Extremism in the USA

This is a piece written by Christina I of Cycoldia about the growth of extremism in the United States of America in November 2019.

Article

As the year comes to a close I would like to highlight the recent focus on extremism on both sides, so this paper discussing the extremism of the United States of America is going to be divided, into right wing statism, right wing libertarianism, left wing statism, and left wing libertarianism. The reason that centrism is not listed here is because centrism itself cannot be extreme, unless it goes to a specific wing.

Right Wing Statism

The right wing has become extremely more statist, in which especially the Republican Party of the United States has become a more statist party, although they pass themselves as simply a right-wing party. The right wing has mainly gone to statism with organisations. There is also a large internet presence of right wing statism, in which most of them are against minorities using the current administration of the USA (Congressmen, Congresswomen, and the President mainly) to try to say that they support their cause. This causes a large rift making it almost impossible to reach across the aisle without having an almost useless bill to propose or an idea that has such a lack of an affect that it might as well just not have been said. The people that are representing any pro-government right wing group is currently an extreme representation of it. This causes a higher sense of conformity, while most of the people being represented are not as extreme as the people representing them. This causes the assumption that all people who are pro-government on the right are far right, or as they call themselves the “Alt-Right”. This causes all people who support the right to be assumed as the Alt-Right, even if they are libertarian and not supportive of a government, such as an anarcho-capitalist or an “AnCap”.

Right Wing Libertarianism

The libertarian right has become much more than simply a group that wants to support more freedoms, it has become an anti-government anarcho-capitalist hub for the want to dissolve a governmental system. It has gone from being supportive of freedom to being against even the idea of a government having any operation. To quote one person who claims to be an anarcho-capitalist, “Government should be optional, we shouldn’t have to participate”. The government of the United States has been protecting their people for over 200 years and has had freedom for all for 154 years (Counting from 2019). This wing of the right has also become much more online in the recent time, although they blend in with the right-wing statist community online, as per their support for many of the people in power in the Republican Party and the people who mainly lead the community online. They also seem to be very against the left wing in all ways, seeming to mock members across the aisle for their ideas, such as using the term “Snowflake” or by using “Liberal” in an offensive or insulting term. Most members of the right-wing libertarian ideology or anarcho-capitalists claim that they are pressured by their peers of different ideologies to not be a member of the right-wing libertarian group or the anarcho-capitalist ideologies.

Left Wing Statism

The left wing has also gotten much more statist, as an example we can use the Democratic Party of the United States of America, which has become much more for the government taking over different sectors of the economy, and even some industries. This has caused many people to be prejudice against members of the left-wing as a whole, as the left-wing statist community has tended to dominate the political sphere of the left wing. The left-wing statist community has some presence online, but the main people online are the most extreme parts of the group, making the entire group seem to be socialist or communist, which has become a stereotype among the group. Causing the majority of the people, who are much more moderate, to be assumed to be like the more popular counterparts that are online. Another thing that is very assumed to the left-wing statist side of the political spectrum is feminism, more specifically third wave feminism, extremist feminist, or female supremacism. This causes the left and the right to be unable to reach across the aisle because of this. Most of the leftist statists make people who support female supremacy look like a hero, this is a horrible and maybe fatal mistake as it causes people to have the wrong perception of the left, as it causes them to believe that the few people who are extreme represent the entire left wing.

Left Wing Libertarianism

The left-wing libertarian wing of the political compass is mainly comprised by anarchists by now, as both speakers and the subjects. This wing of ideology is also quite weak online, mainly because of the lack of membership in it in the first place. This also is caused by the lack of support by any major person or government.

Summary

In summation this is an extreme issue for the United States of America, having political extremism causes it to be almost impossible to reach across the aisle to our fellow people, it makes people of each political ideology become hostile and makes them come to hate people who have different political philosophies, without ever knowing about the person internally. This is a major issue facing the USA, and it should become one thing we are willing to look past our ideals to gain bipartisan support for all our people here. We should look at each other not as Democrats, Republicans, Anarchists, or Statists, but as Americans.