Why Do People Go To The Far Left And Far Right?

[Space Cooter]

Because people are dumb. They're dumb enough to believe in gods and religion. Dumb enough to believe in easy answer politics systems.

People are dumb.

 

[PaleTay]

Because the center and center-right are weak and spineless, they won't even criticize teachers who groom children.

Left is literally too much TV and university courses, they aren't even internally consistent.

 

[incelistan]

There are obnoxious people on both sides, and also obnoxious 'centrists' or 'moderates.' It's a bit like 'gamer' or 'nerds,' once something becomes a socially acknowledged identity grifters and retards flock to it. In general, 'moderates' or apathetic people could be somewhat normal, but communities of 'moderates' or 'enlightened centrists' are often as terrible as most 'extremists.'

 

[The Curmudgeon]

Personally, I think it's multiple reasons: Belonging. Validation. Spite. Vengence. Disillusionment. Self-preservation.

Just normal human urges and feelings, but with the advantage of having an ideology to provide you with easy go-to excuses.

 

[xX_JizzJennings_Xx]

Been thinking about this for a while, even today.

After many years of exploring and vaguely participating in the fringes of both sides on forums and shit, there's a common thread that only gets more and more accurate. It's even been the subject of memes, but I'm not gonna share a meme now bc memes are gay.

The most vocal of progressives, online lefties, extreme LGBT stuff, etc, all had bad relationships with their dads. The most devout far right people and traditionalists had bad relationships with their moms.

I'm not trying to sound like a family values conservative or some shit, but this has been true of almost every person on both sides' extremes I've talked to for long enough for family to come up. Hell, recently I was reading the old Weev ama thread here, and at one point he explicitly mentions hating his mom. As for the left, hating their dads is so fucking obvious it's a joke that existed before the internet was a thing.

I think there's some complicated psychodynamics involved in this that we can only speculate on. Maybe it's that having a broken relationship with one parent creates a void in a person's sense of self related to that sex, and it's too painful to face so the person runs from their feelings in the opposite direction, eg, your dad being shit means you unconsciously crave old-school masculine values, because you didn't get them as a kid to create a balanced identity, but you also associate them with bad dad, so you run to old-school feminine values. Something to that effect, idk. All I know is, I've seen this countless times on both sides

 

[George Floyd Sneed]

That all depends on your definition of what far left and far right is. Right now the far right is anyone to the right of Bari Weiss and often consists of opinions that were the consensus of Democrats (aka the real racists) ten years ago.

At this point the most insufferable people politically are big brained centrists who get their opinions from the seasons they liked in South Park and then smuckle about how the only way to win is not to play, horseshoe theory, and some other retarded bullshit.

 

[Dyn]

How else do you expect to throw a brick into the back of somebody's head for no reason and then still feel like you're a good person afterwards.

 

[Sergeant Major Buzzkill]

How else do you expect to throw a brick into the back of somebody's head for no reason and then still feel like you're a good person afterwards.

Asking the real questions here

 

[Mr Zhukov]

Been thinking about this for a while, even today.

After many years of exploring and vaguely participating in the fringes of both sides on forums and shit, there's a common thread that only gets more and more accurate. It's even been the subject of memes, but I'm not gonna share a meme now bc memes are gay.

The most vocal of progressives, online lefties, extreme LGBT stuff, etc, all had bad relationships with their dads. The most devout far right people and traditionalists had bad relationships with their moms.

I'm not trying to sound like a family values conservative or some shit, but this has been true of almost every person on both sides' extremes I've talked to for long enough for family to come up. Hell, recently I was reading the old Weev ama thread here, and at one point he explicitly mentions hating his mom. As for the left, hating their dads is so fucking obvious it's a joke that existed before the internet was a thing.

I think there's some complicated psychodynamics involved in this that we can only speculate on. Maybe it's that having a broken relationship with one parent creates a void in a person's sense of self related to that sex, and it's too painful to face so the person runs from their feelings in the opposite direction, eg, your dad being shit means you unconsciously crave old-school masculine values, because you didn't get them as a kid to create a balanced identity, but you also associate them with bad dad, so you run to old-school feminine values. Something to that effect, idk. All I know is, I've seen this countless times on both sides

I think you have a point there.
Dads are often no nonsense and are rough and tumble.
"Mothers love" is well "mothers love"
This is why a close family is better than a broken one.

If a young man has a hatred for their mother, it only means they get the rough and tumble teachings from their father. Mothers try and instill kindness in their kids but if the kid outright refuses it, how do you expect they'll turn out?

 

[Schinna]

The amount of reductionist retards who ask and answer this question never fails to amaze me.
"Uhhm sweaty ur alt right bc ur insecure in ur masculinity honey"
"You're just a communist because you hate your dad"
This completely glosses over any bit of nuance regarding how people formed their opinions. Certainly, there can be factors that push or pull someone towards a political leaning, but to stratify this as the sole or main reason that an entire section of the political spectrum believe what they do is retarded; any arguments, evidence or logic that they may have used to come to their positions is disregarded in favor of pigeonholing them into a list of cause-and-effect scenarios, E.g. "you are racist because of a bad encounter with a black person as a child." This isn't to say that no one chooses an extreme political leaning over stupidly simple reasoning, but to degenerate the opinions of so many people to such thoughtless reasoning tells me that anyone who does this is dumber than the people they apply this to.

 

[b0x]

 

[Linkola's IT Guy]

People in general have a desire to be part of something bigger than themselves, a movement, whether political, religious, or otherwise. We have become more and more isolated from typical forms of community, but still have that need for belonging. Extremist groups tend to more close-knit and to have a stronger sense of identity than moderate politics. I think people start off with beliefs that lean slightly one way and then gradually become more extreme as they adopt their group's values to remain a part of it. Combine this with wanting to rebel against a society that they feel has failed them.

I think this theory applies to the "real" far-left and far-right (i.e. comminists/anarchists and nazis/fascists). For the most part I think they genuinely hold their beliefs even if they haven't thought them through very much. For the hyper-woke "SJW" type that OP described, there is a much simpler explanation: personal gain. The woke stuff is everywhere culturally, and adopting it allows them to both avoid confrontation and to more easily advance their career or to make money through a woke-related grift. The vast majority of people don't really care that much about politics and just adopt whatever they see around them the most.

 

[feedtheoctopus]

ITT: An aging anarchist powerlevels about why he never got laid in college

I was an angry kid. Took awhile for me to realize that. You think "angry" and you imagine somebody smashing in car windows or screaming at a barista about immigrants ruining their latte. No, it's much more depressing and boring. I just saw a lot of terrible things in the world and I was mad at people for letting them get this bad. Still am, if we're being honest. I felt alienated from people, my family had a lot of problems that were beyond anybody's control, and I saw suffering everywhere. There was a guy in my hometown I used to see who had his face melted off by an IED in Iraq. He just had to live like that now, that was what everything his culture valued lead him to. That's all you get out of "serving your country", and you were never even told the actual reason.

None of this was helped by the fact that according to most people I was a smart kid. An eleven year old who's favorite TV show is Christiane Amanpour is probably never going to be well adjusted. There is absolutely a thing as being too precocious for your own good and reading way, way, too much. Because your own problems get filtered through the ideas of others. Everyone does this, but nerdy kids who are in the early stages of PTSD and clinical depression especially. Whenever people look for "answers" what they're actually looking for is a solution to something that can't be solved. You think if you can create a better world, a kinder one, one where people took care of each other, then all of that pain and fear will go away, that you won't have to suffer the things that come naturally with being alive in a human body. Politics stops being about trying to hold a chaotic civilization together and starts becoming about providing some sort of personal epiphany for yourself. You're not really thinking about society even if you're talking about it. Because, again, I was an angry kid. And I had nothing to do with that anger.

As I've gotten older I wouldn't say my beliefs have changed on any fundamental way. I still don't like wall street or your average political party. But I try to remind myself that I'm not going to save the world no matter how much emotional energy I devote to that. And even if I did, no government or revolution or movement can fix being a person. There's a line from a Pat The Bunny song (as if I wasn't enough of a stereotype) that goes "I understand my heat bills, but I still don't pay them". In context he meant that all the political rhetoric in the world isn't a replacement for learning how to live an ordinary life. And that's really all I'm trying to do anymore.


TLDR

 

[Stoneheart]

From the Tao Te Ching: The generals have a saying: "Rather than make the first move it is better to wait and see. Rather than advance an inch it is better to retreat a yard."

why are people listening to chinese generals? Chinese are not known for beeing good at war, their go to tactic for 3000 years always was sending in wave after wave of badly trained farmers.

 

[Linkola's IT Guy]

As I've gotten older I wouldn't say my beliefs have changed on any fundamental way. I still don't like wall street or your average political party. But I try to remind myself that I'm not going to save the world no matter how much emotional energy I devote to that. And even if I did, no government or revolution or movement can fix being a person. ... all the political rhetoric in the world isn't a replacement for learning how to live an ordinary life. And that's really all I'm trying to do anymore.

I followed a similar pathway. I was a "bright kid" who got sucked into this stuff as a way to find meaning in my life and explain all the problems I saw in the world. I became so angry/hateful and unable to relate to normal people. While my views have moderated somewhat, I think what really changed me for the better is that I stopped caring. Nobody is coming to save us, and there is nobody worth fighting for except your own family, friends, and community. I just try to live a fulfilling life and be a good person to the extent I can. I believe that leftists nowadays call this idea the "grillpill".

 

[Unyielding Stupidity]

People are arguably becoming more extreme because the current centrist opinion for politics is the neoliberal system we're currently living under, which pleases absolutely no-one bar the tiny minority of wealthy individuals at the top. When this is your default position, people are naturally going to begin to take interest in more fringe movements that are not only different from this current order, but actively hostile towards it.

 

[YourFriendlyLurker]

Because it's easier. It does not require from you to think about each complex problem, listen to various opinions, dive into sources and finally work out your own attitude, which eventually even may change with time. People are lazy when it comes to thinking.

 

[Caustic Gelatin]

I laughed at a racist joke once. That means I'm automatically member of the far-right.

 

[Mothra1988]

Why do people still think Richard Spencer and Nick Fuentes are not government agents/assets?

 

[Pomniman]

Because they're bored, really.