the Covid pandemic. Trust in academia, media and institutions erroded, we now live in the reign of idiots. Conspiracy theories, ideologies, anything that feeds the ego, is spreading fast. And Idiots don't have to feel ashamed anymore. They have gained a critical mass to self validate and all moderating barriers (academia, conventional media, institutions) are extremly weakened. 

When the left goes left, the right goes right. 

Who knows where this will end. But some amount of violance is almost guaranteed. My hope is that the left gets rid of stupid ideologies and starts convincing some of the moderate idiots. 

[BlueOak]

There is barely any far left that exists anymore, anywhere, certainly not that I ever see on any platform without really, really searching for it. The number of large-scale, organized, funded, and supported extremist far-right groups is huge.

How can the far left get rid of anything when it no longer exists? If you mean centrists that's a different story. 

*The dynamic is more now between anarchy and institutions. Though we should say there will always be a swing back, eventually the pendulum will go the other way completely because of the imbalance, that's the historical pattern.

Edited November 29, 2023 by BlueOak

[Whitney Edwards]

@BlueOak although I haven't seen much radicalism on the side of the Left, you could argue that Far Right members clashed with Left Wing Pro Palestine protestors in the middle of London. So clashes are possible and anyone could die in these clashes. 

[BlueOak]

1 hour ago, Buck Edwards said:

@BlueOak although I haven't seen much radicalism on the side of the Left, you could argue that Far Right members clashed with Left Wing Pro Palestine protestors in the middle of London. So clashes are possible and anyone could die in these clashes. 

Liberal protestors who don't like war, and Palestinians or pro-Palestinian groups, are not far left. This is the problem the Overton window has gone so far right, people who don't like genocide or war are now being considered far left. What kind of framing is that? So the center would be pro-war, and the right like genocide? No that makes no sense. The average person hates war for obvious reasons. The average person is the center.

If you want a sometimes useful left perspective in America for example try the Majority Report or some old Michael Brooks videos. This will help bring some clarity.
https://www.youtube.com/@TheMajorityReport
https://www.youtube.com/@TheMichaelBrooksShow/videos

Vaush is a pretty good left speaker also most of the time, but not far left.
https://www.youtube.com/@Vaush

If you want a reality check of what far left actually is, go listen to the Antifada podcast, or a communist or anarchist channel. I won't dig around much for these but you can try searching for: Socialist party or communist party - your country's name and, libertarian socialist or anarchist your country's name. *Most barely get over a few hundred views, because they are utterly crushed in any algorithm

Here is the antifada's old podcast for reference,https://www.youtube.com/@TheAntifada I believe it moved to apple. At this time years back, Jamie Peck moved here from the majority report as an example of the actual left scale.  

If you can't find any and want some i'll pull a few links but I can't vouch for their quality as I don't watch them. I don't follow the far left much because I am not an idealogue, though occasionally seeing different perspectives can give clarity to your own. The right is shoved down our throat so much it can be cleansing to hear the entirely opposite position for balance

Edited November 29, 2023 by BlueOak

[hoodrow trillson]

People who are online a lot tend to get radicalized

[Whitney Edwards]

Just now, hoodrow trillson said:

People who are online a lot tend to get radicalized

Facts. 

[ArcticGong]

Also it seems like humanity goes through cycles. At the end of a cycle it  seems  the situation is vulnerable for radicalisation. Furthermore, it is tempting to go radical when things don’t turn out the way one expected. 

[Whitney Edwards]

7 minutes ago, ArcticGong said:

Also it seems like humanity goes through cycles. At the end of a cycle it  seems  the situation is vulnerable for radicalisation. Furthermore, it is tempting to go radical when things don’t turn out the way one expected. 

This is true as well. It takes time for the dust to settle. 

[BlueOak]

1 hour ago, hoodrow trillson said:

People who are online a lot tend to get radicalized

These days mainstream media in America is so polarized it happens offline. Murdoch and others made a fortune dividing America (and the UK) up into sides that barely even relate to each other anymore. I don't mean to imply people were living in harmony, but he and people like him exaggerated, and moreover demonised, the divide as much as possible for money.

Edited November 29, 2023 by BlueOak

[Whitney Edwards]

12 minutes ago, BlueOak said:

These days mainstream media in America is so polarized it happens offline. Murdoch and others made a fortune dividing America (and the UK) up into sides that barely even relate to each other anymore. I don't mean to imply people were living in harmony, but he and people like him exaggerated, and moreover demonised, the divide as much as possible for money.

+1

[Philipp]

@BlueOak I am sorry but FOX news is not as radical as those internet spaces including twitter, etc. FOX news still has a liberal voice in their pannels. OAN is more radical BUT STILL. OAN is also not as blatlantly promoting racism and conspiracy theories as you see it happening online. This crazy to say but they are still better.

@hoodrow trillson True! It is actually quite interesting why the internet radicalizes us. The common explanation was echo chambers, but it turns out that your real life is a bigger echo chamber than your online life. Online you are way more confronted with differing views. Even if you are watching people with similar views, you are often watching them react to opposing views. Whereas in real life you just did not really care about the others. The people around you was what you cared for and those have usually similar thoughts than you. 

But the confrontation with opposing views is not the only driver of radicalisation in my opinion. A big factor has to be the attention grabbing mechanism at play and the underlying attention industry, the cognitive stage of capitalism. 

[BlueOak]

2 hours ago, Philipp said:

@BlueOak I am sorry but FOX news is not as radical as those internet spaces including twitter, etc. FOX news still has a liberal voice in their pannels. OAN is more radical BUT STILL. OAN is also not as blatlantly promoting racism and conspiracy theories as you see it happening online. This crazy to say but they are still better.

We are going to be so far apart on this, but that's sometimes fun too. 

The organizations you've quoted make up news all day every day, they are not news companies they are entertainment companies. Fox literally calls themselves an entertainment company so they can't be sued as readily. They run with conspiracies, stories they makeup, anything to entertain and retain the audience.

Insert the names of the other mainstream propaganda companies you dislike here **** <--- Yes they are the other half of the divide. They are not anything like news companies used to be. I'm not going to quibble that one is better than the other, one has more fantasy entertainment but neither side is ultimately helping people much long term.

News companies used to try to validate their sources, they used to report news across a wide spectrum, not cheerlead for political parties. News reporters used to break stories, investigate, and get to the bottom of things like corruption, or crime. Now they just try to find something that fits their viewpoint and then talk about it, if it doesn't fit their viewpoint rightwing media just tends to make it up. Centrist media tends to try to word it in a way to suits their agenda, and leftwing media looks for something else to talk about, or find a vague technical thread that holds up to their values, quietly moving on after lambasting it for a while.

Twitter has always been a soup of personal opinions. It's not calling itself a news or entertainment network posing as a news service. I haven't used twitter ever, only viewing things remotely. I left Facebook over a decade ago when I realized how much things were degrading. Not that I was ever engaged with it much.

America seems to have no news services on the national level, just political communication services. The only place to find a shred of news is alternative sources, and they are still largely opinion pieces put out by politically aligned groups, not investigative journalism which is all but a dead art outside of documentaries for example. It's a dead art because it's not a validation of popular opinion that makes people feel good, or keeps people interested. While reporting actual factual news unless it is sensationalized or aligned with a wider political sentiment doesn't sell. - Still, there are some diamonds to find among the rough, usually people not looking just to grift off feelings, or able to demonstrate things in a way that's practically actionable or advances some aspect of the problem, be it only recognition of it or just the discourse. Even then they'll almost always be politically aligned somehow.

Personally, I like to see differing opinions when they are not invented out of thin air or purely hyperbolic, because I usually benefit from a demonstrated objective or at least practical truth, even if I argue in the moment it almost always leaves some effect.

Edited November 30, 2023 by BlueOak