Holding views that are fatal to modern society while enjoying its benefits… So hot right now! Maybe they’ll keep the dead half-husk of democracy that has all their stuff!
The right: “Genocide trans people!”
The left: “no”
Centrists: “these are both radical positions”
Wow, what a complete misunderstanding of what a centrist is.
Now you see what “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” really means…
Never admit to being a centrist, because both sides don’t see you as a potential ally, they see you as an enemy. Then you just end up everyone’s enemy, despite the fact that you’re just trying to get along and try to see different perspectives, make intelligent judgements, and do some critical thinking.
America sounds fucking awful. Why does anyone have to pick a side? Why do you have to be labelled anything political? Can’t you just vote every 4 years based on your opinion at the time of the available candidates. The idea that someone leaps to defend their party regardless of who leads it is kinda childish.
In the UK the majority of adults don’t wear their political allegiance on their sleeves as seems to be the case in the US (from my blinkered view admittedly, that may be unfair). It’s rude to ask how people voted and you’re not expected to make it known, obviously extremes exist and plenty of people make it their identity, but it’s not a huge polarising issue and I have friends and family from both “sides”.
The incessant need for everyone to be defined and put in their own category is a really bad thing for society. It’s not a surprise that the world seems to run on black and white viewpoints more than it used to appear to. If people saw me as an actual enemy because I tried to see more than their own angle on an issue then I don’t want them as friends tbh.
Never be a centrist because it means you have no convictions of your own. Don’t be a political weather vane.
Have convictions about the shit you know about. But be prepared to change your mind on stuff you aren’t an expert in.
I wonder how many people that strongly align to the left or right actually understand the detail behind the policies they defend so vociferously, 99% of people people are just parroting what their party tells them to say from what I can see.
Your opinion on climate change or whatever is the latest hot topic doesn’t mean shit. Reading an article from your biased politically motivated “journal” doesn’t mean shit. Listening to the actual experts and forming an opinion based on that DOES mean something, and it’s got fucking nothing to do with politics.
Critical thinking > Ideology
God I need a fucking bumper sticker.
Stop blindly believing in what your “party” tells you to.
I have never met a self-described centrist who was doing any critical thinking. And I say that as a former centrist who was not engaging in critical thinking.
It’s almost always “there are two sides to this issue, and because there are two sides there must be some merit to both, so thinking that one side is right or wrong is bad, and so anybody holding particularly strong convictions one way or another must not be thinking critically”. Which if you noticed, is a line of reasoning that doesn’t actually engage with reality or the nuances of the situation at all. It’s just a thought-terminating cliche that leads to not thinking about an issue, but then concluding that one is more enlightened than people who hold strong beliefs.
The second I actually started getting informed and thinking critically, I shifted drastically in my politics.
Unfortunately, centrists have just the right amount of the last few things to lack looking further into anything yet make a decision on shallow surfaces.
Which is EASILY manipulated by conservatives by simply lying that the other side is also doing their bad things. Boom. Now even turf to those who don’t research.
Centrists seem to lack the ability to reach beyond their own worldview and cautiously accept what’s in front of them to avoid rocking the boat.
Probably don’t want to raise wages because it’d raise the price of hamburgers. Enjoy that now $12 Carl’s Jr. Burger combo while you sit on not raising minimum wages. Scumbag.
*Sigh. I’m just frustrated at people willfully being blind to be happy. I get it… But it doesn’t solve anything as evil continues marching on.
You’ve put a fair few words into people’s mouths and then judged them for it here.
Could your own view be unfair? I see people from all sides coming to conclusions they aren’t qualified to be confident in, and yet everyone seems to have 100% certainty in everything these days.
I see lots of right wing tits, I also see lots of left wing tits and centrist tits. Politicians are not experts in anything, their job requires them to try and become experts in everything and as a result they’re experts in nothing but lots of people seem to take everything their preferred politician says as fact. Things are very rarely black and white but in the US that seems to have been entirely forgotten lately.
I know it won’t go down well here but viewpoints like ACAB or “republicans are fundamentally bad people” are so reductive that it’s almost funny.
When did people stop considering nuance?
Same fucking thing. Believe what I believe or you’re dumb, and you’re the enemy. No room for debate, you’re just a “weather vane” or sheep or something.
God you’re part of the problem with this country…
Not really, at least not in American politics if you’ve been paying any attention to what both parties are saying.
I could be considered a centrist, I hold a pretty solid ammount of traditionally conservative opinions on some things, and a lot of liberal ones on others. I will absolutely never call myself a centrist though.
I disagree with the Democratic party on a lot of things, but I can overall at least see where they’re coming from, understand their beliefs, and while I don’t think that they are, I can concede that there’s a possibility that they may be right on those issues and I’m the one who is wrong. We can agree to disagree on those points.
On the other hand, my disagreements with the Republican party tend to be about things that I consider tantamount to genocide and other horrific human rights abuses. Issues that I am not willing to give them an inch on. Even if many Republicans dont, or at least claim to not have those sorts of opinions, they’ve still officially thrown their lot in with the types of people who loudly and openly proclaim that they want to commit those sorts of atrocities, and do little to nothing to rebuke those lunatics or distance themselves from them, which means that at best they don’t care about those issues and at worst are silently totally in support of these terrible acts, and I cannot accept any position along that spectrum. There is absolutely nothing on the Republican party platform that I agree with enough to turn a blind eye to the serious issues I have with them. Those issues are so repulsive to be that they totally invalidate any good they say or do (which really isn’t much, they pretty much only pay lip service to the sorts of issues I agree with them on while often doing the exact opposite)
And saying that you’re a centrist implies that you fall somewhere between the two parties. What’s in between “meh” and “deplorable?” That’s not really a place I’d want to be.
17 is still between 1 and 100 even if it’s closer to 1.
That’s an oversimplification, but let’s try putting it your way : if 1 is most left and 100 most right, republicans are at 90 and democrats at 70. Lots of auto proclaimed “Centrists” like Elon Musk are around 85.
Of course I’m pulling these numbers out of my ass but US politics have no left whatsoever.
That’s maybe not what a textbook centrist is, but definitely what most centrists in real life are.
This isn’t a centrist… It’s a conservative.
congratulations you figured it out
centrists are just conservatives who don’t have the balls to be open about itThey political spectrum has moved so far right in the states that a true centrist position would be considered socialist.
Welcome to the joke bro
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I used to consider myself a centrist. But in my not-all-too-extensive lifetime, I’ve seen some of my views go from being considered centrist to being considered leftist to being considered radical leftist without changing. At some point, I just decided to say fuck it, you want to label me a leftist nutjob, I’ll roll with it.
Center is relative. And in the US, there’s been a documented and deliberate effort from conservatives to push the country’s political ideology further and further to the right for the past a little over fifty years, it started right after Nixon lost to Kennedy but really kicked into high gear during Nixon’s first successful presidential campaign. So being a centrist used to be a reasonable position to hold. But it shifted. It moved. It was moved to the point where being a centrist means holding the expert and the kook in equal regard. If you really want to be a centrist between ideologies, between pure socialism and pure capitalism, between authoritarian and libertarian, between all the different political, social, economic and other ideologies, we don’t have that. We’re so far conservative economically, politically, and in most other ways that our “left-wing” party is right-of-center.
Why was Roosevelt’s Workers Bill of Rights too radical and reasonable to oppose? I’ll even go further, what was “so far left”, that it was ever reasonable to oppose it and be a centrist?
to wit: an “economic bill of rights” to guarantee these specific rights:
Employment (right to work[notes 1]) An adequate income for food, shelter, and recreation Farmers' rights to a fair income Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies Decent housing Adequate medical care Social security Education
Saying that you are a centrist is the “Not like other girls” of politics.
In my opinion, it’s more like the “Nice Guy” of politics.
This couldn’t be more apt.
“If you’re not with us, you’re against us.”
That’s a Republican talking point!
Responsible limits on campaign contributions are not remotely at odds with thinking money can be used on speech.
Writing a book is undeniably free speech. So why would it not be free speech if you pay out of pocket and self-publish? What if a group of people get together and pay to publish it as a collective?
Or how about Chevron running an ad saying “buy our gas.” What if the ad says “buy our gas because global warming isn’t real?” What if the ad says “vote for Eric Erickson, a staunch global warming denier?”
All are money, all are free speech, but not all are political speech. We don’t need corporations or billionaires throwing unlimited money at political speech.
It’s also worth pointing out that corporations aren’t citizens, and aren’t people - they have no more right to first amendment protections than your pet parrot or Vladimir Putin.
What if a group of people get together and pay to publish it as a collective?
Sounds like a corporation to me. What if the book is political? Now you’ve got a corporation throwing money at political speech. Can’t have that.
The problem with the OP comic like most such comics is that it’s demonizing the acknowledgement of nuance and considering arguments to have merit when they do. It can be simultaneously true that campaign finance laws serve a valid purpose for protecting democracy from regulatory capture, and that they risk enabling oppressive violations of free expression. There is nothing wrong with realizing this, people should be thinking things through enough to become conflicted about them.
The middle half duh
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