It’s fairly long so I’ll later pick up where I left off at FAITH.
So far I agree with much of what I’m reading as it applies to radical extremists of all stripes, not just ANTIFA. ANTIFA would not exist without their counterparts on the radical right…
What is a radical community? For the purposes of this article, I will define it as a community that shares both an ideology of complete dissatisfaction with existing society due to its oppressive nature and a desire to radically alter or destroy that society because it cannot be redeemed by its own means.
… toxicity in radical communities is not a bug. It is a feature. The ideology and norms of radicalism have evolved to produce toxic, paranoid, depressed subjects.
Mussolini is considered one of the fathers of fascism as it started in Italy with a ghost writer writing the fascist doctrine for him when he was PM of Italy and that nationalistic fascist doctrine spread to other European countries. It’s incredible that you would think that Mussolini was an anti-fascist. Good grief!
It wasnot as long as i thought. It was the comments that lengthened it.
Here are some key takeawys for me.
– if a worldview treats all discordant knowledge as threat, then it is an ideology. Its adherents learn to see themselves as guardians rather than seekers of the truth. The practical consequences of such a worldview can be devastating.
–…. radical communities also attract people looking for an excuse to be violent illegalists. And the surplus of vulnerable and compassionate people attracts sadists and abusers ready to exploit them.
Most important of all,
–.…radicals should learn to abandon false truths. The only way to escape dogmatism is to resist the calcification and sanctification of values, and to learn from the wisdom of different perspectives. As Haidt argues, there are grains of truth in opposing political positions. Radicals do themselves a disservice by seeing the world of thought outside the radical monoculture as tainted with reaction and evil. There is a rich diversity of thought awaiting them if they would only open their minds to it.*** One of the achievements of liberalism has been a norm of free speech wherein individuals can both share and consume that spectrum of thought. Every new and challenging school of thought I discovered after anarchism rocked my worldview, as somebody who formerly thought that wisdom could only be found through “the struggle” or in esoteric French theory. Even if opposing views are not assimilated, the ability to contend with them on the intellectual field instead of silencing them is a sign of a seeker of the truth, not a guardian.
Notice how @Watchman_Libtard couldn’t manage to stay on topic at all but constantly bitches at people if they don’t stay exactly on topic in his threads.
