Do you consider yourself to be extreme, politically?

Russell797 said:

I'm pretty mainstream considering the region of the country I was brought up and continue to live in. My standard education and love of science places me squarely in the norm of what I was expected to become. I prefer a balanced blend of capitalism and socialism according to which serves a given issue to greatest advantage. A pragmatic approach unhindered by ideology. A child of the 1950s and 60s, I grew up with expectations for a grand future driven by rapid technological development. The sky was the limit. We are getting there, more slowly than hoped, held back by troglodytes beholden to the past in a world demanding rapid change and adaptation.

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This made me chuckle. You're from Mass., so "mainstream" might be slanted just a tad. One could be mainstream in Berkeley (CA), for example, and a total whack job just a few miles away in Orinda.

Anyway, from what I have seen, you are generally liberal, but you're not whack-jobbishly to the extreme so.

But let's face it. Unless you state a definition of 'extremism', most will consider anybody really passionate about an unacceptable point of view to be extreme. Unacceptable to the judge of the moment I mean.

We could say that the pro life person, regardless of the nobility of his/her conviction, who says that abortion should never be the choice for ANY reason is extreme in his/her pro life position. At the other end of that spectrum, those who say that abortion should be fully legal even as the baby is emerging from the womb and that the unborn deserves no consideration of any kind are extreme in that position. The Second Amendment advocate who wants no restrictions on any weapons of any kind can be considered extreme in that point of view. Those who want it illegal for most people to have any form of firearm are extreme in that point of view.

People who would spike trees to prevent wood cutting are extreme. People who would protest military funerals of a gay person are extreme.

We can go right down the list issue by issue and see what is and is not extreme.

What is ridiculous, in my opinion, is to call the person who supports Social Security and Medicare in its present form an extremist. He/she isn't. That is pretty mainstream.

And to call the person who understands that Social Security and Medicare need to be structured differently if they are to serve future generations well are not extreme either. That is pretty mainstream too.

I wish we could all just have honest discussions and argue our best arguments to support our various points of view instead of the angry, hateful, insulting, and non productive name calling and characterizations that usually happens on these message boards. To disagree is not of itself a disqualifying character flaw in anybody. And it usually doesn't make a person extreme.

AlbqOwl said:

The problem is, those who say they aren't extremists will likely say at some point that humbolt should be locked up for threatening people. (Few extremists have much sense of humor.)

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Being conservative, I'm an extremist in the eyes of some. Rational liberals usually have an excellent sense of humor. As you say, extremists of any stripe rarely have any sense of humor. It's toward those that I directed that comment.

humbolt said:

Being conservative, I'm an extremist in the eyes of some. Rational liberals usually have an excellent sense of humor. As you say, extremists of any stripe rarely have any sense of humor. It's toward those that I directed that comment.

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I know that. You know that. But a lot of folks don't know that.

I think most non extremists, whether left or right of center politically and/or socially, can usually recognize exaggeration for effect and the incomplete thought and can usually appreciate the joke. But extremists almost never can.

humbolt said:

Being conservative, I'm an extremist in the eyes of some. Rational liberals usually have an excellent sense of humor. As you say, extremists of any stripe rarely have any sense of humor. It's toward those that I directed that comment.

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gotta admit, while our politics seldom dovetail, you obviously have a good sense of humor

I'm not sure.

I consider my views to not be extreme, because from where I sit, they just seem reasonable and logical. But others might consider them extreme.

Those views I've decided I actually have, at least.

no but some of my ideas might be seen as radical

Obejctively no, politically yes.
I disklike spin doctors, lobbyism, and blatant lying to the point that I find them unacceptable. That's pretty extreme politics nowadays.