(07-23-2018, 11:50 PM)TJBender Wrote:

(07-23-2018, 12:39 PM)mikesez Wrote: The horseshoe theory is that any political views that is sufficiently different from the current political consensus is, functionally and in the short term, indistinguishable from any other extreme view.
This is because, in the short term, such extremists are focused on destroying the existing centers of power.  
Anyone  willing to resort to violence, like assassination, to change our political system can fall in this category.

Say what?

(07-23-2018, 12:54 PM)copycat Wrote: The Horse Shoe Theory from my understanding is that the further either side gets away from the center the more they resemble each other.  

This is the horseshoe theory I spent my entire educational experience learning about.

Right.  The simplified version you've heard is fine.  But it's one dimensional.  The simplification that it makes is that it assumes that a politician who is somewhat right leaning on one issue is somewhat right leaning on all issues.   But we know that real people aren't like that.  A real person might have an extremely right wing view about, say abortion, while having an extremely left wing view about marijuana or socialized medicine.  So my more complicated description accounts for this.  Political views don't just go right and left away from the center.  They can go out in any direction.  But once they get far enough away, the short term goals become the same: to take down the center.

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