Progressive Politics

To all of these enlightened centrists in the comments: Just make sure to get down off the fence before the barbed wire goes up.

Neoliberalism in the early 90s pulled in a few people from the Republican party, cost a shit ton of voters who had been faithfully voting D for their whole lives, and despite never really pulling anymore voters than that initial wave, the DNC still wants to continue the march to Reagan era trickle down economics hoping they can guilt trip voters because Republicans have gone absolutely insane on social issues to differentiate.

Meanwhile a candidate with an actual "centrist" economic policy isn't something we've been able to vote for in a generation, let alone someone that would be described as "leftwing" in any other 1st world country. Because the billionaires donate to both parties to ensure they always win.

The only difference were allowed to have these days is social issues, and apparently it's so bad now that genocide is one of the things the American public isn't allowed to have a day in anymore.

Look, centrism is a real thing. There are people who really do like to analyze each and every problem from a more or less unbiased viewpoint and form strong opinions without the influence of ideology, while being ready for a compromise. Anyone who was serious about being a centrist I ever talked to defined their ideology this way.

With that being said there also are right-wingers who like to masquerade as centrist or sometimes moderate left just so they can use their supposed position to more effectively plant their ideas and try and normalize them.

But the thing I'm sick and tired of is when people try and pretend that this is true for every centrist, while ignoring the real problem that there are radical elements that try to masquerade as moderate ones and in doing so are polarizing and actively destroying our society.

I'm definitely center. There's a ton of stuff I disagree with the majority of Lemmy on. (At least my home instance .world). That's because reality is nuanced, not all progressive politics work, or left politicians good.

But I'm not stupid, both sides clearly are not the same. Both bad in unique ways (from an American perspective that is) but one side is so much worse than the other to such a extreme degree that most of their politicians and even to a smaller degree their followers are just not worth the time of day.

I wish we lived in a world where we could all get along and have differing ideas without everyone getting all mad. Sadly we don't. So I play the line, that way my family can hopefully get the best outcome. It's all I can do.

The most interesting one here is equating fascists with antifascists because I feel like I kind of stray into that at times when antifascists get violent with fascists and punch a nazi protester or something. On the one hand, shouldn't we take the high road and practice non-violence, but on the other hand, nazis would have no problem killing the other side if they had control. It gets into the whole paradox of tolerance and how the "high road" just may not be possible with some people. Maybe punching nazis is the correct response?

I consider myself left-wing on most things, but there does seem to be an almost reflexive tendency on the left to try to shut down any criticism by assuming the worst in people whenever somebody says something even slightly critical or against the prevailing doctrine. If you don't sing the highest praises of some groups everytime and assume that they can never do wrong, you're automatically assumed to be an extreme right-wing/nazi/incel/homophobe/transphobe. You're either completely perfect or you're scum.

Part of it might be from dealing with right-wing propaganda campaigns online for the past 10 years or so, where you can't even have coherent arguments with right-wingers anymore, it's just not even worth your time to argue with them because they're ignoring logic anyways and they're not arguing in good faith, there's just no point most of the time.

I'm not from the US but I would describe myself a a left leaning centrist. The parties I voted for in the last 5 elections where all center left.

If you map the parties based on left/right and progressive/conservative my vote is definitely center left and high progressive.

The US has a political system that sucks, where you only have 2 real options. A system where multiple parties have to form a coalition gives you the voter many options.

Ewww no. Fuck balance. Go hard when you can, mitigate losses when you can't.

I'm not left or right I'm a secret third thing (Our current system is a complete joke and I'm plagued with dread about my inability to enact meaningful change, I still vote and stuff, but I don't feel like I'm having much of an effect)

Don't try to put me into one of your boxes please.

A 2 party system is a bad idea.

I have also seen a lot of people who line up squarely in the middle of moderate Democrats on every issue, but don't like to be associated with the inexperienced college kid stereotype.

Oh, neat. Propaganda done in the style of Far right facebook boomer humor! Love seeing Lemmy constantly generalize and misrepresent people.

I mean, damn, I consider myself a centrist but that basically means “not a worthless shitheel asshole traitor in the bag for russia and against doing anything for the American people”. I think gummint should GTFO peoples lives (so fuck off with your shit about gay people and religion and abortion) and pay its fucking bills (so fuck off with your tax cuts and spending). And it’s fucking absolutely asinine that any mentally defective degenerate can get a goddamn semiautomatic weapon, are you fucking nuts?

What is the word… I used to hear it all the time but haven’t really heard it much these days. Oh what is that word.

Nuance.

This was me before covid, then I got radicalized to the left.