Pundits across the country bemoan the rise of radicalization (they only bemoan the rise of radicalization from the other party, but that’s beside the point right now) in our nation. Frequently, the same culprits are blamed for the rise of radicalization, everything from 24-hour news networks that need fluff content to fill vacant time slots, to social media algorithms that customize the feed in favor of content that you’ll either agree with or will anger you, to the chronic under-funding of our education systems. Certainly, all of these, and more, have played a role in the rise of radicalization. However, an often-overlooked angle are the many benefits that radicalization have brought upon society.
Yes, you read that right; radicalization has benefited me immensely. Back in the old days, if one wanted to be a politically informed citizen, one had to take great lengths to do so. Often this meant carving out a specific time of your day (a timeslot that you could not choose) to tune into the nightly news broadcast. All of the major news broadcasters aired roughly the same content (before cable news came along). Therefore, those with vastly differing viewpoints had to search far and wide to find a news source that catered to their interests, and undoubtedly work even harder to find a community of their ideological cohorts.
Now we have the aforementioned algorithms and 24-hour channels that serve as the Perpetual Outrage Machine, that functions sorely on the negative energy of their audience (think of the scream cannisters from Monsters Inc!). More than broadcasting though, today we have the ease to build online communities and find echo chambers no matter where we are. However online communities can only go so far. Members tend to isolate from the greater world. Fortunately, this isolation cannot last forever. Humans have a deep need to connect with one another face-to-face (as we were all reminded of in the pandemic). Furthermore, humans want to be heard, truly heard. And this is where radicalization has come to the rescue.
Before society became so radicalized, I had to perform my own independent research prior to voting in elections. A few days before the election, I would sit on my bed and flip open my laptop. I’d open the website of Candidate A in one tab and then tab over to the website of Candidate B. I’d scroll through their websites and scan through all of their ideologies side-by-side. Thankfully, radicalization has rendered this an archaic tactic.
“You’d know that if watched the news once in a while!” was a common lecture I received in my adolescent and teenage years. The authority figure would often lament my lack of interest in completing what felt to me like an unnecessary chore. In my first post-college job, I met a colleague who would nonchalantly quip “If it’s important, somebody will tell me”. That line was delivered with just enough confidence to assert that he was in control of the interaction; the informants worked for him. Since employing this change in mindset, the radicalized have essentially freed up time in my busy schedule to relentlessly pursue my life goals without the distraction of having to keep up on a chore I never had an affinity for.
Borrowing from Tim Ferriss’s strategy of the Low Information Diet that he discussed in his landmark book The 4-Hour Workweek, I now no longer need to seek out the data myself. Furthermore, I don’t have to open a tab that I don’t want to or pull out my phone. The minimal back-end effort has been a boon to my self-improvement since then. My nonfiction reading has skyrocketed in recent years as radicalization has become more common. While the radicals are spending what precious finite time we all have spinning their metaphorical hamster wheels, I have spent the time that would have been dedicated to that towards much more productive pursuits. The radical enjoys few hobbies or constructive habits
I’ve managed to befriend numerous people on both sides of our vast cultural divide, giving them the need to be heard that I talked about a few paragraphs ago. Radicals are generally a lonely breed, with very little outlet for real-world connection. Once they find it, they generally spill their entire ideologies to their listener, through the lens of current events. With a bit of patience and the ability to appear emotionally unmoved, one can get the radical to espouse a lot of valuable intel after enough rapport is built. The thousand-yard stare and strategic use of silence are effective tools to get the other side to continue talking. Asking open-ended questions are another great way to string the interaction out. They soon become what I refer to as a canary, as they are very indicative of the current situation.
It’s important to have canaries of both political ideologies. Having only one skewed news source is often what caused the canary to become radicalized in the first place. Better yet, the winning strategy is to have multiple sources from each party. Canaries fly best in a fleet. It’s important to gently push the canary a bit but subtly is needed here; push the canary too far before you have established a great rapport and you risk losing them. Often times, the canary will try to convert you to their side. Therefore, one cannot appear to lean too much toward anyone side. Balance here is key though; one must give the canary just enough false hope that they might be able to radicalize you. Most importantly all of your canaries need to know that you have other canaries (especially canaries that disagree with them). The two sides of canaries will then start competing on who will bring you the most relevant and timely news. When canaries compete, you win! My red canaries and my blue canaries will proactively bring me the news without me ever having to ask anymore.
The reason I expose my borderline-manipulative tendency is because the risk of losing my fleet of canaries is minimal. In our current cultural climate every day, a new radical is born every day. Canaries tend to stay put after they nest. However, in the event that a canary does fly out from fleet, bear in mind the words of the great Millennial philosopher Wiz Khalifa: “I don’t chase ‘em, I replace ‘em”. Radicalization ensures that there will always be another canary willing to take their place! In order for my strategy to stop being sustainable. America would have to de-radicalize (which is unlikely to happen anytime soon). Even in revealing this to the public, there is little chance of anything changing. So in a very real way, radicalization has benefited me, as it has allowed me to offload and delegate a task that bores the hell out of me
To all of my blue canaries; just know that all of the Republicans are indifferent to the suffering of the marginalized. And to all of my red canaries, just know that all of the Democrats want to raise your taxes so they can allow the lazy to get fat off of the welfare system while they take away your guns. Stay radicalized, my canaries!
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