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zoom_zip wrote

my friends and family think my anarchist views are "extremist"

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ziq OP wrote

I think it's pretty extreme of them to think their society's greed / cruelty / exploitation / institutional racism / genocide / slavery is unextreme.

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zoom_zip wrote

normalised extremism. the world is backwards.

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adi wrote

Came here to say this.

I haven't read the study itself, but the article's presentation of it raises a lot of issues. How did they define "extremism"?

Also, I feel like there's more than a little irony in their presentation of the study as basically "extremists are stupid, they rely on extremism to simplify the world", and going on to say science may be able to identify extremists based on these results, essentially simplifying the complexities of extremism and dogmatic followers, and how people get to that point.

Plus, I'm veryvery not interested in pathologizing those deemed "extreme", which this seems like a step towards.

4/10. Would not participate in study.

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naut wrote

To summarize in from my own reading of the paper, the researchers essentially draw a correlation between more conservative and dogmatic modes of thought to the participants' ideologies (both tested and self-reported).

The paper doesn't straight up say "extremists are stupid," I think that bias is present more in the interview/article. I agree that we shouldn't use this as a pathological indicator, I see it more as a "here are the underlying processes that can lead to more extremist or dogmatic thought, let's dig deeper." My hope would be that further study would lead people to better understanding how different the lenses through which we see the world can be (being optimistic).

Thanks for your perspective, brains are weird.

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videl wrote

let them know they're the real extremists for believing in extreme concentrations of wealth, power, and control.

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naut wrote

From the research paper (pdf):

Dogmatic participants were slower to accumulate evidence in speeded decision-making tasks but were also more impulsive and willing to take ethical risks.

Political conservatism was best explained by reduced strategic information processing, heightened response caution in perceptual decision-making paradigms, and an aversion to social risk-taking.

Good to know the world is stuck in a death spiral because people aren't mentally able to admit everything is getting worse. I'm curious to know how the amount of information available relates to conservative/dogmatic pyschologies. We're immersed in a maelstrom of data every day, how quickly can the human brain adapt to constant sensory overload?

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videl wrote (edited )

what I've learned from this is that "extremist" is a shit word.

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Hopium wrote

Thanks for posting this, very intersting.

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MHC wrote

With Yank kids taught physics by Liberal artists, that country is technologically fucked!

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