Are there any theories of demonization (is there a word used by scholars)? An initially banal dislike of a specific outgroup snowballing into an all-consuming fear/hate of it?
Extremist groups seem to self-define wrt another extremist group, not the mediocre middle.
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Not sure if this is what you're looking for but there was this popular theory by Sunstein (referenced in Thinking, Fast and Slow) on why groups evolve to become more extreme in their orientation.
yalelawjournal.org/pdf/449_3p1xtb
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The mediocre middle is The People, an aggregate term for the current and future generations of The Ordinary Person in whose name and from whose acquiescence all ideologies claim to derive their legitimacy.
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The mediocre middle is too large. Your group can't last if you attack the majority. You've gotta demonize a minority, preferably a powerless one.
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I feel like this is central to the work of nietzsche, heidegger but especially young foucault.





