Conservatives frequently refer to themselves as centrists or neither. In the U.S., it is obvious someone is a right wing asshat if they claim to be centrist or neither.
"bOtH sIdEz r EqUaLlY bAd!!!"
If they were really centrist they'd vote democrat anyway, as that's the centrist party.
Many leftists also vote democrat. Lesser of two evils, a two party system, no ranked choice voting, etc. etc. etc. etc.
Well america does not have a real left tbh ! Many people think of socialism as left wing while it is the economic center , someone supporting social left policies like lgbt rights can be considered liberal , but they can still be against universal healthcare or other socialist polices and then votes dem , coz they are liberal!
It's crazy. I noticed this on dating sites. I live in a red area, but I ONLY would see "other" or "centrist" I think I could count on one hand how many people I saw actually say they were conservative.
Naturally they all had their identity set as "free thinkers..."
I have a step grandfather who is super far right but insists he’s a democrat and that he’s the only true democrat in the family since he was elected as a democrat judge in a rather conservative area in Ohio in the 80s or 90s. He has also said the only thing he can do to save the country is to vote for crazy fascist republicans. Insists he knows how to run a government better than everyone in the family as well all because he was a judge.
One of my favorite thing to do with him is talk about something that impacts me and not tell him that it impacts me directly until after he’s been super shitty about it. Once I say it impacts me he then backtracks and tries to say that he still fully believes in the things he believes in but that he didn’t mean me, he meant the other ones. That my situation was different for no reason. He’s a piece of shit who my family expects me to respect, but I have many times purposefully been disrespectful because someone like him deserves negative respect.
To be fair, he may actually be a democrat, just a historic one. Their 'roles' were kind of reversed compared to today until somewhere in the last century if my outside knowledge of US political history serves right.
The flip came with Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act and then Goldwater and Nixon capitalizing on racists' anger about it with the Southern Strategy.
Yeah that’s basically what he is. I’ve never talked to him about the party switch and it’d be an interesting and probably very frustrating situation.
That said, you mentioning that has given me an idea about what to say the next time he says he’s a democrat so thank you for that!
Ah, a Strom Thurmond Democrat.
People that claim themselves to be centrists in this economy, are either plain stupid or republicunts in disguise.
Yes, they are not mutually exclusive.
It's this kind of rhetoric that prevents productive conversation. If we want anyone to change their minds the first step is to talk to them person to person, not boil someone down to black and white beliefs. People are more nuanced than that.
I can talk person to person with reasonable people. I do not find people reasonable that hate others for their skin color, their faith, or their identity, instead of hating them for their actions. I do not find people reasonable that want to exterminate those. I also do not find people reasonable that do not care about those being hated and death being wished upon them just because they are fiscally conservative .
My problem with "centrists" is that they're using the word to avoid consequences for the hatred they spew online. Those "centrists" claim to be centrists but the only issues they ever talk about are right-wing issues, 99% of the time the culture war that they wage. Just say you're republican and make it easy for me, I don't care if we agree or disagree on other issues at the current time, if you think that exterminating different people is okay you cannot convince me of anything anymore.
Or enlightened democrats who understand there party is the actual center and that workers aren't represented outside of Bernie and AOC
More accurately, I would say these types react to someone criticizing the status quo, which is typically right wing. These types are usually sheltered white guys who have had very few problems with the status quo because, well, they're white men.
The reason that you are running into situations like this is because you (the meme creator position) don't witness the Centrist also vehemently argue with right-wing policies frequently.
You only see them argue with you and therefore have a skewed view of them and their politics. If you are left wing, and argue for left-wing policies in every case, that means you will also be argued with by somebody who believes political nuance and not just waving a party flag.
The right wing also shits on centrists because they think they are secretly left-wing since they argue with some of their stupider points as well.
These people are not secretly right-wing and just don't have the balls to say it. That is a horrendous take no matter where you fall on the political spectrum the only serves to limit conversation.
I’ve participated often in a wide variety of conversations on a wide variety of platforms. The trick is, for some weird reason Centrists never vehemently argue with the right. I wonder why that is…
The truth is centrism is just a way to support the “convenient” part of conservatism while avoiding any blame for the “inconvenient” parts. It’s fence-sitting bullshit. Centrists simply equate to embarrassed conservatives.
I would love to see a centrist argue against right wing policies. Once.
Not even to me just in general. Surely there is a library of video / audio / text examples out there that for some reason hasn't crossed my path, and a whole lotta shit has in almost 30 years of internet.
In Spain, when someone says "I'm neither left or right", that person is on the right, most of the time (if not always).
Yeah, same in America most of the time. Funny it's often the right-wing that wants to pretend that they are "center" and/or are too afraid to say they are right-wing. It's like they know...
Also centrists are just people who like the status quo which always benefits the people in power.
I feel like the very idea of "centrist" is flawed. Sure you can choose not to identify with either party.
But for most of these issues you can't reasonably pick a "center" option for most issues. Sure we can argue implementation but you're either ok with abortion, gun control, gay rights, civil rights, or your not.
Is it really useful to have the "control guns" and "control guns only a little" groups fighting when there's a "school kids are a worthy sacrifice for guns" party?
This internet version of centrism that everyone hates on is bizarre to me, for the reasons you say - the "only commit half a genocide" type of centrism. Are there people who really strike a middle ground on every issue on principle?
I always understood centrism as "I hold enough opinions from both parties that I don't align with either one", which honestly fits me pretty well. I still have strong opinions on individual issues though...
Centrism is when you pretend that the screams of oppressed trans people mean exactly the same to you as the chants of the nazis prosecuting them, but deep down you know you're actually a nazi too.
They always seem to vote Republican.
This comment section is a riot.
So if someone truly has values that fall on both sides of the aisle, and can tell you what they don’t agree with on both sides, and can admit fault to each side… that makes them Republican?
I’d rather take someone any day that will take a stance on individual issues over just agreeing with what a specific political party says.
Everyone saying in this comment section that you aren’t strictly a Democrat you’re wrong/the problem… are indeed themselves the problem and are kidding themselves.
Right : kill all minorities. Left : noooooooo Centrist : lets save half of them! Go figure.
The left is misguided about certain issues.
The right is outright malicious about just about every issue, and is actively attempting to eliminate all other ideologies, using deception and violence.
That is why both sides are not the same.
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