How Acknowledging Even the Most Dangerous of Ideas Actually Helps
On the Overton window and the value of talking about extremist beliefs in times of crisis
I often write about topics that make my blood boil.
That includes issues like the rise of extremist ideologies and movements, particularly of the online and red-pilled kind.
In other words, the sort of things that probably reassure some people in the belief that if aliens were ever to launch a full-scale invasion of our planet, it’s best just to surrender and hope that whatever they’ll come up with is better than this.
But every now and then, I get asked: what’s the point in talking about the most vile beliefs out there?
After all, so much of what we see lately — including on mainstream social media platforms — is essentially clickbait-style extremism.
From anti-feminists like Pearl Davis, who claims ‘women shouldn’t have the right to vote’ to ‘incel influencers’ like Sneako, who recently publicly called for ‘death to gays,’ there’s no shortage of money and fame-hungry people armed with microphones and an array of misogynistic, homophobic, racist and otherwise hateful ideas.
