I'm going to start this out by saying one thing: I support social justice - I'm far left on that issue. However, I have issues with the extreme left, as well the alt-right. For simplicity's sake, I'll refer to the extreme left as the extra-left, as in "outside".
Extremism comes from a lack of willingness to look at and attempt to understand other viewpoints than your own. You are so convinced of your own correctness that you don't need to see the fake news/alternative facts of the other side/s. If I'm an ISIL soldier and I believe I'll go to paradise for eternity if I die in battle and that all my enemies are the devil, I'm not going to go consume media that disagrees with that viewpoint. If I'm an alt-right Republican that watches Fox News and Breitbart, I'm not going to go watch the fake news like the Clinton News Network. If I'm an extra-left SJW who spends a bunch of time on Tumblr, I'm never going to watch the bigoted, alternative fact-spewing Faux "News".
Extremists of all kinds share one thing in common - a lack of empathy for others' viewpoints. Regardless of if your opponent is a different religion than you, a political correctness-enforcing urbanite, or a racist, bigoted farmer, they're more than that - and when you make their beliefs all they are, that serves only to make things more polarized and distasteful. Few people listen to people that insult them - that's just human nature, we don't want to be insulted. In fact, I find it hard to argue with those whose beliefs go against my identity, such as those who believe that "there are two genders and they are determined by the genitals you got at birth".
Even so, I got into a discussion with a person on Quora about their beliefs on that issue, why they believed the things they did, and presented some arguments with conclusions that went contrary to their opinions. You know how conservatives have called liberals "Snowflakes"? I would go so far as to call anyone who can't bear consuming media that has a different viewpoint than theirs a snowflake - be they liberal or conservative. People have to be willing to experience discomfort in order to grow - because the only time you grow is when you're outside of your comfort zone. The only time our community grows is when we can understand where people are coming from and then try to convince them of our viewpoint - while simultaneously listening for good arguments from the person we're talking to, because discourse is not a one-way street.
Thanks for reading.
Ix
Extremism comes from a lack of willingness to look at and attempt to understand other viewpoints than your own. You are so convinced of your own correctness that you don't need to see the fake news/alternative facts of the other side/s. If I'm an ISIL soldier and I believe I'll go to paradise for eternity if I die in battle and that all my enemies are the devil, I'm not going to go consume media that disagrees with that viewpoint. If I'm an alt-right Republican that watches Fox News and Breitbart, I'm not going to go watch the fake news like the Clinton News Network. If I'm an extra-left SJW who spends a bunch of time on Tumblr, I'm never going to watch the bigoted, alternative fact-spewing Faux "News".
Extremists of all kinds share one thing in common - a lack of empathy for others' viewpoints. Regardless of if your opponent is a different religion than you, a political correctness-enforcing urbanite, or a racist, bigoted farmer, they're more than that - and when you make their beliefs all they are, that serves only to make things more polarized and distasteful. Few people listen to people that insult them - that's just human nature, we don't want to be insulted. In fact, I find it hard to argue with those whose beliefs go against my identity, such as those who believe that "there are two genders and they are determined by the genitals you got at birth".
Even so, I got into a discussion with a person on Quora about their beliefs on that issue, why they believed the things they did, and presented some arguments with conclusions that went contrary to their opinions. You know how conservatives have called liberals "Snowflakes"? I would go so far as to call anyone who can't bear consuming media that has a different viewpoint than theirs a snowflake - be they liberal or conservative. People have to be willing to experience discomfort in order to grow - because the only time you grow is when you're outside of your comfort zone. The only time our community grows is when we can understand where people are coming from and then try to convince them of our viewpoint - while simultaneously listening for good arguments from the person we're talking to, because discourse is not a one-way street.
Thanks for reading.
Ix
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