What is an Extremist? ?

Question

I've heard this quite a lot on the news, it would help if i had a definition and a few different examples.

Answer 1

It's a fairly subjective term.   In media use, it usually means either someone prepared to use force to achieve their aims, or, perniciously, anyone who does not subscribe to our leaders' and their employers'  present orthodoxy of a combination of free market economics and a police state spying on and suppressing anyone who does not believe in free market economics.

These definitions encompass organisations from Al Quaeda, via Shining Path, Falun Gong, Sinn Fein, Socialist Worker, Hunt Saboteurs, the SNP and  and Peta to the Church of England and the Green Party.