I think there’s value in distinguishing between extremists and people searching for easy answers. For example, I could certainly find you a few very moderate Democrats who nonetheless believe in massive conspiracies against their own ideology. We notice it most with extremists, in part because if you’re gonna believe in conspiracies, chances are you’re gonna believe in radical solutions to them, but the essential problem is that people want to know that there’s a core problem at the heart of the world, and that it can be solved, in some form or fashion.
Unfortunately, the world is infinitely complex, and most issues have many inputs, and all solutions have costs. Not equal inputs or equal costs, but still. But that’s less comforting - that suggests you can do everything right, and still fail. Who wants to think that? So instead, they turn to conspiracy - of COURSE it would work, if only you got rid of the Kulaks/Jews/Liberals/Poors.
This sounds like how antisemites talk about George Soros, talking about an otherwise irrelevant figure like he’s in control of world politics.
All extremists are the same from my experiences with them.
I think there’s value in distinguishing between extremists and people searching for easy answers. For example, I could certainly find you a few very moderate Democrats who nonetheless believe in massive conspiracies against their own ideology. We notice it most with extremists, in part because if you’re gonna believe in conspiracies, chances are you’re gonna believe in radical solutions to them, but the essential problem is that people want to know that there’s a core problem at the heart of the world, and that it can be solved, in some form or fashion.
Unfortunately, the world is infinitely complex, and most issues have many inputs, and all solutions have costs. Not equal inputs or equal costs, but still. But that’s less comforting - that suggests you can do everything right, and still fail. Who wants to think that? So instead, they turn to conspiracy - of COURSE it would work, if only you got rid of the Kulaks/Jews/Liberals/Poors.