If someone says that they are “centrist” they are not telling you that they base all of their opinions on being in the middle of any two positions. That would be astoundingly stupid and is very much a straw-man take on the situation.
They are telling you that they agree with neither major party on everything, and find that both parties have views that they don’t agree with. It’s pretty easy to come to that conclusion because the US two-party system packs in an almost incoherent mishmash of beliefs into exactly two sides.
There is absolutely no contradiction in being for police reform, and against riots lasting for days. There is no contradiction in being for gun rights, while also wanting limits on them. There is no contradiction in wanting functional government services and universal healthcare, and thinking that free markets are effective. There is no contradiction in wanting a more balanced budget, and government services to be funded.
The idea that there are only two sides in politics is a strange delusion created by your two party system.
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.
You just described a Leftist, in some ways. Disagreeing with both majority parties doesn’t mean you have to stand between “evidence-based” and “far-right”.
There is absolutely no contradiction in being for police reform, and against riots lasting for days
That’s being in the middle of the two positions. It’s not that there’s a contradiction, but that you just ate up the rhetoric that BLM protesting was all “riots lasting for days”. And “Police Reform” is a middle-of-the-road alternative to “follow the evidence, defund 90% of the police and have non-lethally-armed services do those things”. This fits our description of centrist to a tee
There is no contradiction in being for gun rights, while also wanting limits on them
Sure. I’m a leftist who feels this way. The “real center” here, though, would be the Democratic party, who still want less gun control than most civilized nations. Your view perhaps resembles the “the Right is so bat-shit insane that conservatives are confused for moderates”?
There is no contradiction in wanting functional government services and universal healthcare, and thinking that free markets are effective
I mean… yeah there is. If free markets were effective, we should be gutting all government services and regulatory bodies. Nobody actually believes free markets are effective. There are those who embrace the buzz-word without realizing it, and then there are those who want the free markets because they are ineffective and that the profit margins available to them are massive.
There is no contradiction in wanting a more balanced budget, and government services to be funded
Again, this is the formal Democratic position. The formal Republican position is called “Starve the Beast”, and it is for there to NEITHER be a balanced budget NOR be government services funded. I’m not making that up. On this view, you sound like a Democrat, but if you vote for Republicans on their economic stances despite matching Democrats, that makes you the middle of the two views again.
The idea that there are only two sides in politics is a strange delusion created by your two party system.
Obviously, but there are two sides to every issue. If we get back to the OP issue, it’s that one side has been screaming “climate change is real and permanent damage is imminent” and the other side has been screaming “climate change is fake and God loves us”. Centrists have been between the two saying “I know the meteor is headed for us, but my retirement is more important to me than the world still being around when my kids grow up”. We’ve been dealing with 40+ years of that. But yeah, that IS between the two sides.
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 funny thing is that for 9 policies out of 10, most lefties just argue for the educated position against the “gut instinct” or “I know science says this but it worked for me” position. Hell, just look at the topic of parents hitting kids and it covers all the nuances of the leftist problem. Is the Left always correct? No. But the Right and/or Center is a broken clock in this. I think the Left is wrong on Gun Control and the Democrats are right. That’s about the only issue I can think of right now that the majority of the Left is wrong on. Not because I’m a leftist but because I’m educated in the issues.
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.
Not quite. They pretend centrists are the far left and shit on them, so that “moderate” really means “neocon but not seeking Handmaid’s Tale”.
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.
Anyone who voted Trump in 2020 was either ignorant or Right-Wing, regardless of what they claimed to be. He is against fiscal conservativism, against modern medicine, and was caught red-handed working with Russia to steal the 2016 election. His presidency damaged the economy, but also focused that damage on states that net-provide resources for the country as a whole because they are Democrat. A person in New York paying an extra $10,000/yr in taxes with reduced overall QOL and COVID-dead family members “voting Trump anyway” is not a centrist.
Centrism is, by definition, staking your position as the middle between two (or more I suppose) defined positions. The reason it’s such a ridiculed stance is that it’s not based on any sort of principled viewpoints or analysis of the issues, and as one position shifts to extremism, the self-defined centrists follow happily along.
Just because you frame two positions as dichotomies does not mean that someone who agrees with parts of both is a centrist. It could mean they are false dichotomies (i.e. pro-riot vs pro-police) or they are positions where nuance is appropriate. Having a nuanced view is NOT being a centrist, unless the depth of your nuance is “Person A wants all of the things, and Person B wants none of the things, therefore the clear and correct answer is to have SOME of the things”. Especially when the thing is something like systematic racism or corruption.
The fact that US politics is so polarized that we’re constantly conditioned and primed to lump our positions into one of two (often incoherent) camps explains why centrism happens, but it’s not a defense of centrism.
Wikipedia disagrees as does every other definition I found.
Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the left or the right.
The far left and far right each have some funny ideas that aren’t fair to the rest of the country in America (and in some cases the world). Thinking about how best to move forward while getting as many people on board as possible and affect real change doesn’t mean “Hey other side, get fucked. Civil war time because I can’t have everything I want in all scenarios!”
The “false dichotomies” that you’re speaking about are simplifications to get the point across and are not false. You can feel that there needs to be a better system and that people in power shouldn’t be able to ignore issues that they find uncomfortable so that riots are not needed, and also be opposed to destroying things belonging to people not in power. There is nothing false about that.
If someone says that they are “centrist” they are not telling you that they base all of their opinions on being in the middle of any two positions. That would be astoundingly stupid and is very much a straw-man take on the situation.
They are telling you that they agree with neither major party on everything, and find that both parties have views that they don’t agree with. It’s pretty easy to come to that conclusion because the US two-party system packs in an almost incoherent mishmash of beliefs into exactly two sides.
There is absolutely no contradiction in being for police reform, and against riots lasting for days. There is no contradiction in being for gun rights, while also wanting limits on them. There is no contradiction in wanting functional government services and universal healthcare, and thinking that free markets are effective. There is no contradiction in wanting a more balanced budget, and government services to be funded.
The idea that there are only two sides in politics is a strange delusion created by your two party system.
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.
You just described a Leftist, in some ways. Disagreeing with both majority parties doesn’t mean you have to stand between “evidence-based” and “far-right”.
That’s being in the middle of the two positions. It’s not that there’s a contradiction, but that you just ate up the rhetoric that BLM protesting was all “riots lasting for days”. And “Police Reform” is a middle-of-the-road alternative to “follow the evidence, defund 90% of the police and have non-lethally-armed services do those things”. This fits our description of centrist to a tee
Sure. I’m a leftist who feels this way. The “real center” here, though, would be the Democratic party, who still want less gun control than most civilized nations. Your view perhaps resembles the “the Right is so bat-shit insane that conservatives are confused for moderates”?
I mean… yeah there is. If free markets were effective, we should be gutting all government services and regulatory bodies. Nobody actually believes free markets are effective. There are those who embrace the buzz-word without realizing it, and then there are those who want the free markets because they are ineffective and that the profit margins available to them are massive.
Again, this is the formal Democratic position. The formal Republican position is called “Starve the Beast”, and it is for there to NEITHER be a balanced budget NOR be government services funded. I’m not making that up. On this view, you sound like a Democrat, but if you vote for Republicans on their economic stances despite matching Democrats, that makes you the middle of the two views again.
Obviously, but there are two sides to every issue. If we get back to the OP issue, it’s that one side has been screaming “climate change is real and permanent damage is imminent” and the other side has been screaming “climate change is fake and God loves us”. Centrists have been between the two saying “I know the meteor is headed for us, but my retirement is more important to me than the world still being around when my kids grow up”. We’ve been dealing with 40+ years of that. But yeah, that IS between the two sides.
The funny thing is that for 9 policies out of 10, most lefties just argue for the educated position against the “gut instinct” or “I know science says this but it worked for me” position. Hell, just look at the topic of parents hitting kids and it covers all the nuances of the leftist problem. Is the Left always correct? No. But the Right and/or Center is a broken clock in this. I think the Left is wrong on Gun Control and the Democrats are right. That’s about the only issue I can think of right now that the majority of the Left is wrong on. Not because I’m a leftist but because I’m educated in the issues.
Not quite. They pretend centrists are the far left and shit on them, so that “moderate” really means “neocon but not seeking Handmaid’s Tale”.
Anyone who voted Trump in 2020 was either ignorant or Right-Wing, regardless of what they claimed to be. He is against fiscal conservativism, against modern medicine, and was caught red-handed working with Russia to steal the 2016 election. His presidency damaged the economy, but also focused that damage on states that net-provide resources for the country as a whole because they are Democrat. A person in New York paying an extra $10,000/yr in taxes with reduced overall QOL and COVID-dead family members “voting Trump anyway” is not a centrist.
Bro, you’re describing an independant.
Centrism is, by definition, staking your position as the middle between two (or more I suppose) defined positions. The reason it’s such a ridiculed stance is that it’s not based on any sort of principled viewpoints or analysis of the issues, and as one position shifts to extremism, the self-defined centrists follow happily along.
Just because you frame two positions as dichotomies does not mean that someone who agrees with parts of both is a centrist. It could mean they are false dichotomies (i.e. pro-riot vs pro-police) or they are positions where nuance is appropriate. Having a nuanced view is NOT being a centrist, unless the depth of your nuance is “Person A wants all of the things, and Person B wants none of the things, therefore the clear and correct answer is to have SOME of the things”. Especially when the thing is something like systematic racism or corruption.
The fact that US politics is so polarized that we’re constantly conditioned and primed to lump our positions into one of two (often incoherent) camps explains why centrism happens, but it’s not a defense of centrism.
Wikipedia disagrees as does every other definition I found.
The far left and far right each have some funny ideas that aren’t fair to the rest of the country in America (and in some cases the world). Thinking about how best to move forward while getting as many people on board as possible and affect real change doesn’t mean “Hey other side, get fucked. Civil war time because I can’t have everything I want in all scenarios!”
The “false dichotomies” that you’re speaking about are simplifications to get the point across and are not false. You can feel that there needs to be a better system and that people in power shouldn’t be able to ignore issues that they find uncomfortable so that riots are not needed, and also be opposed to destroying things belonging to people not in power. There is nothing false about that.