@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism Hi Charles - thank you for your detailed reply, and apologies for taking so long to respond to it!
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism Regarding the historical point, I'd argue extreme movements *both* on the left and right almost always justify their existence, their violence, and their destruction of institutions by claiming that they are defending against an extreme movement on the other side...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism Hitler (apologies for bringing him into the conversation so quickly), famously said "If today I stand here as a revolutionary, it is as a revolutionary against the Revolution" - and a lot of his support really did stem from a not-unfounded fear of communist revolutionaries...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism With that in mind, perhaps the "who started it" discussion is less interesting than the observation that extreme left and right wing movements almost always grow in tandem - and even, arguably, depend on each other for their very existence, their reason for being...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism (I disagree with you, though, that "there is no debate" on "who started it" in different situations, but let's leave that be for now - it's less important, I think)
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism This begs the question of what causes extreme movements to gain momentum in the first place. One seemingly obvious answer is that such and such professor or activist or whatever is spreading lies/hate/bad ideas/extreme ideologies - and there is certainly something to that...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism The ideological content behind a movement has to come from somewhere, and that content matters. The holocaust would not have happened if Nazism was not explicitly and virulently anti-Semitic. The devastation of the Holodomor would not have happened if the USSR wasn't communist...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism Nevertheless, crazy, extremist ideas - and activist movements supporting them - are always present in the fringes of society (especially free ones). The real question is, what makes them sometimes appeal fairly widely, while most of the time being almost completely ignored? ...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism And my view here would be that it's broadly a bit more banal than we often would like to think. There are lots of real problems in society, that impact people's day-to-day lives, and (perhaps even more importantly) their expectations of the future...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism If those problems are perceived as small, or big, but taken seriously and well-managed by those in power, people stay moderate, and don't want a lot of radical change (which is risky)....
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism However, if problems are perceived as big, and those in power aren't seen as providing any solution, or even taking it seriously, people look outside of the mainstream for those who can offer solutions - and often end up with extreme movements...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism This is the dangerous bit, because the solutions offered by extremists (or even extremists-lite, populists, etc.), are almost always terrible and make the problems worse, or solve them by creating even bigger problems elsewhere. It's a very bad thing...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism And it accelerates polarization and extremism further, as the actions of one side's extremists validate the claims of the other sides' extremists. This is the point at which violence and institutional breakdown starts becoming a lot more likely...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism And once you get to that point, you've already lost. Spain is a good example - they defeated communism, but paid for it with a fascist-lite dictator and lost their democracy for a generation...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism In any case, the only way to avoid the descent into extreme polarization and democratic breakdown is for the moderate centrists (who are usually in power) to be genuinely responsive and solve really problems before they become large enough to drive support for extremists...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism So, if you take the United States - my prescription for reversing the rise of *both* "woke" and the QAnon-Trump populist right (which I think is a massive problem, although we may disagree on that) would be something like:
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism 1) Do whatever needs to be done to get (black, white, brown, etc.) working class wages to rise: eg. higher minimum wage, industrial policy, public works, strengthening trade unions, reducing working class immigration...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism 2) Massively improve funding for community police: (more people, better pay, better training, etc.), while also significantly tightening standards and accountability...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism 3) Properly enforce illegal immigration on the border, while giving those who already live in the US amnesty, and make it easier to immigrate legally (especially for highly paid people, who drive up demand and salaries for the working class)
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism 4) Make cheap or free healthcare available for everyone (medicare for all who want it, or something like that)
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism 5) Massively expand community college vocational training. Cap increases in university tuition, make government student loans nearly interest free (but *don't* cancel them), and keep affirmative action, but make it based on family income and parents education rather than race
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism In my mind - the above is a perfectly sensible and ideologically consistent, centrist policy platform for the United States - that would make real progress toward solving the underlying issues that drive support for populists and extremists both on the left and right...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism The big challenge for the US is that both sides essentially take a "give them a finger, they take the hand"-approach to politics and policy, which creates a weird situation where half of the above is anathema to one side and central to the other, and vice versa...
@TheWorthyHouse @a_centrism That's dangerous, and suggests that the slide towards the fringe has gone quite a way already. However, it is encouraging that in spite of everything, the Democrats chose and won the presidency with the most moderate candidate they could find - that might save the republic
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