Extremism

"Extremism" is an enemy image used to designate ideas which the speaker perceives as threatening or otherwise unwelcome, for example if the commercially-controlled media are describing any economic value sets other that neoliberalism. The phrase has a tenuous meaning in law, but is being used as a replacement for the more old-fashioned word "terrorism".

"Extremism" File:Glossary.png link (plastic word, enemy image, polarising perspective)
File:Extremism.jpg
"Extremism" is used as a more modern replacement for "terrorism", one that is used to facilitate the criminalisation of ideas as well as just actions. It polarises the world into the normal ("mainstream") and the abnormal, unhealthy ("extreme").

Easily confused with "counter-extremism".

"Extremism" is an enemy image to denigrate ideas unwelcome to the speaker. The establishment uses the word with negative overtones (often implying a connection with "violent extremism", a.k.a. "terrorism"). Commercially-controlled media regularly use it to refer to a wide variety of alternatives to neoliberalism.

Official narrative

The Western commercially-controlled media often use the word "extremism" is conjunction with "religious", particularly "Islamic" - (i.e. "Islamic extremism"), sometimes in the compound "domestic extremism", but rarely in conjunction with other religions. The word is a flexible one which lacks much of a proper definition. It is pejorative and exonymic - i.e. people use it to put down other people, and never apply it to themselves.

Denial by UK Police

The Canary reported in 2018 that {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Extremism |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=|+sep=, |Has text=“Despite widespread evidence to the contrary, including a PREVENT training presentation from the police describing anti-fracking protesters as extremists, the police argued in court that anti-fracking protesters were not viewed in this way.” |Is about=Extremism,tracking,extremism, UK/Police|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate= |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL=https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2018/06/11/a-civil-liberties-group-just-won-a-huge-legal-victory-over-five-police-forces-and-the-home-office/ }}“Despite widespread evidence to the contrary, including a PREVENT training presentation from the police describing anti-fracking protesters as extremists, the police argued in court that anti-fracking protesters were not viewed in this way.”

Definition

As is common for enemy images, "extremism" is a plastic word - i.e. has lacked a clear and consistent definition. In 2014, the UK government defined extremism as "vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs".

By 2018, the definition given at the website for the Commission for Countering Extremism added another sentence: "We also regard calls for the death of members of our armed forces as extremist."

Sociology professor David Miller has suggested that corporate media appear to be stoking fear of Islam by very disproportionate reporting of "Islamic extremists". This is does as a component of the "war on terror" narrative used to facilitate the changing of laws purportedly intended to fight "terrorism". Once passed, the lack of a legal definition of "extremism" or "terrorism" means that they are routinely used to facilitate social control such as mass surveillance of entire populations. An "extremist" becomes anyone who expresses dissenting opinions to that which the nation state promotes.

File:Extremism trends.png

Google trends indicates a spike in usage of the word in April 2009

In practice

The lack of a proper definition have allowed different agencies within the UK government to use the word "extremism" in contradictory ways. The purported 'research' into counter-extremism is so unempirical and vague as to not really merit that term. Nafeez Ahmed has referred to it as "astonishingly crap". Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan police commissioner promised when the Met's "anti-extremism unit" was set up that it would target serious criminals rather than peaceful protesters, but it has been used against senior UK Green party members Caroline Lucas and Sian Berry.

Origins

The word "extremism" was first used in the UK parliament in 1919 about miners.

Violent overtones

Full articles: Violent extremism, Non-violent extremism

The label "extremism" is use to try to promote fear event of peaceful protest ("non-violent extremism"), enabling a more modern, somewhat subtler form of lèse-majesté. Such ideas form the core of the public pretext used by the Internet censorship projects being carried out by the deep state.

The LSE blog asked in 2011 {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Extremism |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=admin|+sep=, |Has text=“Should these extremist views be allow [sic.] in society with the risk they could incite some to violence?” |Is about=Extremism,radicalisation, free speech, extremism|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=2011-04-09 |Sourced from=LSE Blog |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=LSE Blog |Has sourceURL=http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/waronterror/2011/04/19/freedom-of-speech-extremism-terrorism/ }}“Should these extremist views be allow [sic.] in society with the risk they could incite some to violence?”

In 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee today the House and Senate intelligence committees were preparing plans to counter “extremist content and Russian disinformation online.” Julian King, European Commissioner for the Security Union, announced that corporations must remove "extremist" material from the internet within hours, if its uploading could not be prevented altogether.

The phrase "violent extremism" is an increasingly common phrase which appears to be used as a replacement for the word "terrorism", which also is problematic as regards definition. Although the label "extremism" is associated with violence, some governments have used the phrase "non-violent extremism" when drafting legislation. Alex Schmid of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism argued that {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Extremism |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Alex Schmid|+sep=, |Has text=“the distinction between “non-violent extremism” and “violent extremism” is not a valid one.” |Is about=Extremism,Islamist terrorism, non-violent extremism, violent extremism|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=May 2014 |Sourced from=International Centre for Counter-Terrorism |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=International Centre for Counter-Terrorism |Has sourceURL=https://www.icct.nl/download/file/ICCT-Schmid-Violent-Non-Violent-Extremism-May-2014.pdf }}“the distinction between “non-violent extremism” and “violent extremism” is not a valid one.”

In schools

The FBI has been borrowing from the UK's PREVENT programme, encouraging high schools to report anyone who criticises government policy as potential future "terrorists", warning that “anarchist extremists” are in the same category as ISIS.

Political spectrum

Full article: Political spectrum

File:Polarising political spectrum.jpg

A graphic from commercially-controlled media which illustrates that the political center is occupied by corporate media. This suggests that the more a groups diverges from this opinion, the more inaccurate and mendacious is its reporting.

The notion of "extremism" is used in conjunction with the metaphor of the political spectrum to create two enemy images - "extreme left" and "extreme right". The metaphor casts these two as opposite, so it is testimony to its inherent oversimplification that many of these groups often have so much in common that people may not agree on what which is which.

By nation state

China

China used the meme of "extremism" in 2017 to sharpen social control measures in the majority Moslem province of Xinjiang. These measures have seen many people interned in "re-education" camps, and restricted dress, cultural life, banned "abnormal beards" etc. These were claimed to be measures to fight "extremism".

France

In 2016 the mayor of Cannes banned full-body swimsuits known as "burkinis" from the beach, stating that they are a "symbol of Islamic extremism".

Russia

In 2019 Russia was jailing Jehovah's witnesses under laws about "extremism".

United Kingdom

In September 2021, Sky News reported that extremism, racism, homophobia and conspiracy theories are flourishing in British schools due to a lack of internet censorship. Conspiracies about 9/11, immigration, Bill Gates and COVID-19 are the most common. The website, Educate Against Hate, is promoted by the Department of Education

References