User:Larry Wumpus/Extremist feedback loop

The extremist feedback loop is a social effect that mainly affects internet forums with loose or no moderation of its users, but is also observed in much of meatspace as well. It can be summarized as "unchecked extremism drowns out reasonable thought".

How it happens
Extremists, by their very nature, hinge their very existence around their beliefs and react with hostility towards those who do not share them. They have been conditioned to view everything as an "us vs. them" battle, so they have a very high tolerance for flame wars and will generally fire the first round as a result. By contrast, rational people are more likely to disengage due to recognizing that arguing with an extremist is pointless and/or having less tolerance for abusive language and dishonest debate tactics. If there is nothing keeping the extremists in check, they will shout down and crowd out the less obsessed members. Each person that backs down only empowers the extremists in their beliefs and encourages more extreme behavior. Over time, even more extreme people will find the site and bring with them more hostility against any disagreement, which will drive away the less dedicated members and foster further extremism from those that stay. Repeat until the community becomes a living embodiment of Poe's Law.

This effect is greatly amplified when extremists of two or more opposing ideological sides share the same website. As the extremist flame warriors headbutt against other extremists with escalating extremist tactics, rational people leave due to the hostile climate and their inability to be heard over the constant shouting. These sites tend to harbor the worst excesses of extremism due to people specifically going out of their way to be against the other side regardless of whether or not what they're saying makes even the slightest bit of sense.

The same effect occurs when trolling is not sufficiently deleted and punished, usually resulting in a community that is simultaneously trying to out-bullshit each other while attracting people that believe them with total sincerity. Over time, what might have started as a recurring incendiary in-joke becomes a genuinely-held belief (similar to the concept of the big lie).

Failed prophecies and disproved unorthodox beliefs
Groups that place all their stock in a particular unorthodox framework or figurehead paradoxically become more devoted to their ideas the more evidence is presented to disprove them. This is because the more skeptical members within the group will generally leave in the face of increasing evidence, taking their (relative) voice of reason with them. Without them to challenge the more extreme ideas, the group goes further into outright insanity. This is most strongly seen with doomsday cults (whether Apocalyptic or something more mundane such as a race war or World War III), where relatively sensible people will leave when the predicted doomsday event passes without incident while those with more rigid minds and/or economic/social sunk costs will do mental gymnastics to avoid admitting they wasted their time and money.

Geek circles
Geek circles tend to become insular, uninviting, and socially unacceptable over time. Because many geeks come from a (sometimes imaginary) background of social stigma and bullying, they subscribe to the notion that any kind of censure is automatically bad and everybody must get along no matter what. On a small scale (e.g. a local real life group), this framework usually ends up with some particularly uncouth person joining a group and alienating the more reasonable people while bringing in their similarly uncouth friends until the social circle collapses in on itself.

On larger fandom websites, this usually results in a lot of weird psychological hangups becoming the norm rather than the exception, which drives away a lot of potential members. The classic example is the not-entirely-unfair stereotype of fanfiction writers caring way, way too much about the sex lives of their favorite characters and writing increasingly deranged fetish scenarios. Whether this is a good or bad thing really depends on your personal tastes (you pervert).

The Anonymous Sphere
Where the very nature of 4chan and such makes it a haven for all the very worst of humanity.

TV Tropes
Where headbutting fandoms made the site really insular and impenetrable for the first six years of its existence.