Both Uses of
fanatic
in
The Communist Manifesto
- To this section belong economists, philanthropists, humanitarians, improvers of the condition of the working class, organisers of charity, members of societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, temperance fanatics, hole-and-corner reformers of every imaginable kind.†
fanatics = people motivated by extreme enthusiasm for a cause
- By degrees they sink into the category of the reactionary conservative Socialists depicted above, differing from these only by more systematic pedantry, and by their fanatical and superstitious belief in the miraculous effects of their social science.†
*
Definition:
a person motivated by extreme enthusiasm (as for a cause) -- sometimes to a fault
or:
extremely enthusiastic -- sometimes to a fault
or:
extremely enthusiastic -- sometimes to a fault