USA: we don't have a left. Democrats are at best center.
USA has a left. They almost never win at the ballot box, though. You have to find them in the streets.
You don't have a right either though, at least not a right on the democratic spectrum.
All you've got are "unacceptable" and "fascism".
This. Republicans and Democrats have been moving steadily to the right for the last 40 years. So now, Democrats are where Republicans were in the 1980s: boring corporatists who are best friends of banks, insurance and pharmaceutical companies. We haven't had a real progressive president since Jimmy Carter and that was 50 years ago.
Meanwhile, the right has moved all the way into an insane asylum. Their best friends are Russian oligarchs, fascists, religious nutjobs and civil war re-enactors, who communicate on Twitter and "Truth Social" and call themselves "Republicans."
The centrists has their basic needs met and isn't part of a social group that is threatened so they see both as a waste of tax spending.
"If we just improve the education system, racism will go away." - My centrist friend
Bro, no. Also, who the fuck do you think is trying to fund education? Assuming we even accept your premise.
Education does help, or the right wouldn't be trying to gut it so hard. But it's not all we need
Implied by this: centrists see all this mainly as a financial matter.
The answer is always in the middle. Let's do a little basic needs but only for the rich and a little genocide but only in the middle east
It says something, that securing people's basic needs is considered "far" left.
Maybe I’m the centrist in this scenario, but isn’t that just normal left? I’d expect far left to be like “we are going to exterminate all the rich then give their stuff to everyone else”
In the US at least, the entire country is so far right that the position above is actually far left in our political sphere.
Haha yeah US is so backwards. And I'm surprised the world hasn't built a massive wall around us because we literally use God as part of our laws, how many weapons we have stockpiled, how many citizens die from unnecessary violence, how little we care about the homeless.
And any sort of empathy about any of those problems, even pointing it out, isnt even a discussion point in politics because itll go nowhere fast.
The 'far left' described in that tweet is the 'center right' in Norway. USA politics feels weird and alien to Europeans.
we are going to exterminate all the rich
Only edgy teens on social media genuinely think this is a logical political goal you should advocate for in the first world on this day and age
then give their stuff to everyone else
If you change this to: "concentration of private property in few hands is a poisonous hydra that will forever feed inequality", then yes, that's a milquetoast far left take, which often comes from the desire of actually "getting everyone's needs met" and the idea that capitalism naturally organizes the economy in a way that disincentives letting a portion of the working class being comfortably capable of getting all their needs met.
And honestly, given the positions of most politicians on actually doing something to make housing affordable, I honestly think "getting everyone's needs met" is becoming a far left position.
Depends on what you mean by "far." If you mean believing in a radical restructuring of society along Communist lines, this can be done peacefully. Pacifism is an extremist position as well. Conflating "radicalism" with "violence" is just centrism at work.
On the same hand, there are extremely violent centrists. Kissinger murdered millions of people as a liberal, for example, which is a center-right ideology. Centrism isn't about non-violence.
my team: perfect angels
your team: evil monsters
it literally does not matter what two groups you are comparing, if you sound like this then a lot of people are not going to engage
why do people say these thing when they know its not true
It works. They know that banning abortions just drives abortion into back alleys, the point is they need that sort of autonomy in women to be effectively criminalized in order to regain the kind of control they had over women's bodies back when the boomers were still teenagers. They know abstinence-only teaching doesn't prevent unwanted pregnancy, they don't care and they want criminalizing abortion to be socially acceptable again.
They understand that the people demanding 'election integrity' are just using those words to make their real project- winning power despite having unpopular policy options on offer- seem respectable.
It doesn't matter that you're saying things too stupid for people to believe, the stupid ones will believe it anyways and the evil ones will use the stupid people to make civil politics uncivil
"Well I don't think we can meet everybody's needs so I'm unfortunately gonna have to side with the other movement, sorry!"
Far centre: Would you guys just fuck already.
Leftists: never show up to vote
Also leftists: nothing ever gets done. Both parties must be the same
Edit:
More info from Pew 2022 election polls:
Age and the 2022 election Age continues to be strongly associated with voting preferences in U.S. elections. Nearly seven-in-ten voters under 30 (68%) supported Democratic candidates in 2022 – much higher than the shares of voters ages 30 to 49 (52%), 50 to 64 (44%) and 65 and older (42%) who did so. Compared with 2018, GOP candidates performed better among voters who turned out across age groups.
Also:
Older voters turned out more reliably in both elections – and continued to be largely loyal to Republican candidates.
It's funny to see people that have swallowed anti communist peograganda hook line and sinker flounder in here trying to discredit the far left.
centrists are usually right wing wanting the votes/approval from left
Centrists are right wing afraid to call themselves right wing.
The right wing in the US is so fucking right wing that what is considered right wing elsewhere are called democrats
Well, it's hard to tell liberals and conservatives apart, mostly because liberalism isn't left wing, but actually slightly right from centre, and both liberalism and conservativism share some similarities.
This is what McCarthyism did. It's the great goal post mover.
Conservatives:
Liberals: "no nazis or bigots. We want fair pay and basic human rights"
Wow, it's so hard to see the difference.
"I'm fiscally Republican and socially a Liberal" is another great line to hide behind.
No. Centrists: "We think absolutes turn into fucking problems. We should have a choice and not a choice between two things we ALL don't like."
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