2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: A Bernie win in California will still be historic [View all]anigbrowl
(13,889 posts)This post should be read over and over and over because there is considerable wisdom here. Radicalism in ideas is a great thing, without it we'd never make any progress. But most radicals are not as smart as they think they are, stubborn to the point of being impossible to work with, and take it personally whenever anyone points out a flaw in their arguments. My experience is that when radicals get upset with someone and make the disagreement personal, they tend to engage in exactly the same sort of authoritarian pressure tactics they make a show of being against. I have in-laws who were confined in re-education camps in communist countries because the local political officers just couldn't deal with the possibility that someone might disagree with them.
I've grown to dislike radicals for the same reason that I dislike every other kind of coercive authoritarian. Most radicals I meet just want to keep the same sort of power structure but put themselves at the apex of it.