I'm not sure of the etymology here, but "extremist" could also denote someone who uses extreme measures to achieve their goals. By this definition, someone who

I'm not sure of the etymology here, but "extremist" could also denote someone who uses extreme measures to achieve their goals. By this definition, someone who wants complete redistribution of wealth, but aims to achieve that by voting for like-minded people would be less of an extremist than someone who wants basic workers' rights, but will murder employers. I feel that this definition is closer to how "extremist" is reasonably used, it's probably pointless to argue, since most people seem to use the word as just another generic pejorative. Oh well.