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Is there an established theory that the further left one goes, or the further right one goes, they end up in the same place, as though the political spectrum is in fact a circle with extreme-right and extreme-left meeting at the opposite side of moderate?

In other words, one can go in either direction and ultimately become an uncompromising totalitarian (if you are in charge) or a terrorist (if you are not in charge) to a point where it does not matter what idealology lead you there.

I have never seen this in print so I'm wondering if any of you have.

indigochild
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BigDataLouie
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    There is the Extremismus- (or Hufeisen-)Theory by Eckhard Jesse. But I'm not sure if his work has been translated. And while often cited by non-academics (at least in Germany), it is largely ignored or discredited by academics. It would be interesting to know if such theories exist outside of Germany (I haven't heard of any, at least not from academia). – tim Mar 09 '17 at 18:12
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    It's obvious that any ideology which is so extremist that it is rejected by the majority of the population can only be enforced with violence. But that does not necessary mean that the effect on society is the same for every direction of extremism. – Philipp Mar 09 '17 at 18:21
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    In english it's called Horseshoe theory. This question seems to be a duplicate (it's answer is poorly sourced though and doesn't answer the actual question (what political scientists think)). – tim Mar 09 '17 at 18:31
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    An answer to this question would depend on how many factors you're comparing the two extreme ideologies. In only two dimensions, it would be possible to construct a circle where they were the same terminal point, though it is just as likely be not be a continuous function. In adding a third dimension, it could be shown that the model is more like a clipping from a spring than a circle. – Drunk Cynic Mar 09 '17 at 18:38
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    There are only so many ways we have thought up to take extra parliamentary action, so everyone not winning elections copies. I'll believe in the horseshoe when the white-nationals form an alliance with the earth liberation front. They are both reasonably popular in NW US with I think no mutually exclusive core ideals. –  Mar 09 '17 at 18:48
  • You could argue the more extreme you go in either direction, the closer you approach insanity, so in that sense, yes, insane is insane. (That said, this is really not an answerable question...there are arguments that could be made from all sorts of directions.) –  Mar 09 '17 at 18:51
  • @notstoreboughtdirt you could argue both groups really enjoy camping in the woods. :) –  Mar 09 '17 at 18:51
  • I think the problem is that this is attempting to compare apples to oranges - extremist groups use violence to attempt to damage the opposition/promote their ideals/etc, there are only so many ways to commit violence (so both sides end up doing basically the same thing), and the violence itself speaks much louder than the political views it is being used to promote. All of this boils down to extremist groups all appearing to act in the same way to an outside observer, despite having completely different reasons. – IllusiveBrian Mar 09 '17 at 19:22
  • This begs for "Yes, they are both destruction." – Joshua Jul 24 '17 at 21:21

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