Talk:Radical

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Redirect to Extremism

This is a poor article, and i think it should be deleted and redirected to Extremism (which also needs a boost in quality). Nihilist 19:59, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

Either this or a rewrite and alteration of the term usage. Radical has been used in both 'positive' (a radical scientific discovery, life-changing herbal supplement!) and 'negative' (Those radical feminists are femmenazis!) ways, and it doesn't always mean 'extreme.' It often means whatever the user wants it to: ground-breaking, new, cutting-edge, extreme, innovative, iconoclastic, etc. ±KnightOfTL;DR^{critical thinking is the key to success!} 20:17, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, but the negative usage is much more relevant to this site. Nihilist 20:36, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

I don't think we should omit the other meaning, though. You're right, we do talk about extremists a lot. But the word 'radical' is often a weasel word, one that means anything the user wants it to mean. Defining it narrowly excludes all future usages and references it may have on this site, and limit future relevance. ±KnightOfTL;DR^{sufficiently advanced argument still distinguishable from magic} 20:46, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

This page defines it far too narrowly in economic terms. It's a term used in all kinds of fields of scholarship and discourse. Ŵêâŝêîôîď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 22:12, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

Moving to extremism would be stupid in the extreme. Some of the ideas that were "radical" in their time--the idea that people shouldn't be enslaved, or that gender should not be a barrier to the franchise--hardly deserve that categorization. Theory of Practice "I never set out to hit anybody. It's just that a lot of people got hit." -- Andy Roberts 22:35, 4 June 2012 (UTC)