Escaping Extremism: Slap Fighting Our Way to a More Civil Society
06/05/24 • 66 min
The forces of media, technology, and even the wiring of our own brains seem aligned to draw people toward extremism. But never fear: Asher, Jason, and Rob unpack why we're so susceptible to wackadoodle viewpoints and offer ways to tamp down extremist thinking and behavior in ourselves, our communities, and across society. Along the way, they tour the worlds of extreme sports, extreme politics, and extreme yogurt. They even question their own decidedly non-mainstream views on the environment and the economy.
Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.
Sources/Links/Notes:
- Kevin Roose’s article in the New York Times “A QAnon ‘Digital Soldier’ Marches On, Undeterred by Theory’s Unraveling”Definition of extremism from the Anti-Defamation League
- Concepts of “malignant bonding” and “scarcity mind” in the article “Widening the ‘We’” by Colin Greer and Eric Laursen
- Zeynep Tufecki’s 2018 article in the New York Times “YouTube, the Great Radicalizer”
- Kari Paul’s 2021 article in the Guardian “‘It let white supremacists organize’: the toxic legacy of Facebook’s Groups”
- Peter D. Kvam et al., “Rational inference strategies and the genesis of polarization and extremism,” Nature, May 5, 2022.
- Statistics on rising levels of hate crime in the United States
- Statistics on domestic terrorism in the United States
- Statistics on antisemitism around the world
- Crazy Town episode 78, which includes the six questions Megan Phelps-Roper developed to challenge her entrenched beliefs.
- Rapoport’s Rules for constructive criticism
- Post Carbon Institute’s Deep Dive on Building Emotional Resilience
- Diane Benscoter’s nonprofit, Antidote.ngo, which runs recovery groups for people caught up in disinformation.
- Thought reform consultation
- Crazy Town episode 89 on escaping individualism, in which we discussed mutual aid networks
- Lawsuit to allow social media users to control their algorithms
- Ranked choice voting
The forces of media, technology, and even the wiring of our own brains seem aligned to draw people toward extremism. But never fear: Asher, Jason, and Rob unpack why we're so susceptible to wackadoodle viewpoints and offer ways to tamp down extremist thinking and behavior in ourselves, our communities, and across society. Along the way, they tour the worlds of extreme sports, extreme politics, and extreme yogurt. They even question their own decidedly non-mainstream views on the environment and the economy.
Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.
Sources/Links/Notes:
- Kevin Roose’s article in the New York Times “A QAnon ‘Digital Soldier’ Marches On, Undeterred by Theory’s Unraveling”Definition of extremism from the Anti-Defamation League
- Concepts of “malignant bonding” and “scarcity mind” in the article “Widening the ‘We’” by Colin Greer and Eric Laursen
- Zeynep Tufecki’s 2018 article in the New York Times “YouTube, the Great Radicalizer”
- Kari Paul’s 2021 article in the Guardian “‘It let white supremacists organize’: the toxic legacy of Facebook’s Groups”
- Peter D. Kvam et al., “Rational inference strategies and the genesis of polarization and extremism,” Nature, May 5, 2022.
- Statistics on rising levels of hate crime in the United States
- Statistics on domestic terrorism in the United States
- Statistics on antisemitism around the world
- Crazy Town episode 78, which includes the six questions Megan Phelps-Roper developed to challenge her entrenched beliefs.
- Rapoport’s Rules for constructive criticism
- Post Carbon Institute’s Deep Dive on Building Emotional Resilience
- Diane Benscoter’s nonprofit, Antidote.ngo, which runs recovery groups for people caught up in disinformation.
- Thought reform consultation
- Crazy Town episode 89 on escaping individualism, in which we discussed mutual aid networks
- Lawsuit to allow social media users to control their algorithms
- Ranked choice voting
Previous Episode
Escaping Humanocentrism: Why a Slime Mold Will Be President in 2028
The myth of human dominion and exceptionalism is as old as the Bible and as unquestioned as gravity, at least in "modern" society. Rob, Asher, and Jason explore the ways that humanocentrism has come to dominate the planet and our minds, while pointing to ancient and newly emerging ways that the more-than-human world is respected and protected, even the dung beetle.
Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.
Sources/Links/Notes:
- Eileen Crist defines (and critiques) anthropocentrism.
- Global biomass of wild mammals
- Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass.
- Decline of pollinators
- Decline of flying insect biomass
- Daniel Quinn’s book Ishmael
- Human Nature Odyssey podcast with Alex Leff
- Tom Murphy’s journey of understanding the pitfalls of human exceptionalism
- Two-thirds of the world’s longest rivers have been dammed.
- Declining wild bird populations in North America
- Ed Yong’s book An Immense World
- Yellowstone to Yukon conservation initiative
- Restor
- Douglas Tallamy’s book Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard
- Story of mining permit revocation in Panama
- Timeline of expansion of the rights of nature that was compiled by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
- Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
- Stop Ecocide International
- Crazy Town episode with Danielle Celermajer on multispecies justice
- Robin Wall-Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass
- Prominence of nature in the Tuvan language
- Holding the Fire episode with Anne Poelina
- Quote by Kenneth Brink of the Karuk Tribe
- Quote by Sammy Gensaw II
Next Episode
Escaping Otherism: Why Dr. Seuss Could Never Find a Rhyme for Genocide
The drive to belong to an in-group and the tendency to observe differences in others are core parts of the human condition. But differentiating can (and often does) turn deadly when it morphs into othering. Jason, Rob, and Asher try not to other one another as they explore the roots and consequences of othering, and the ins and outs of belonging as a key organizing principle of society.
Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.
Sources/Links/Notes:
- Wes Tank rapping Fox in Socks
- The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss
- Definition of othering from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights
- Stereotype Content Model
- Susceptibility to othering
- Othering and Belonging Institute
- Book by john a. powell and Stephen Menendian - Belonging Without Othering: How We Save Ourselves and the World
- Crazy Town episode 51 on colonization and the mindset of extraction
- Seeing White podcast
- Racial Equity Institute
- Colonial roots and other drivers of genocide in Rwanda
- Trump’s reprehensible remarks about immigrants and about liberals
- The dystopian, othering politics of Balaji Srinivasan (article by Gil Duran in The New Republic)
- Christian Picciolini’s Ted Talk about how he stopped othering and helps more people do the same
- Marnita’s Table
- Needham Resilience Network
Crazy Town - Escaping Extremism: Slap Fighting Our Way to a More Civil Society
Transcript
Rob Dietz
Hi, I'm Rob Dietz.
Jason Bradford
I'm Jason Bradford.
Asher Miller
And I'm Asher Miller. Welcome to Crazy Town, where the school board just banned every book except one, "The Flat Earthers Guide to the Cosmos."
Melody Travers Allison
Hi, this is Crazy Town producer Melody Allison. Thanks for listening. Here in season six we're exploring escape routes, pathways that just might get us out of Crazy Town. In today's episode, Jason, Rob, and Asher are escaping ext
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/crazy-town-214881/escaping-extremism-slap-fighting-our-way-to-a-more-civil-society-53473880"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to escaping extremism: slap fighting our way to a more civil society on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy