What is Extremism?

What is extremism and why is there a current focus on it in mid-February of 2021? Did we not witness extremism all during the 2020 calendar year through riots, property destruction, theft, violence, murder, and even takeover of major areas of U.S. cities? Under the classic definition of extremism, all of those actions would qualify as being "extreme" and yet, only now we see "special" efforts to condem what is basically lawlessness and a rejection of anything that threatens to undermine good order and discipline, trust, and our culture of respect. There is a strange and biased intersection with the events of January 6th 2021.