The Extremes Aren’t Opposites — They’re Twins

The four psychological traits that fuel political extremism — and what they mean for our democracy now.

By Trygve Olson

If you’ve worked in politics long enough — real politics, not the podcast version — you start to see patterns. Not just in campaigns, but in people. How do they think? What drives them? And more importantly, what drives them off the deep end.

One of the biggest lies we’ve told ourselves in American politics is that the far-left and far-rig…