I take your point about blind adherence to dogma, but the Bolsheviks/communists were extremist, certainly by the reasonable criteria you refer to. Their good/bad dichotomy was working class vs. the borgeoisie/aristocracy. Nazism and Communism differed in subtle shades rather than huge contrasts, it was far-left propaganda that insisted the two were polar opposites and oddly this has become something of accepted truth ever since.targren said:Yes, it does. Don't confuse "radical" or "revolutionary" with "extremist," they're different things. Extremism requires a dogmatic dichotomy, ("Good vs. Bad," "Us vs. Them", etc...) and the complete devotion of one of the extremes (thus the word). Blind adherence to dogma or propaganda is an indicator of weak intelligence.Dusty Fred said:Extremism doesn't necessarily preclude intelligence. Leon Trotsky was a very clever man, to give the first example that springs to mind.
I'm not meaning to start a heated argument here, as I said you make a fair point, I just want to make sure I quash any notions that the far left was/is merely radical and revolutionary and only the far right goes all the way to extremism. Not that I'm accusing you of making that case. Just saying.