> Extremist commenters repel moderates who might otherwise be aligned with the cause, and/or attract other extremists.
I seem to recall reading something a while back that suggested the reverse is often true - that moderates will back the extremists for "fighting the good fight".
Even the moderates will tend to have some topics that they strongly support/criticise, and applaud that someone is doing it, especially in the case where the opinion is a minority view. The argument also suggested that extremists tend to generate the most media coverage of a topic - A terrorist bombing is going to generate a huge amount of front-page news compared to, say, some reasonable people meeting and making reasonable compromises. That will then raise awareness of the topic &c. Granted, the publicity will be overwhelming negative, but some people still subscribe to the "any publicity is good" theory.
I can't seem to find the original reference, but I'll edit it in or post a reply if I do find it.
I seem to recall reading something a while back that suggested the reverse is often true - that moderates will back the extremists for "fighting the good fight".
Even the moderates will tend to have some topics that they strongly support/criticise, and applaud that someone is doing it, especially in the case where the opinion is a minority view. The argument also suggested that extremists tend to generate the most media coverage of a topic - A terrorist bombing is going to generate a huge amount of front-page news compared to, say, some reasonable people meeting and making reasonable compromises. That will then raise awareness of the topic &c. Granted, the publicity will be overwhelming negative, but some people still subscribe to the "any publicity is good" theory.
I can't seem to find the original reference, but I'll edit it in or post a reply if I do find it.