I have family members who refer to me as Cassandra because I regularly spout "inane nonsense" about the future which then inevitably becomes true.
I don't have a gift or a crystal ball. I have two eyes and (sadly) a working brain and the werewithal to study history and put one and one together.
We aren't geniuses by any stretch of imagination. It's just extremely sad and painful to see almost everyone else keep going with the (just) bearable lies vs the distinctively unbearable truth.
"Surely we can find some common ground between the Final Solution and the status quo?" —centrists
Past week, been seeing a lot of anti liberal stuff on lemmy. So, you've got people from the outside trying to destabilize the u.s. saying, both sides are the same, democrats are just as bad as Republicans. This creates a scenario that created Trump becoming president in the 1st place. It's done on purpose.
Now, I understand that democrats, liberals aren't perfect. But we have one side trying to set up detention camps, threatening to kill political rivals, consumed with hate. Other side trying at least to be better people.
I'm asking honestly, I would like to learn. Why is the both sides mindset becoming so prevalent?
Theory: they know. They know we're in trouble, that we need to take action, that we can fix the problems. They know that they're wrong and that they're making things worse, but they don't care about being right or making the word better, they only care about winning. To change is to admit defeat and, therefore, lose, so the only way to win is to make sure that your opponents lose too.
Hey leftists how about you stick your head in the sand and live in blissful ignorance like us centrists do. Meanwhile our asses are sticking up and we get ass raped by capitalism. But because we “listen” to “both” sides and make up our own mind we decided to actually enjoy it.
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.
"Why don't you listen to both sides of the argument and make your own opinions and arguments based on that?"
Bitch, why do you think I'm a fucking leftist???
The enlightened centrist here comes across as a Republican too embarrassed to admit it -- it seems to be a core thought in conservatism that anyone who isn't conservative just hasn't formed an independent opinion, and if they did that, they'd be conservative.
One of the worst things we liberals did, including me is not fighting this Republican rot at the start with the ferocity it deserved.
I remember during the Bush years, while republicans were infesting every level of government and calling liberals demons and Unamerican and enemies... We chuckled at them and laughed along Jon Steward how silly these republicans were, while sitting at home complacent. All our leaders kept spouting bipartisanship as the ultimate goal... Meanwhile Republican talkshow hosts were calling Democrats America's #1 enemy...
We didn't sense the danger and the massive damage their propaganda was doing to the next generation and to every level of government.
Now we've arrived at Trump... And fighting back now is infinitely harder.
It reminds me of climate change.... We saw the problems early, yet did nothing and now that we have to do something it's so much more painful and some of it likely unfixable.
Are centrists and independents lumped together? I call myself an independent because I'm tired of the bs of both sides. Both sides do have great things to offer, and dumbasses at the same time. But, for clarity, I don't take a middle ground stance on most things, I have varied opinions that bounce from side to side.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but it reminds me of Kassandra who was cursed by Apollo and destined to tell everyone true prophesies, but nobody would ever believe her.
She foresaw the fall of Troy and tried to warn everyone, but was ignored and forced to watch the city's downfall.
aka the Cassandra curse
If ignorance is bliss
Then knock the smile off my faceRage against the machine!
Here is the thing: always listening to both sides of the argument is a good policy, but remember that you are under no obligation to agree with both sides. Yes, on some issues both sides have valid points, but on other issues one side is completely bogus and once you realize it you should not pretend that it isn't.
it's neither the refugees nor the fear mongering around them which cause a rise of fascism. It's those type of leftist who call everyone "Nazi" they don't agree with. The leftists have became really uppity and claim that only leftist views are right and good. Every right wing view is evil and has to be canceled in the view of leftists. Moderate right wing people's concerns are not listened to and instead they are defamed. This is causing them to radicalize themselves.
You'd knew this if people would start listening to each other again. Instead we let ourselves get separated by the rich and post memes which let centrists look like idiots.
I got into leftism BECAUSE I listened to both sides of the spectrum (i used to be a right winger) not in spite of it
Substitute left for right, and you will find the same sort of commentary being made, except using different political talking points. The worst part about it is the hatred towards critical thinking shared by both sides. "Consider multiple arguments from their respective points of view, look at the evidence and rationales, and form my own judgements? No thanks, that's stupid, I'd rather believe all politics devolve into a line of people who are right versus people who are wrong while ignoring the exponential branches of information systems as they grow in complexity, totally isn't me devolving complex issues into tribalism."
Governments still work because there are still people within them capable of critical thinking, but I dread the day these morons begin to get elected and try to chest pump their ideology from all sides of the radicalized spectrum.
Incidentally, trying to call people who exist outside of the radicalized left-right schism centrists is just showing your ignorance and bias; when you don't devolve issues into simple left and right, there is no "center", nor does it mean everything is an indistinct shade of grey. It gets even more complex than that because of the tendency of radicals and external influence to try to portray everything into one of two sides, which does political posturing actually be about the left and the right, but focusing on those takes is probably the biggest hint that you trying to base yourself on a flawed perspective without nuance.
It doesn't surprise me that most people choose to become a dot on a line because, quite frankly, most people (including me) are morons about the issues they try to approach as if they were experts, yet many still see themselves as infallible while doing so because of overextended projecting from some branch of a knowledge they are actually experts of, and the left-right pantheon is basically the very hyper-rationalization of that projection. Trying to define that dot on the line is very much like the Romans who tried to establish a relationship between their deities and that of the locals in their path to conquest. I will admit, it certainly is very effective at manipulating the same sort of people who are easily tickled by their own ego.
Time for you and your cat to have…. A training montage!
