Regarding ideologies, where is the line between extremist and moderate?

extremist = person who holds an opinion quite different from your own

moderate = someone who you sometimes agree with

Sorry, just realized this tired answer isn’t very specific or helpful. I am just describing how I think people use these terms when discussing politics. An “extremist” to some might be someone who merely dreams of a more civilized health care system, for example. I’ll try to respond with a better answer later…

Proper grammar = moderate
Owning a geocities or angelfire website = extremist

There are four basic levels of belief, in my opinion.

The lowest level is the atheists, or other groups that don’t really associate themselves with a particular religion.

The second level does associate themselves with a religion.

The third level side with a particular religion, but believes that their religion is right and the others are wrong, and tries to persuade others.

The fourth level is the extremists. They associate themselves very strongly with a religion, and not only try to persuade others, but sometimes give up and label others as evil. They are willing to kill and use violence to get their message across.

Extremist and modearate seem to me to be subjective terms defined by the prvailing political climate where they exist. In Medieval Europe, believing in the divine rights of kings, blood succession, and abject servitude for all but nobility would have been a moderate position. In most of today’s world, such a belief system would be extreme in the extreme.

Were any ideology goes wrong is when it becomes so ingrained in a believer’s mind that any facts which conflict with it are immediately rejected as irrelevant, false or claimed to be misunderstood (in other words, they say I see what you are pointing to, but if you understood it properly, you would realize it makes me right even though it seems to do the exact opposite).

When a person’s confirmation bias becomes so strong that their belief trumps facts, they have crossed the line into being an ideologue. It really doesn’t matter what their belief system might be. If beliefs trump facts, it always leads to error. Change is inevitable, and only those who are in full touch with reality around themselves and willing to adapt to change can avoid being at odds with the truth.

Moderate views are views held by many people who sit in the middle on a particular issue or position. Neither left nor right.

Extremist views are those so far to either end of the spectrum that most people don’t follow them.

Moderates are open to the opinions of others, are willing to change their mind if need be, and weigh each issue on its own merits.

Extremists have their minds made up according to a rigid ideology before they know what the question is.

Here is some very basic philosophy.Extremist rely heavily on a belief reality system. While a moderate tends to pick and pull from actual reality with potential likings of a belief reality.

A moderate is a weenie.
An extremist may be all sorts of things that can be regarded as unpleasant, but they are usually not weenies.

An extremist goes by the mantra- if you are not with me 100% then you are my enemy and therefore stupid. They also don’t need to stray very far from the reservation meaning , it’s easy to be extreme as in very little thought to come to what their beliefs are., usually they are narrow and pointed with little room for deviation. And they are louder and usually look upon the moderate with contempt because they take to long to come to a consensus, what with all the pondering and research they like to do to get to the bottom of a topic. Moderates make extremists crazy.