Hey guys, hope you’re doing well. Today, something happened that I felt I should share.
I was in the city this morning, in Winterthur, just sitting in the park eating some gelato with my son, and three high school-aged girls, maybe 14 or 15, came up to me. They asked me a question in German, and I asked if they spoke English. They said yes, and then asked, “What are your thoughts on extremism?”
I was a bit surprised. That’s a pretty big question. I asked them what they meant, and they said, “What does extremism mean to you?”
It’s a powerful question, and I took a few seconds to think about it. I had a feeling they were asking because of the recent events that happened in Germany a few days ago. If you haven’t heard about it, you can find it in the news. But before I answered, I felt like I needed to preface it with something else.
I told them, “Before we talk about extremism, we need to talk about something even bigger—communication.”
For me, learning German has been difficult since moving to Switzerland. You’re taught High German, which is spoken in Germany and Austria, but in Switzerland, people speak Swiss German. It’s a completely different dialect. You can be in class all day learning High German, but once you leave, it feels like you don’t understand anything anyone is saying.
The reason I say this is because a big part of extremism stems from a lack of communication. People, countries, and cultures don’t fully understand each other. It’s one thing to speak the same language, but it’s another to understand the deeper layers—philosophical, political, and religious differences that shape how people think. If you didn’t grow up in a specific culture, it’s hard to communicate those deeper ideas.
So, to me, the first cause of extremism is poor communication and misunderstanding.
Then, I got to the point and told them, “We don’t know why that person did what they did. We don’t know their life experiences or what they went through in their country.” I believe the person who carried out the attack came from a Middle Eastern country, but I couldn’t remember exactly. This brought up topics like immigration.
I told them, “We don’t know the full context of this person’s life.” Extremism exists everywhere—political, religious, you name it. But when you look at these issues, you have to understand the backstory. If a foreign power or military came into your country, claiming to bring peace, but separated families and caused harm in the process, you’d be upset too.
I’ve seen it firsthand in Latin America when foreigners impose their ideas on native people. They come in, saying, “We know what’s best for you. Here’s our religion, our ideas, our medicine.” But they don’t listen to the local culture, and it creates conflict.
When we talk about extremism, people quickly connect it to immigration, but that’s not the real issue. Every person is an individual with their own life experience. We don’t know what drove someone to do something terrible. It’s not always about immigration, but about how we integrate people into society.
For example, I moved from the U.S. to Switzerland. You’d think it’s pretty similar, but it’s actually very different. The language, the culture, the society—it’s all different. Even I’ve had a tough time integrating. So imagine how much harder it is for someone fleeing conflict.
We need to focus on integration, not just immigration. Why are people fleeing conflict? What is the root cause? And when they come here, how are we helping them integrate into society?
I wanted to share this because it really caught me off guard. I was just sitting in the park, enjoying my day, and then these girls asked such a heavy question. It got me thinking about how important this topic is. We had a great conversation, and they thanked me for my input. I think I surprised them with my answer.
I’m curious—what do you think about all of this? I don’t want to focus on the negative. I want to discuss how we can address the real issue—not immigration, not imposing religions—but how we can solve these problems at a human level so that things like this don’t happen again.
That’s the conversation we need to be having. Let’s talk about the root cause, not just the surface-level issues.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. This was a powerful moment for me today, and it got me thinking about extremism and how we deal with it in today’s world.
Hope you’re having a great day. Let me know what you think in the comments below, and have a blessed day.
See you guys. Bye.