Well, what I was struggling with was the idea that either "shift" or "movement" was at all unclear, and I was trying to figure out why that might be.
The original quote does in fact refer to "groups consisting of individuals with extremist tendencies" and "like-minded people" who "meet regularly, without sustained exposure to competing views" as distinct categories under discussion, in addition to those with "salient shared identity".
While it's true that the two sentences I quoted don't explicitly say that the shifts are toward more extreme positions, the article is in fact talking about such.
And I would argue that the phenomenon of group polarization is a large part of the explanation for why the IRA clung for decades to an obviously failed strategy, and why it took so long for them to admit that their best chance for getting some of what they wanted was to talk to the people who had the power to give it to them.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
winterfish
no subject
Date: 2008-05-16 06:53 pm (UTC)The original quote does in fact refer to "groups consisting of individuals with extremist tendencies" and "like-minded people" who "meet regularly, without sustained exposure to competing views" as distinct categories under discussion, in addition to those with "salient shared identity".
While it's true that the two sentences I quoted don't explicitly say that the shifts are toward more extreme positions, the article is in fact talking about such.
And I would argue that the phenomenon of group polarization is a large part of the explanation for why the IRA clung for decades to an obviously failed strategy, and why it took so long for them to admit that their best chance for getting some of what they wanted was to talk to the people who had the power to give it to them.