Barry Goldwater was Wrong

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." --Barry Goldwater

This sounded good when I was younger. I called myself a libertarian back then. But looking around me these days and observing various internet flame wars, the state of Congressional politics, and all the other places where unbending extremism exacerbates disagreements and completely undermines the possibility of communication, I now think that extremism in defense of pretty much anything is precisely that: vicious.