Well, you've been hearing me bang on about it forever, but my dissertation is finally online. I will bookify it later, but for now you get it in the original Academese. A short thread on The Social Construction of Extremism. www.jmberger.com/extremism/th... - ThreadSky

intelwire.bsky.social • 60 days ago

Well, you've been hearing me bang on about it forever, but my dissertation is finally online. I will bookify it later, but for now you get it in the original Academese.

A short thread on The Social Construction of Extremism.

https://www.jmberger.com/extremism/the-social-construction-of-extremism

Comments

davidmouritsen.bsky.social•60 days ago

Congratulations—and thanks

michelebella.bsky.social•60 days ago

Perfect read for a rainy day. Good thing it's raining here today. I'm getting my masters in sociology so this should be interesting. Thanks for putting it online.

michelebella.bsky.social•60 days ago

*hopefully getting my masters - that is, if the DOE is still open next month.

intelwire.bsky.social•60 days ago

Good luck!

eddyrobinson.bsky.social•58 days ago

Fuck yeah

smsaideman.bsky.social•58 days ago

Congrats, J.M.!!! An important contribution and, alas, great timing.

intelwire.bsky.social•58 days ago

Or arguably terrible timing, but thank you regardless

smsaideman.bsky.social•58 days ago

if a key blindspot is that extremists are no longer labeled as such when they come to power, well, your stuff is super important right now.

chrisarrick.bsky.social•60 days ago

I’m no academic, but I grew up in a college town so I congratulate you on the effort. Best of luck!

dramber.bsky.social•59 days ago

Not a great time to be essentially paywalling what many people need to understand with what is happening

stephenlee49.bsky.social•60 days ago

Good on you and a good read.

beverlyschwenning.bsky.social•60 days ago

Looking forward to reading it!

vortexegg.com•60 days ago

sickos.jpg

asbjorndyrendal.bsky.social•60 days ago

Really appreciate it!

janetcharlene.bsky.social•59 days ago

Incredible work, this is amazing. I can’t wait to read!

intelwire.bsky.social•60 days ago

There's a ton of stuff in here, not all of which is going to be obvious to everyone, but I believe Chapter 3 will have wide application for people studying extremism.

It's a in-depth review and dissection of the definitions of extremism found in the literature, and their strengths and weaknesses.

intelwire.bsky.social•60 days ago

There are five types of definition. The most prevalent by far states that extremism is simply what lies outside a society's dominant social norms. I present what I think is a very strong argument against that definition.

intelwire.bsky.social•60 days ago

There are four major case studies of extremist ideology. If you read my paper on Siege, you've already seen one of them. The others are Join the Caravan by Abdullah Azzam, Studies on Slavery by John Fletcher, and Against the Jews by John Chrysostom.

hannahjohnspoon.bsky.social•59 days ago

O I really need to read the one on Chrysostom, about whom I believe it was Henry Abramson who said his name should actually be Cacostom

intelwire.bsky.social•60 days ago

* The chapter on Chrysostom is much different from my paper on him last year, although they share some DNA.

intelwire.bsky.social•60 days ago

Finally, there's a big discussion of how the social construction of reality bears on the causes and characteristics of extremism. Chapter 2 will get you started with the conceptual framework, and Chapter 10 gives the conclusions (here it will be helpful to have read the case studies).

intelwire.bsky.social•60 days ago

Chapter 11 is IMHO the most important chapter. Building on Chapter 8 especially, I argue that extremist ideologies are complex and demand cognitive labor from adherents because human beings instinctively recognize other human beings, and to exclude Others from the human in-group requires hard work.

gophergrad.bsky.social•60 days ago

subtlefire.bsky.social•60 days ago

📌

mayamedia.bsky.social•60 days ago

Very interesting. But isn’t the word itself problematic since it’s a subjective construct? Aren’t policies that were considered mildly leftist in the 1970s now routinely called, “far left”? Is everything left of Joe Biden “extremist”? Good stuff to research though. 👍🏽

intelwire.bsky.social•60 days ago

I mean, there's an entire chapter on the problematic definition of extremism, which I mention in, like, the very next tweet.

mayamedia.bsky.social•60 days ago

Skeet. I thought I read the next one, Number 6, but I’ll go look. Or you could’ve answered. I didn’t ask you why you resigned, after all.