"Extremism"

One-word political terms are used all the time. "Liberal," "socialist," "conservative," "progressive," "nationalist". Most of the time, these are rather useful (while restricting). If someone is a "liberal," they clearly place value in the liberty of human beings, and generally subscribe to certain left-of-centre ideals. If someone is a socialist, they have some belief in the ideas of Marx and the central role of the government; if someone is a conservative, they are reacting against a proposed change and probably support the free markets. And so on and so forth.

One term, however, is rather different. The term "extremism" is unique, because it means absolutely nothing.

The dictionary (or rather, Wiktionary) definition of extremism describes a viewpoint which is far from the political centre of a culture, or is seen to violate commonly held morals. But what is the use in such a term?
The political centre is, ultimately, wherever you perceive it to be. Yes, it would be a little far fetch to equate centrism with millitant Marxism, for example, but there is a wide spectrum including conservatism, liberalism and social democracy within which you could pretty much place the political centre anywhere you like.
Much the same goes for "commonly-held morals". If an ideology is actively calling for genocide, then yes, we can pretty much all agree it's gone against common morality. But beyond that, common morality is completely subjective. Many conservatives claim that anything outside a tradition family structure goes against common morals- a point of view which most left-wingers simply laugh at. Equally, a left winger could say that providing for the poor is a commonly-held ethic, but the popularity of staunch individualism and neoliberalism would appear to attest to the contrary.

The point is that what is "extreme" is ultimately down entirely to the perceptions of the individual. As such, it is unhelpful and means nothing.

Many US Republicans refer to Obama's pro-social-justice poliices as "extremist," but this is perplexing to the vast majority of Europeans. For us, the existence of universal health care is quite possibly the only thing our mainstream politicians all openly agree on.
The same goes for the gay-debate. Many right-wingers refer to Joe McMygod and Dan Savage etc. as "homosexual extremists"; many gay activists refer to the social conservative lobby as "Christianist extremists". Ultimately, all either of them are saying is "these are people who say things I don't agree with". Which we all knew anyway, thank you very much.

But excessive use of the term "extremist" is not just pointless, it's dangerous. It's gotten to the point where anyone can pretty much label anyone as extremists whenever they feel like it. As such, they instantly trigger thoughts of "ZOMG THESE PEOPLE ARE BAD AND WRONG in the mind of the undecided reader, without even saying anything. This is lunacy.

I call for decency and humanity amongst the political speakers and writers of the world, and humbly ask that we get together and agree to never use the word "extremist" ever again.
Otherwise, Jesus will cry.