Two kinds of extremism: Extremism can be in thought and in action. Extremism in thought is often called exclusivism, where people believe, for example, if they’re religious, that their religious tradition has exclusive access to God. Exclusivism can make people disrespectful or dismissive of others, but that itself does not make them violent.

However, exclusivism can degenerate into extremism, where people start taking extreme actions against those who do not agree with their beliefs and their traditions. Such extremism is the cause of incredible violence. So while exclusivism itself is bad, it’s tolerable. Extremism is intolerable.

(Inspired by Bhagavad-Gita 17.15)

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