The American colonists took the momentous action of cutting their ties with their autocratic British “protectors” in 1776. Their effort was ultimately successful and allowed them to create a new form of government. This new form of government was based on several foundations, such as a) rule by the people, b) the rule of law, c) the free flow of information, d) fundamental human freedoms, and e) the laws that can be changed to create a more perfect union.
The US Constitution was a miracle for its time. It was a self-correcting system that allowed its citizens to participate in government. A vital element of this system is the free flow of information and the assumption that Americans can use that information to elect representatives wisely. What could possibly go wrong?
Classical liberals and libertarians assure us that today the free flow of information containing some accurate facts and interwoven streams of propaganda delivered by targeted algorithms and artificial intelligence will save us and our democracy. They assume truth will emerge from the conflicting messages and prevail in the long run. This assumption implies that Americans are educated, can make informed decisions, and put their American interests first. If some Americans cannot make informed decisions, it is their damned problem.
The current term for the battleground of American politics is “controlling the narrative.” Manipulating public opinion is a skill or profession second only to the world’s oldest profession. Opportunists, particularly those with minority opinions, try their best and spend billions to influence public opinion. A key tactic to change hearts and minds is identifying a problematic political issue and suggesting a simple remedy, their remedy. It is easy to slowly gaslight those willing to believe what they are told, primarily by the supercharged use of social media, television, and advertising bots that know us better than we know ourselves. The recent emergence of artificial intelligence as a tool to control the narrative and the recipients of the narrative have the most knowledgeable people concerned.
Humans always have been and will constantly be confronted by difficult situations. While there are simple solutions to simple problems, complex problems require work, experimentation, and compromise. Whether during a revolution or not, facing complex issues is sidetracked by extremist opportunists trying to convince naïve citizens to follow their narrative, eventually leading to either anarchy or their favorite form of autocracy. The primary goal of these extremists is to burn down existing institutions and replace them with what? Later, I will discuss the complex real-world issues confronted during the Dutch Revolt of 1566, the English Revolution of 1640, and the American Revolution of 1776.
Underlying the struggle for democracy is the struggle against propaganda-infused extremism, the Achilles Heel of American Democracy.
Extremism
What is extremism? It seems like a simple question to ask. However, like many simple words, we use daily, it is not as simple as it looks.
Some of the standard dictionary definitions are:
- “the holding of extreme political or religious views; fanaticism.”
- “a tendency or disposition to go to extremes or an instance of going to extremes, especially in political matters.”
The root of extremism is the word extreme. When used as an adjective, extreme can have two general themes: a) reaching a high point or being very great or b) the furthest from a given point. So, the adjective extreme does not necessarily refer to the actions of a fanatic. An athlete can throw a javelin extremely far and become a world champion. Politicians can win 90% of the vote and have an extreme victory.
Even in a political or religious context, being extreme about something does not necessarily drift into the crazy or fanatical zone. A person can be enthusiastic about something without losing their ability to think and reason. Enthusiasm does not necessarily result in fanatical extremism. A mother who just lost a first-grade daughter to a mass murderer might be extremely alarmed by AK-47s and may fervently support appropriate gun control legislation; however, she will not necessarily “lose her mind.” Mother Theresa was extremely concerned about poor people, so she spent her life trying to comfort the poor. She was not an unreasoning religious fanatic.
In my use of the term, extremism is primarily concerned with the fanatical aspects of the word. Fanatical extremism refers to people holding extreme views with intense, uncritical devotion. This form of extremism goes beyond simply having extreme views. I exclude mental illness as a fanatical category. There probably are fanatics with certifiable mental problems, but I am primarily concerned with “normal” people who sign over their free will and reasoning to those with stronger magnetic fields. This extremism is typically a type of circular reasoning if we call it reasoning at all. Instead of explaining one’s actions with facts and logic, fanatical extremists say something is true because someone with a more “powerful magnet” has convinced them that it is true.
The fanatical follower does not use independent thinking. Instead, they allow others to dictate their truths. This extremism is suspended on the floating sludge of religious fanaticism, irreligious fantasy, or pure propaganda. These extremists can be naïve followers or crafty manipulators of fantasies. To borrow a recent phrase from a comedian, fanatical extremism is practiced by someone like your crazy uncle’s crazy uncle.
Many fanatical extremists also have extraordinary “denial of reality” mental tricks that make them believe they have a license to see and treat the world differently. When anyone tells us that black is white and bad is good, we are either listening to a lunatic or a fanatic.
Taking the Easy Lazy Road becomes Easier
In addition to lapping up propaganda like it is the gospel, fanatical extremists also usually take the easy road in seeking truth. It makes sense for lazy thinkers to accept propaganda that reinforces their biases. Why think through issues when getting the “truth” from someone who shares my biases and ignores all other available facts is much easier? [Ignorance is the act of ignoring.] However, modern information technology has allowed these folks to increase and amplify their superficial faux understanding of the world with even LESS effort.
I will cite one example. Although this example has nothing politics or magnetism, it demonstrates how information technology can blind people to complexity. I am interested in history, not only in the broad-brush strokes of academic history but also in detailed, personal histories (aka, genealogy.)
The advent of the internet revolutionized genealogy. In the distant past, genealogy was arcanely practiced with labor-intensive, non-digital tools. One had to drive to a library, county clerk’s office, or other paper or microfilm repositories to investigate ancestors. When a significant record was found, it was necessary to pump quarters or dollars into a copy machine.
Over the last 30 years, many genealogical websites and services have sprung up to replace old-fashioned research techniques. Researchers no longer need to drive anywhere, beg librarians for research materials, or create truckloads of paper research material. Increasingly, most vital records have been digitized and indexed for easy retrieval, collation, and storage.
These internet-based services have revolutionized genealogical research. It is now almost effortless to research our ancestors. It has become so effortless that a lazy researcher can easily accept nonsensical information as accurate. This slipshod research is facilitated by websites that provide “hints” to researchers. These hints should not be taken at face value, but lazy researchers regularly accept almost all of them as accurate. It is commonplace to see family trees with great-grandmothers who bore children at age 7 or 70 and ancestors whose occupation was a lawyer in 1860, a bricklayer in 1870, and a farmer in 1880. Why think for yourself when you can click and accept what the computer suggests or hints?
Likewise, most forms of social media provide easy and equal access to factual information and blatant propaganda. Since propagandists are likelier to target and attract lazy thinkers, these purportedly “neutral” social media sites reinforce lazy thinking and transmute blatant lies into truth. Advances in artificial intelligence have allowed and will continue to allow propaganda to become even more effective.
Fanatical Extremists Seek to Control Minds
When someone has the temerity to criticize the actions of a fanatical extremist, the extremist will typically scream something like, “The woke are trying to cancel my culture!” Yet, fanatical extremists’ underlying duplicity, dishonesty, and anti-democratic DNA are revealed when they seek to ban books and ideas. There are countless other domains in which extremists seek to dominate, but banning books is a simple and obvious example of their cynical duplicity and overreach.
A 100-year-old Florida woman named Grace Linn recently said the following at a meeting of the Martin County School Board in response to actions contemplated by Florida’s fanatical Right:
“Banning books and burning books are the same thing. Both are done for the same reason…the fear of knowledge. Fear is not freedom. Fear is not liberty. Fear is control.”
Examples of the Mental Gymnastics of Fanatical Extremists
Extreme rhetoric and never-ending gaslighting cause “normal” people to think things like 2 + 2 = 3 and that the world will end on a specific date, so they must drink some orange Kool-Aid.
There is no need to give a full psychological explanation of the logic of extremism. Even “normal” people have a good sense of extremist logic, whether they admit it or not. Extremist thinking can not only ruin families, cities, and societies, but it can also get everyone killed.
To cite a few examples of the mental gymnastics of fanatical extremists:
- After the 2020 election, a majority of Republican members of the House of Representatives voted to overturn the results of the presidential election but simultaneously accepted the voting results of their own elections. They believe in democracy when it favors them but seek to destroy it when it doesn’t. This is not only anti-democratic but cowardly and duplicitous.
- The United Nations has witnessed some bizarre extremist logic by these world leaders (Nikita Khrushchev, Idi Amin, and Hugo Chavez.)
- Thousands of white plantation owners, including one or more US Presidents, had children with their female slaves. On the eve of the Civil War, plantation owners said that THEIR slaves were better off as enslaved people than as free Americans. Even though most plantation owners’ wealth was in human bondage, Southern propagandists then and now say the Civil War was mainly fought and lost over “State’s Rights.”
- Extremists from the Left, like Noam Chomsky, have supported and apologized for a bizarre collection of dictators, including the Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and Vladimir Putin via numerous appearances on Russian television. Extreme left-libertarians like, Эдвард Сноуден (the Russian spelling for Edward Snowden) decided that Putin’s dictatorship is preferable to America’s democracy.
- Extremists from the progressive Left and conservative religious Right joined forces to enact the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, which banned the manufacture, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. They believed they were saving America. Oops…how did that work out? The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment in 1933.
- Fanatical hawks in the George W. Bush cabinet convinced everyone that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in an exercise of mass deception.
- Both the extreme left and right have used a bizarre theory of human behavior called the Reptilian Conspiracy Theory which says that alien lizard people take human form to manipulate human societies. All but a small number of people understand this theory to be a joke or metaphor. However, like the Pizzagate episode, some fanatics believe such bizarre ideas to be true and act on them. QAnon is the latest supporter of the lizard people theory, but I have personally heard extreme leftists use the same ideology to explain why wealthy elites dominate American society.
While the extreme left and right can be dangerously fanatical, the extreme Right pole is objectively and currently more fanatical and active.