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In most contexts, radical means extreme. Saying it is related to the Latin root "radix" (root) is an etymological fallacy: Words mean what they're currently und

• danharaj 11y ago
  I think you're being very presumptuous coming here with your cute little link. People have been calling their politics radical because they reexamine the roots of society for centuries. The connotation that radical means extreme comes from propaganda against ideas that challenge the status quo at the roots of its foundation. You don't understand the word this way, but that's ok. No one who talks about radical democracy lacks the context to see radical with the connotation of "root" and those people would consider your understanding of the word not to be apolitical, but very much political and thus contentious. I suggest the next time you are introduced into a context where words mean different things from what you think, you don't try to colonize it with your understanding of the word as if you have a generic, impartial, apolitical comprehension of human communication. Of course, the connotation of extremeness isn't opposed to the original meaning of radical. Anything that deals with the essential root of an idea will be extreme in its expression. It would be fine to associate 'radical democracy' with connotations of democracy taken to its extremes.