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

[ToroidalBoat]

Evil wants people divided and conquered?

 

[Faket0Fake]

Extreme ideologies tend to create problems and blame the problem on a bogeyman they can demonize and then present what seem like very simple solutions to solving the problem. People who follow these ideologies feel miserable and want somebody to blame for all their problems instead of solving their own issues themselves, picking up these beliefs provides them with somebody to blame and an enemy to fight. It often also provides them with the companionship of people who believe in/fight for the same cause. People who become extremists tend to be weak minded and easily led because having to think for themselves and solve problems scares them.

If you really look into what these people believe it all falls apart in easily disproven lies but an extremist is so brainwashed by that point to be an obedient robot that it's impossible to show them where the lies start. Their ideologies paint each other as the bad guy but are actually the exact same thing. They both focus on unity through a common cause of defeating an unseen bogeyman, either through class divisions that creates haves and have nots or through nationality/racial identity with another race or multiple other races presented as the cause of problems in the country.

 

[The Ugly One]

The people I've known on the far left have all been mentally unhealthy types with broken social relationships that blame society for not creating a utopia where they aren't miserable and are only able to find a sense of meaning by becoming zealous moral crusaders for a political cult. The far right people I know are...and I'm using "far right" in a very strict sense of "the nuttiest 0.01%," not, "everyone who thinks kids should be allowed to play at recess and see human faces"...typically the same.

 

[feedtheoctopus]

The people I've known on the far left have all been mentally unhealthy types with broken social relationships that blame society for not creating a utopia where they aren't miserable and are only able to find a sense of meaning by becoming zealous moral crusaders for a political cult. The far right people I know are...and I'm using "far right" in a very strict sense of "the nuttiest 0.01%," not, "everyone who thinks kids should be allowed to play at recess and see human faces"...typically the same.

Whenever I type this people get mad because they want their prejudices to be right but it's true anyway, on an interpersonal level most socialists I've met are extremely nice, generous, people. In the US we're not talking about the Bolsheviks, these are usually dorky college kids or or 30 something moms who have kids with weird names you never heard of. And you can give socialism, love it or hate it in practice, this much: it teaches that people are fundamentally good and worthy of a life to match. Where these people get pissy and screetchy is when they realize a lot of people aren't fundamentally anything but stupid. When reality comes into conflict with ideals, that's when the claws comeout and you get the cringeposts on twitter. If anything that's my biggest gripe with socialism as it exists in America: they're so nice it eats itself and becomes mean.

Basically this happens

 

[Shpongoolio Trismegistus]

Political alignment is mostly a function of temperament. Conservatives, for example, tend to be lower in trait openness (the personality dimension that dictates the subjective attractiveness of novel ideas) and left leaning types tend to be far higher. It's (political alignment) also a function of intelligence. There's actually an exceptionally large literature on this topic. I suggest researching the psychometric literature on political temperament in particular.

One way to think about this is that if you're about average intelligence or below it's not a very good idea for you to play around with conceptual categories, ideas, or systems (social or psychological) that you're not cognitive equipped to handle. It's best that you look around your social environment, observe what others are doing, and then do that in so far as its working for those doing it. This has serious drawbacks as a genetic strategy, however, if your social or economic environment changes rapidly as it sometimes does.

Whereas if you are high, or extremely high, in either trait openness or intelligence then the more complex the social environment you're enmeshed within the greater your psycho-social advantage over less open or less open/intelligent coworkers/competitors as you can more adequately handle a larger cognitive load. This, however, also has serious drawbacks as a genetic strategy if you inadvertently find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of the ideas and systems you're playing around with. It's a lot easier to go nuts if you're open to new experiences and ideas.

This is not to say that this is a law, merely a tendency or pattern. Indeed, what we tend to personally classify as conservative or left leaning in the behaviors of others is often quite muddied as a consequence of the innumerable unconscious psychological factors at play. When you look closely at the data on this topic, it can be quite striking just how classically "conservative" most modern leftists actually are in their personality profiles. There's a lot going on here, and it's going to need many more years of research to clarify.

 

[Cilleystring]

You're right about the left that they only care about current social issues that give them clout, but another major factor (as Dyn touched on earlier) is that the far left provides people with an excuse to be aggressive and violent without guilt. In fact, far leftist ideology rewards them for being bullies and causing harm to people. I think this is a big driving point of far leftist ideology, and might explain why so many have them have violent pasts prior to the sjw movement and why their ideologies come from a place of hate. The virtue signalling/social clout of defending "minorities who are too weak or stupid to defend themselves" is a shield that allows them to keep harassing, on top of making them feel righteous.

Far right I can't speak too much on bc fortunately I haven't encountered too many irl aside from a couple kids who gave off school shooter vibes in highschool. Probably a similar thing to what I described above and what you said in your OP.

 

[mr.moon1488]

Part of it has to do with the political center being absolute garbage, and full of people who will do anything for shekels.

 

[888Flux]

"Far left" and "Far right" are stupid terms to begin with. I doubt most people are even familiar with where they came from. People don't have an "ideology", they have a worldview.

 

[Duke Nukem]

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.

Honestly, it's easy to post "ism is bad, plz upvote" on social media and get lots of validation from random strangers than it is to understand why people turn to "ism" in the first place. It's the grown up equivalent of cheering for the hero in some shitty Saturday morning cartoon, something which millennials probably haven't really grown out of quite yet.

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".

Commie bullshit on one hand, Nazi bullshit on the other.

That right there is exactly why a two party system will never work.

The people I've known on the far left have all been mentally unhealthy types with broken social relationships that blame society for not creating a utopia where they aren't miserable and are only able to find a sense of meaning by becoming zealous moral crusaders for a political cult. The far right people I know are...and I'm using "far right" in a very strict sense of "the nuttiest 0.01%," not, "everyone who thinks kids should be allowed to play at recess and see human faces"...typically the same.

We seriously don't even have any actual "far right" people in America who aren't infiltrated to shit by glowing ones. The Bolsheviks set up fake resistance groups to root out anti-communist persons as well. Makes people like that easier to control in a way.

"Far left" and "Far right" are stupid terms to begin with. I doubt most people are even familiar with where they came from. People don't have an "ideology", they have a worldview.

There's only two kinds of people in politics, those who want to control others and those who do not.

And those who do want to control others, despite any other differences, have one common feature:

Faith in the state.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

People don't have an "ideology", they have a worldview.

That's one thing I've noticed academia and then SJWs doing: they're always projecting convoluted overthinking onto the average person, claiming the average person always has complex "nuanced" motives behind stuff they do. Especially made-up bullshit ones.

 

[Get Fisted]

Joke on you, I'll remain firmly on the side of who I agree with without becoming an anti-humanistic monster. Which I guess means the middle forever which means everyone acts like a fucking shart regardless of how you feel.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

The only thing worse than a regular lefty is a faggot lefty larping as a "centrist".

You basically just cried about the "toxic masculinity" of the right, and concluded that while the left is in it for clout, it gives people the chance to help the weak and then characterized it as "caring".

What a retard.

 

[Haint]

Because dumb people always have to be worried about what the other is doing. If people minded their own damn business we wouldnt have to choose sides all the time.

 

[RandomTwitterGuy]

The only thing worse than a regular lefty is a faggot lefty larping as a "centrist".

You basically just cried about the "toxic masculinity" of the right, and concluded that while the left is in it for clout, it gives people the chance to help the weak and then characterized it as "caring".

What a retard.

I aM nOt A PoLiTiSpErG!!!!!!!!!! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

 

[byuu]

and full of people who will do anything for shekels.

That's not an extremist position. I don't know anyone who doesn't consider most politicians to be corrupt, retarded, and full of shit.

 

[mr.moon1488]

That's not an extremist position. I don't know anyone who doesn't consider most politicians to be corrupt, retarded, and full of shit.

Part of it has to do with the political center being absolute garbage, and full of people who will do anything for shekels.

Wasn't saying this was an extremist position, was just pointing out that the political center is awful and naturally drives people away from it.

 

[Ser Prize]

Wasn't saying this was an extremist position, was just pointing out that the political center is awful and naturally drives people away from it.

What people don't seem to realize is that the political centre is malleable. The overton window has shifted so far left that what would have been considered common sense centrism fourty years ago is dangerous ultra right wing.

Centrism is just leftism going the speed limit. It's why neocons are jokes.

 

[Raw Onion Enjoyer]

The thing with the far-left and far-right is that to be far-left you just have to one-up a centrist, while to be far-right all you have to do is have the same views as you did few years ago (which were considered centrist at the time). As post above said, with the overton window going so far left, "centrism" is just far-leftism of yesterday.

While browsing youtube I often see the self-described "centrists" that are obvious lefties. Pro-trans, pro-censorship of "wrong ideas", pro-mask, pro-socialism, pro-"equality", pro-corporatism. You know the usual stuff. How is it centrism? OP reminds me of those youtubers, pretending to be impartial while going all out on one side and ignoring the destructive nature of other, the one that's also in power and can take everything from you including your freedom.

The original post seems to imply that far-left is nothing more than being "too good" and far-right is just about being insecure, misinformed about history, middle aged incels. The mask of a centrist slips.

The so called far-right are (or were) overwhelmingly "live and let live" types, normal people that are sick of being a target of genocidal, hateful rhetoric. They wake up and every facet of life tells them they're evil, their race is uniquely evil, that they should feel guilty and give away their wealth to people who openly want them dead. Schools? Against them. Media? Against them. Government? Against them. Banks? against them. Even the things they used to enjoy have been taken over to be explicitly anti-them. It's not enough to just be neutral, you have to be anti-them or you're supporting them. Their history is also being erased and they're the scapegoat of every bad thing that happens. Or is this all just insecurity about not being manly enough? Should they just accept it all and stop being backwards? Are they just some stereotypical dumb illiterate rednecks?

Far-leftism largely is ultra compliance to the system, useful idiots radicalized by social media echo chambers such as reddit, discord or twitter where you can openly spout genocidal rhetoric against the dissidents and get a dopamine rush from all the updoots and confirmation bias. Bootlickers that would change their views to opposite if that was the mainstream. Any little opposing opinion is immediately censored and outlawed to avoid the feeling of discomfort. They will defend the system to the death as they depend on it and to protect it, they will crush any little dissent.

Calling far-right radicalized by echo chambers is laughable, it's quite the opposite. Every little community they have is being shut down and censored and they need to use said leftie platforms. All while you can have open communists on front page of twitch or youtube (who are sponsored on top of that, while streaming from their million dollar mansions). There's a lot of fake fence sitting in this thread.

And to clarify: I am referring to average people, not few outlier tranny stalin supporters or few nazi larpers.