Political extremists on both sides sustain each other through reciprocal escalation.

Evidence

The problem is not how to rid ourselves of this knowledge. We cannot unlearn it. The problem is to stop it getting rid of us. The second reason is that the level of threat, and its erratic but rapid intensification, are themselves a product of obtrusive structures of well-founded mutual mistrust. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1268 (#expands, via linked claim)

Another advantage of the totalitarian pattern is that it can be repeated indefinitely and keeps the organization in a state of fluidity which permits it constantly to insert new layers and define new degrees of militancy. The whole history of the Nazi party can be told in terms of new formations within the Nazi movement. The SA, the stormtroopers (founded in 1922), were the first Nazi formation which was supposed to be more militant than the party itself; in 1926, the SS was founded as the elite formation of the SA; after three years, the SS was separated from the SA and put under Himmler’s command; it took Himmler only a few more years to repeat the same game within the SS. One after the other, and each more militant than its predecessor, there now came into being, first, the Shock Troops, then the Death Head units (the “guard units for the concentration camps”), which later were merged to form the Armed SS (Waffen-SS), finally the Security Service (the “ideological intelligence service of the Party,” and its executive arm for the “negative population policy”) and the Office for Questions of Race and Resettlement (Rasseund Siedlungswesen), whose tasks were of a “positive kind”—all of them developing out of the General SS, whose members, except for the higher Fuehrer Corps, remained in their civilian occupations. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 859 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Totalitarian organization sustains itself through endlessly repeated layers of escalating militancy — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 859; Mirror-image authoritarians on opposing sides perpetuate group conflict; Escalating threat levels themselves stem from structures of mutual mistrust. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1268 (+1 more)

Related

• Totalitarian organization sustains itself through endlessly repeated layers of escalating militancy (similarity 0.87)
• Escalating threat levels themselves stem from structures of mutual mistrust. (similarity 0.78)
• Radicalization is enforced by inserting ever-new layers that demote wavering ranks. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Mirror-image authoritarians on opposing sides perpetuate group conflict #corroborates (0.92)
• Totalitarian organization sustains itself through endlessly repeated layers of escalating militancy #corroborates (0.78) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 859
• Escalating threat levels themselves stem from structures of mutual mistrust. #expands (0.78) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1268