WATCH: Jack Posobiec explains the reality of political extremism in America

"Is there anything in America that hasn't become politicized?" Jack Posobiec asked. And indeed, there isn't. Nowhere is that more apparent than when discussing the topic of radicalization.

April 25, 2021

AOC has spoken about how it's a positive thing that leftists have been radicalized in 2020 due to the protests and riots that rocked the nation in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis. But extremism and radicalization has been decried when it has impacted those on the right, primarily Trump supporters, as exemplified by the Capitol riot of Jan. 6.

"They want to put people into all of these different buckets," Posobiec said. Identity politics has been a tool of radicalization, and as it has become more and more part of mainstream life. It's at zoos, he noted, it's at our cultural institutions.

"What is identity? What does it mean? What is extremism and radicalization?" Moderator Keri Smith asked.

Posobiec brought up the numbers of left-wing extremists, showing that extremism has no partisan bias. For him, much of the issue has to do with the lack of available mental health services.

"Censorship is driving people into social media ghettos," Posobiec noted, saying that social media censorship funnels people into like-minded chats that fuel each other further and further into extremism.

"How do you prevent people from breaking free of that teamificaiton of politics?" Poso asked, "it's not 'what's best for the country'… it's 'what's best for my team'… we need to get back to the idea that It's not 'what can help my team win,' but what are the outcomes you're driving for?"

"We live in an extreme country," Schaffer said, talking about how Joy Reid on MSNBC is on TV talking about how black kids should be allowed to play with knives. It's that "the people who point out truth" are considered extreme. "Nobody gives a damn," about black lives, Schaffer said, as evidenced by the refusal of media to barely cover the violent crimes committed in black communities.

"To me, extremity is being used to keep our country progressive," Schaffer said. "The reason why we have this problem is because we have the boogey man of extremism."

The names of those who were killed by police were intoned, including Ma'khia Bryant, who was recently killed in Ohio after police were called to the scene where she was threatening another girl with a knife.

"For some reason, I didn't really hear anyone talk about specifically the rise of the internet, the rise of social media, and the rise of viral videos to invade the social consciousness," Posobiec said.

"The videos that we're seeing, it's not necessarily something new… but the ability for all of us to see it in real time is something new," Posobiec said, talking about the video of George Floyd's death. "This is mass surveillance," he said, "we're looking at these videos, we're reacting to them more, and we as a society have not come up with a process to deal with these videos," Posobiec said.

"Civilians aren't the only ones watching viral videos," Posobiec said. "Police watch the videos of police stops and traffic stops that go wrong." He noted that most traffic stops don't end in violence. Everyone, on both sides of the blue line, is watching the same videos.

"We don't need to rewrite our entire police code or our entire police training just because of one viral video," Jack Posobiec said.

"It's hard to recognize leftist extremism when leftist extremism has become the mainstream culture," Schaffer said.

"We are in a left-wing driven cultural inquisition right now… and it's being driven by the left," Posobiec said.

Extremism has been behind the nationwide push to defund police in America's biggest cities, and in those cities, the removal of officers has had a negative impact on black communities. There have been more violent crimes, homicides, and crimes in the black communities that officers have left behind because city councils are more concerned with being called racist than actually making sure the cities they govern are safe for their constituents.

Biden is "a literal puppet man," Posobiec said, noting that Kamala Harris is "waiting in the wings."

"When the Occupy movement started focusing on the one percent… All of a sudden corporate America started pushing racial narratives, racial division, and racial unrest, and now it's all we talk about." He said we used to talk about economic inequality, and "maybe the Occupy movement was right about that."

Posobiec said that he tried to speak out against the rise of QAnon. It began as an internet meme that wasn't intended to become a movement but took on a life of its own.

"When people come to me with an open mind," he said, "I've just tried, in my experience, to say 'have you gotten any results from following this thing? Has it given value to your life?"

These are questions for radicals, these are questions for extremists. What is happening in your life? Is life being bettered by engaging in radical or extremist ideology? These are real questions, if the answer is "no," then we should be able to disengage from extremism, from radicalism, and find the things in life that matter.

What is needed is not more adherence to ideology, but that we examine our beliefs, rule our own ideas, and are not ruled by them.

"When you normalize political violence on either side… it's about starting that funnel, and what is summoned up afterwards is ten times worse... you don't allow political violence," Posobiec said.

We must value our nation, and not let it be undermined by bad actors who would destroy it to achieve their own ends of chaos and mayhem.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/w309TFnK3qI?feature=oembed