HN is solely for venture capitalism via phone and webapps, thanks.
And maybe Gladwell-esque light stories suitable for our Powerpoint pitch.
And maybe Gladwell-esque light stories suitable for our Powerpoint pitch.
An extremist point of view should always be taken as sarcasm (or more accurately, as pisstake). Extremism should be derided as facile and ridiculous, but kind of funny - just like sarcasm. It is absurd whether the proponent regards it as such or not and as such should be treated with the sense of humour it deserves.
At one point, scientists were 'extremists.'
In regards to your example, the broad assumption that they ever were regarded as such is predicated on the fact that they tend to present their findings before their research. Extreme findings, if they are facile, ridiculous, and also kind of funny, deserve derision in the absence of research to back them. Once the research is presented, the minutiae of proof of cause and effect shifts the relative position of the audience to occupy previously questionable ground.
Wow, I obviously put way too much thought into what was a just stray musing ;)
Derision is not extremism, that is to bastardise the meaning of both words.
If the target is an extremist, I absolutely think their view should be dismissed and suppressed. However making fun of their point of view - particularly in mistaking their argument for obvious trolling/sarcasm - will render it unusable or counter-productive as evidence of suppression.
As to the last point http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2QrWzsfghA
When reacting to people and teasing/making fun of them or deriding them, keep this in mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allport's_Scale
See above re: relativity.. plus I would note that the very definition of extremism means it is only relative insofar as it is a long way from everything else, which pretty much rules out edge cases. Allport's Scale was new to me, thanks!