Thread by @trygveolson

This is a video of anti-vax people chasing a mom & child down a street for wearing masks. It is reprehensible, but let's talk about what is really going on here beyond the obvious. @reedgalen @LincolnWatchman @ProjectLincoln @TheRickWilson @JoeTrippi

https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1445823871500779524?s=20

There are four escalating levels from a psychological standpoint for those who become extremists. The first is Psychological Distress. In this case, there is a pandemic & "They are afraid both of what it means and how it is affecting their lives negatively."

The pandemic affects everyone's life on our planet. That is a big deal -- a rare moment in the history of humankind. One up there with World Wars & other pandemics. Individually it puts our insignificance as humans at the forefront of our minds. We want answers & solutions.

With something this big inevitably some gravitate to Cognitively Simplistic answers. We as humans hate thinking there are events affecting our lives beyond our control. In such cases, simple answers to the uncertainty are desired. As humans, we are programed for certainty.

One of the great things about America has been we are pretty much free to live our lives as we choose. Yes, our politicians and campaigns often instill fear we are losing this, but we have more freedom than most of the other 7 billion people on the planet. It is part of us.

The problem with extremism comes when people become Overconfident -- they know the truth and others are lacking enlightenment. Today they are being told by outrage complexes, 'you know the answers & the others are stupid, ill-informed, think they are better than you.'

As it relates to moms and kids being chased down the street by anti-vax people, there has been a long-standing stream from the complex providing cognitively simplistic outrage. Those pandering for profit through extremism's outrage.

There is, of course, an irony in the fact these same purveyors of "truths" for the Overcondent, have been vaccinated themselves. Yet, if we are honest, what the outrage complex does isn't even about partisanship, rather it is about ratings and profit.

Thus, they want to make this all about power grabs. For the extremist yelling at a mom and kid for wearing a mask, it is about power. In their minds they believe, "I understand the truth and I have the power to say it" You even hear one of them shouting it in the video clip.

It is also ironic the purveyors respond with outrage when confronted with similar extremism from the other side. Both are cases of Overconfidence turning into further extremism.
deadline.com/2018/11/tucker…

That comes in the final psychological piece of extremism -- Intolerance. If you think about our politics today and what you are witnessing, it is rising extremism at the peak psychological level of intolerance of those who don't share extremist values -- on both sides.

Think for a moment about conversations you have had with friends or family who are angry about our politics. What you have to recognize is for them you are unenlightened. You don't see what for them are cognitively simplistic truths they believe.

From the extremist's perspective, they are doing you a favor by trying to enlighten on truths they understand & you are missing. It is why such conversations, when you confront them with facts, become so frustrating. It only serves to raise their levels of fear and anger.

This gets us back to the people chasing the mom and daughter down the street for wearing masks at a school. What we are seeing is people who have succumb to extremism. They might be perfectly good people in most facets of their lives, but they have fallen prey.

There is no excuse for their behavior. I would guess most of them under normal circumstances wouldn't act how they are towards a mom and kid. That isn't to excuse their choices -- but it gets to what we have to do to defeat extremism.

First, we must use videos like this to educate those flirting with extremism. We must ask them are you like these people? Do you condone this? We have to separate people feeling distressed (we all feel that) from those radicalized and intolerant.

The only way to reverse extremism is by capitalizing on moments causing cognitive dissonance. We can use these to overcome the overconfidence. You do this by making extremists witness the actions they are seeing which don't match with who they are as people.

The other thing we must all do is remember extremism happens on both sides of the political spectrum. The best way to not be captured by extremism is to ask yourself why do some feel this way? What is causing the psychological distress?

If you think about those shouting at the mom & kid, you realize they are afraid. Politicians, profit outrage complexes, & zero-sum self-interested have taken advantage of them.

The causes of their fears are real for them & for our nation to heal we must admit this reality & try to address the reason for their distress.

Always remember democracy requires those who have lost to accept and consent to be governed by those with whom they disagree that won

For the win-win of democracy to survive, those who have won must always keep the causes of distress for those who lost (or are out of power) top of mind. Never forget if you think extremism is only a problem of the other side, you are likely an extremist yourself.