The Profile of Extremists

Extreme politics attract a specific type of person not only for their political leanings but for certain personal reasons as well.

In fact, radicals sport a profile absent in people supporting more moderate parties and policies.

In the aftermath of World War 2, a Dutch psychologist treated many patients who were either Nazis or Communists and found a common denominator that linked both of them.

It all harked back to their experiences in early childhood and the type of background they came from.

He used the prime example of parents with authoritarian traits dominating every facet of their children’s lives.

The same dynamic applies in chaotic homes where children identify with authoritarianism as a way of maintaining order in what they perceive as life’s unruly situations.

In turn, the psychologist found children from authoritarian homes drawn to extreme political parties like moths to a flame.

Remember the Nazi’s and Communists were not majority parties but managed to appeal to a majority of radicals.

Here is where the psychologist’s findings get even more interesting: he noted children from authoritarian homes saw authoritarian politics as a way to heal and find redemption from their pasts, so becoming the authoritarians they loathed served as their catharsis in some strange fashion.

Back to the Future

We have come a long way baby but some things don’t change, extremism is more of a threat than ever and would-be authoritarians cannot wait to get their own back for whatever reason by lording it over others.

We have picked up extra baggage along the way, with problems like broken families, drug abuse and mental illness on the up and up.

We feel less safe, the world is unpredictable with everyone feeling the pinch most of all the freedoms we take for granted seem tenuous at best, then there is politics.

The difference now radical factions and political parties are intent on stirring up personal and political grievances both real and imagined, while cheering on the aggrieved in a push to gain power.

Identity politics with its special interests groups has done the U.S. no favors as long-bubbling tensions reach boiling point with polarization the worst since ……..well the civil war.

It is the national version of the Clash of Civilizations playing out in Technicolor on a large screen, predicted in the Nineteen Nineties, with people literally going nuts.

The demonization of specific groups is not new there plenty of examples in history of how it went badly wrong but people never learn.

It is too late to learn anything as rivalry and resentment have taken over in a free-for-all-brawl.

That ancient saying; those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad, figuratively and literally, seems to ring all too true for America right now.

Meanwhile, according to a poll by Cato Institute 62% of Americans believe the current political climate prevents them from saying things they believe others might find offensive.

The results are up from the same poll in 2017 when it stood at 58%.

The results then were broken down into political parties as follows:

“Majorities of Democrats (52%), independents (59%) and Republicans (77%) all agree they have political opinions they are afraid to share”.

Strangely, those who defined themselves as staunch liberals self-censored considerably less.

Strong liberals stand out as the only political group who feel they can express themselves. Nearly 6 in 10 (58%) of staunch liberals feel they can say what they believe.

In a nation supposed to value the first amendment as top of the list of constitutional rights the above makes for scary reading.