this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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Politics
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There's a big different between centrism and apoliticalism. Apolitical people are targeted by fascist/authoritative movements as they lack the understanding of the issues at play and are suckered in by easy answers, centrists understand the issues but don't think an extreme left/right solution is the answer but elements from both sides should be considered.
Half way between normal and fascist isn't a reasonable stance in any universe. That's how you get the democrats slowly dragging the country towards whatever the fuck trump was.
Yeah, I'm not a septic so I'm not going to view all political discussion by the framing of their two party system. You can argue American politics is broken, and I'd even argue there's some huge issues with the politics in my country right now too, but that doesn't mean you can just redefine language and concepts to suit you.
I just love how media can completely fuck up a word's definition and then when you actually come in with the correct version everyone yells at you saying "You can't just change the meaning of words like that" and for the record, yeah I can. That's literally the point of language.
Ok, I'll bite, link me to the definition of "centrism" that defines it as "fascist" then.
One party in one country in one time period does not a political philosophy make my friend. Maybe you're Dutch and that's your frame of reference, but that doesn't dictate what the word means worldwide any more than the septic political situation does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ4nvCVAGw0
I get the theory but I don't 100% agree with it. Just because someone doesn't think rapid and massive change is the best way to bring society along with your ideas doesn't mean they think massive right wing changes are any better.
If "centrists" understood the issues they'd have rejected the concept of centrism existing at all.
The workers own the means of production or they don't.
The government exists to protect human rights or it exists to protect its heirarchy.
You do not earn progressive points for supporting gay rights and lose them for still thinking brown people aren't people, not matter what a "political compass" test thinks is worth +5 or -4.
You do not earn partial leftist or libertarian points for thinking the Divine God Emperor is bound by noblesse oblige.
The very idea of centrism, is, and always will be, a con on people that do not understand the core political divides, but think you can trade morality like currency.
Centrists exist because they listen to alternative views and can empathize with those views even if they don't quite agree with them or if they can't decide between the pros and cons. But to an extremist on either side, it looks like they are stupid, weak, or possibly just bad people, because if they were smart, Good people, then the centrists would OBVIOUSLY agree with THEM, and then they wouldn't be centrists. This lacking of empathy or inability to understand opposing viewpoints, and therefore assuming malice or evil as the motive of anyone not WITH them, is the hallmark of all extremists.
Oh yeah, also people hate centrists because they come across as smug. Sorry about that.
Think they do but typically show their ass as being completely ignorant of leftist politics.
Rarely, and typically more so the right.
There is no way "centrists" understand the issues because a majority of politics today is about trying to define what the issues of a country are. Centrism only works as a political philosophy when it is universally agreed that something is an issue. There is no nuanced center position when one side believes that climate change exists and another refuses to acknowledge the existence of climate change. You can't say that "climate change exists sometimes".
Centrists are only focused on the how of problem solving process, which inadvertently makes them choose sides before the what is even answered. You may be able to pull off being a centrist within a political binary, but until the what our problems are is answered across the political spectrum, it is impossible to be a centrist within the full political spectrum.