Where does one start with extremism. Right? Left? Religious? In some ways I am a left wing extremist when it comes to environmental issues. I have attended protests, blocked the way of bulldozers trying to make a road where a company was waiting on permits to remove the top of a mountain. Been out on the water causing Norwegian and Icelandic trawlers to turn away and find other fishing grounds. I support different causes with $10-$20 ever so often to help with works they do. I am even a fan of the Earth Liberation Front who are considered terrorists by our government. Sure they sometimes cross the line but ELFs do their best not to kill.
Left wing extremists tend not to be too violent. Sure, some will fight back and there are anarchists in the ranks. And those people have made a job out of inciting protest crowds and are quite good at what they do. They are violent dangerous people who always create more problems than they help fix. Like all extremists, those on the left want what they want and want it now. Most of what they want are things for the good of the country and all it's peoples but to demand it now no matter the cost is a foolish idea to have. Change has to come slow for those against to accept.
Right wing extremists scare me more than any Middle Eastern person on a Jihad against America. Because they are here. My neighbor, the guy up the street, they want some change but want most to stay just as it was. They are mad because gays are getting civil rights, people of a darker color from a different country are here supposedly taking up all the jobs. Those minimum wage jobs one has to work two of to even think of supporting a family. They talk about illegals coming across the border and how we have to stop it. So many of them collect firearms like young boys collect sports trading cards. There are reports of people owning, legally, hundreds of registered weapons. They think everyone should believe as they do and are willing to beat the word of God into you. To them the Bible IS God speaking. One person told me long ago, "God had to write it because Adam & Eve could not write"
People are banding together forming groups and combining forces for some future time when the US falls apart and anarchy prevails. They stock up on food, water, firearms and ammunition. And they are ready to fight and kill to keep what they have and even gather more. They actively prey on and recruit the downtrodden, young white males and indoctrinate them into their way of thinking.
Then there are the religious zealots. Sometimes the most extreme of all. Be they peaceful Jehovahs going door to door spreading their way of believing. or Islamic Jihadists who are willing to strap a bomb onto themselves and kill as many non believers to their way of thinking. It bothers me that some weak minded people will fall for their or any other belief. that teaches a warped vision of religious virtue. Religion has become a business with the top of the pyramid making the same money as Fortune 500 company CEOs. All the while children 10 blocks away from their cathedrals are going to bed hungry. Too many people put on their finest clothes and spend two hours on a Sunday pretending to be pious. Then as they pull out of the parking lot cutting you off in traffic while flipping you off as they laugh and drive away.
Religious extremists want us all to think and act as they do. No matter which belief system they preach. In their eyes you are either with them or not. No middle ground for them. A line drawn you must cross in order to become one of the chosen. They are the type that would force a woman to have a child then after it is born abandon both mother and child and leave them on their own. These people never can grasp the concept, helping hands do more that praying hands.