With regard to clowns on the left ... . If it makes you feel better, it's not just on the left.
Speaking as an economist, the explanation is simple. Improving the world faces a public good problem — if you spend time and effort on making the world better, you pay all of the cost and get a minuscule fraction of the benefit. Since one person's effect on the world is unlikely to be large, one person's share of that effect is poor compensation for the cost.
As with some other public good problems, one solution is to act for a private benefit that is linked to the activity that produces the public benefit. Working to elect a candidate, or legalize marijuana, or whatever has the side benefit of putting you together with other people who share your values and are engaged in a common endeavor, which is enjoyable, and also a way of finding friends, perhaps even a future spouse.
Getting attention and status is another side benefit. While it can be linked to making the world better, optimizing for it doesn't optimize for, may indeed detract from, the broader goal. We should expect people in any political movement, as elsewhere in the world, to act mainly for the benefit of themselves and those close to them, only secondarily for benevolent general goals.
Taking a moderate and rationally defensible position doesn't let you stand out from all your fellow believers. Taking an extreme position, even if not defensible, does.
With regard to clowns on the left ... . If it makes you feel better, it's not just on the left.
Speaking as an economist, the explanation is simple. Improving the world faces a public good problem — if you spend time and effort on making the world better, you pay all of the cost and get a minuscule fraction of the benefit. Since one person's effect on the world is unlikely to be large, one person's share of that effect is poor compensation for the cost.
As with some other public good problems, one solution is to act for a private benefit that is linked to the activity that produces the public benefit. Working to elect a candidate, or legalize marijuana, or whatever has the side benefit of putting you together with other people who share your values and are engaged in a common endeavor, which is enjoyable, and also a way of finding friends, perhaps even a future spouse.
Getting attention and status is another side benefit. While it can be linked to making the world better, optimizing for it doesn't optimize for, may indeed detract from, the broader goal. We should expect people in any political movement, as elsewhere in the world, to act mainly for the benefit of themselves and those close to them, only secondarily for benevolent general goals.
Taking a moderate and rationally defensible position doesn't let you stand out from all your fellow believers. Taking an extreme position, even if not defensible, does.