The Lunatics of Your Own Side: Why the Hard Edges Are Tearing Politics Apart
Reflections on Andrew Doyle’s Modern Wisdom conversation and the problem of ideological extremists who devour their own movements
When Andrew Doyle joined Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson, the two picked up a conversation that’s been quietly unfolding for years across the Western world. Doyle, a playwright, comedian, and the sharp mind behind Titania McGrath, is one of those rare figures who can move between satire and philosophy without losing sight of what’s real. In this episode, titled “Political Violence & The Lunatics of Your Own Side,” he turned his lens toward the people destroying political sanity from within.
The conversation began with a simple but profound observation:
“The left’s greatest enemy is not the right, but the hard left. The right’s greatest enemy is not the left but the hard right. The lunatics on your own side make you look much sillier than the opposition ever could.”
That’s not just clever phrasing. It’s the most honest diagnosis of modern politics you’ll hear.
When Conviction Turns into Cultism
Doyle’s argument is that every movement carries within it the seeds of its own destruction. The more passionate a cause becomes, the more it attracts people who see purity as the goal and compromise as betrayal. What begins as moral clarity hardens into moral absolutism.
He points out that on today’s left, this problem has metastasized. The “hard left,” what used to be the fringe of Marxist utopianism, now bleeds directly into mainstream progressive politics. You can see it in the language. The obsession with “decolonization,” the framing of disagreement as violence, the notion that words themselves can cause harm. Doyle notes that there isn’t as sharp a dividing line between the reasonable left and its revolutionary cousin as there is on the right, where most conservatives are quick to denounce actual fascists or racial extremists.
The result is a cultural landscape where ideological purity tests dominate everything. Within the activist left, people don’t fear losing to conservatives. They fear being excommunicated by their own side.
The Paradox of Tolerance, Reversed
There’s a dark irony here. Decades ago, philosopher Karl Popper warned about the “paradox of tolerance.” The idea that if a society is too tolerant of intolerance, the intolerant will destroy it. Today, that principle has been twisted into a justification for silencing opposing views entirely.
Doyle and Williamson discussed how the new orthodoxy on the left uses moral panic as a tool. Activists no longer argue ideas. They enforce dogma. Their mission is not persuasion but purification. The problem, Doyle said, is that this dynamic doesn’t just target the opposition, it cannibalizes allies who show even mild dissent. That’s how movements implode.
He gave examples from the world he knows best, comedy and art. The spaces once dedicated to risk-taking and truth-telling are now dominated by fear. Comedians self-censor. Writers hedge their sentences. Entire shows get pulled because a joke doesn’t “align with current values.” The creative class, Doyle argues, has become the priesthood of a secular religion whose main sacrament is outrage.
Violence Without Accountability
The episode’s title references “political violence,” and Doyle didn’t mean that metaphorically. He warned that the ideological radicalization of the left is not just rhetorical. It’s real. In Europe and America alike, we’ve seen protests turn to riots, justified as “necessary resistance.” The people who once preached nonviolence as a moral absolute now rationalize destruction as moral urgency.
And yet, as Doyle notes, many mainstream voices refuse to condemn it. The left’s moderates won’t confront their radicals because they fear being branded traitors. That cowardice, he argues, is how societies slide into extremism. Not through the majority’s hatred, but through their silence.
The Mirror Test for the Right
Doyle and Williamson also turned the mirror around. The right, too, has its own lunatic fringe. Those who thrive on grievance, conspiracy, or racial superiority. The difference, Doyle contends, is that conservatives generally feel a greater pressure to police those edges. The hard right is not welcome in mainstream conservatism. It’s treated as a liability, not a badge of honor.
That doesn’t mean the right is immune. Social media has blurred the line between seriousness and spectacle. Performative anger gets clicks. Nuance doesn’t. And when movements are built on algorithmic outrage, it’s only a matter of time before the loudest voices drown out the thoughtful ones.
Still, Doyle’s central warning remains. If you want to preserve a political philosophy, you have to control its zealots before they define it for you.
The Death of Shared Reality
Beneath the political commentary, this episode carried a deeper cultural anxiety. The disappearance of shared reality. When every disagreement is treated as moral warfare, dialogue becomes impossible. The goal is not to convince but to destroy.
That’s what makes Doyle’s work so important. Through satire, he’s shown that humor can expose absurdity more effectively than outrage ever could. His fictional feminist poet Titania McGrath parodied the language of wokeness so precisely that many people couldn’t tell if it was satire or sincerity, which was exactly the point. When parody becomes indistinguishable from real activism, something in the culture has gone off the rails.
Doyle’s deeper message is not partisan. It’s civilizational. He’s calling for a return to intellectual humility. The ability to admit that your side, too, can be wrong.
A Culture on the Edge of Self-Parody
Toward the end of the discussion, Williamson and Doyle reflected on what it would take to turn the tide. Doyle believes it starts with ordinary people reclaiming courage, refusing to apologize for sane, mainstream opinions. Institutions, he said, need to stop capitulating to the loudest, angriest voices in the room. A society that gives the mob veto power will never produce leaders capable of saying “enough.” We need reason, restraint, and the ability to laugh at ourselves.
Where It Leaves Us
If there’s one takeaway from Doyle’s Modern Wisdom conversation, it’s this:
The real danger isn’t your political opponents. It’s the extremists who hijack movements and burn its credibility from within.
We live in a time when outrage is currency and destruction is branded as virtue. Doyle’s message is it’s not about left versus right anymore. It’s about sanity versus madness.
Because as he reminded listeners, “The lunatics on your own side make you look much sillier than the opposition ever could.”
That may sound like a joke. But it might also be the most important warning of our political age.