what is 'radical'

  • there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ contexts
  • radical meaning grabbing the problem by the root
  • radical left is only radical because the centre has moved further and further right
  • but also ‘extremism’ and radical seen as bad, polarisation of political spectrum etc
  • radical is only subjective, dependent entirely on one particular cultural norm
  • plenty of outsiders considered radical for harmless reasons as well as those for harmful ones
  • radical in terms of revolution vs reform, how slow can we afford to be, who is brought along with us, we aren’t free till we’re all free
  • many ‘radical’ beliefs quite simple and gentle but the norm is for polite and quiet forms of violence built into the infrastructures of society
  • who decides who is a terrorist?
  • a radical approach in some areas often harmful but not always eg radical surgery
  • but are any areas always/inherently harmful?
    • Can’t think of an example.
      • eg a radical approach to a good thing could be good or bad and a radical approach to a bad thing probably still bad, anything else’s radical approach could be either
    • adding ‘radical’ qualifier to a bad thing doesn’t necessarily change its inherent badness
      • eg radical genocide doesn’t change the fact of genocide being awful
      • might just indicate scale of impact.
  • might just be getting into sematic weeds