Meaning of purity spiral | Babel Free

Definitions

The situation in which members of an ideological group become increasingly zealous and intolerant, eventually turning on other members.

Examples

“[T]he American right has been caught in a purity spiral — a form⟳ of vicious circle in which successive elites compete⟳ among each other over who is the “true conservative.””

“This institutional slant has become⟳ most pronounced in universities, which have⟳ for several years gone through a 'purity spiral' as conservatives left the field, culminating in a sort⟳ of collective meltdown in the mid-2010s.”

“Many of TST's critics did frame the issue⟳ in terms of purity and contamination. In a debate⟳ on Facebook, one critic responded to Greaves's essay on purity spirals, "There's an old saying I like⟳ 'If there's a Nazi sitting at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 nazis.'"”

CEFR level