Internet Extremism - the fine line between opinions and blind hatred.
There was always been extremist's from racism to political gain and everything in-between if there is a common perception of any form of idea, An extreme perception accompanies that.
The lines defining extremism are blurry at best.
Defined as ;
One who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm, especially in politics
This begs to ask what the norm is? Does it differ from society to society? From culture to culture?
How can something that is pure perceptional be definitively explained.
Internet based extremism however is generally limited to a few major categories; Racism, Religious, Political. (Roger 2007)
of which issue such as Anti-Abortion, staging government coups, Racial violence and other such topics can be openly and anonymously discussed on a global scale.
While these issue are not by any means new, the more recent availability of an internet based forum allows for a much broader and potentially impressionable audience to find and read content that may otherwise be confined to a small town organization or individual. (Roger 2007)
To examine internet extemism lets have a look at the current topic of euthnasia in europe.
Euthnasia is defined by most socities as an extreme solution to otherwise mangable issues, Howevever euthnasia has been illegal in most western socties until recently.
Following the lead of the netherlands many european countries have re-evaluted legalised euthnasia within their borders. While pro euthnasia supports may be considered extremist as sucidied is such a taboo topic. their is also much extremism opposing the change
for example
"Self-delusion is rampant in the euthanasia movement. Most proponents recognize that it is inherently dangerous to legalize killing. But they desperately want to believe that they can control the grim reaper. Thus, they continue to peddle the nonsense that "guidelines will protect against abuse" despite overwhelming empirical evidence to the contrary." - WESLEY J. SMITH
Personally i disagree with people like this as in my culture I was raised that life is a choice, while I can be objective when regarding these issues I think that the benefit of people ending their lives outweighs the potential abuse of people committing suicide due to depression as opposed to age or disability.
This french woman fought for the right to be euthanized, under medical supervision in the presence of her family. The french court decline and she was later found dead of a self induced drug overdose
BBC NEWS, Euthanasia: a continent divided 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7322520.stm
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