Critical Thinking and Its Role in the Youth Extremism Prevention

The problem of extremism in general and youth in particular continues to remain relevant. Society continues to live in conditions of political and economic confrontation between the West and the East. Currently Western world supports the radical sentiments and actions of the Ukraine political elite, not hesitating to openly help the followers of the most aggressive of all ideologies that have ever existed - the ideology of fascism. Modern political and physical wars, as a rule, are accompanied by propaganda confrontation. However, the idea is not new. Even during the Second World War, Goebbels, who was the head of the propaganda department in nazi Germany, said: «Give me the media, and I will make a herd of pigs out of any people». In fact, he proposed a new technology for manipulating the masses consciousness. The nationalist movement in Ukraine and representatives of the media sympathizing with them demonstrate this technology in action. In the modern world we are surrounded by information that often turns out to be unverified, hastily collected or deliberately false. The older generation, whose worldview was formed under the influence of Soviet education and ideology, albeit not correct in everything, but certainly based on universal humane principles, is more resistant to information chaos. The target audience of extremist movements is primarily young people, since modern young people are mostly receptive and suggestible due to their lack of firm convictions and moral principles, a stable worldview, criticality and independent thinking. Therefore, one of the effective means of increasing their resistance to the extremist ideas influence should be the development of these thinking qualities. These circumstances, as well as the need to find possible ways to prevent youth extremism determine the relevance and purpose of this article. This goal involves solving a number of tasks: determining the reasons for the low level of critical thinking formation among younger generation representatives and the possibilities of its development.

information, extremism, extremism prevention, critical thinking, independent thinking, critical thinking development