this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
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Okay, I actually agree with you on a lot of what you have to say.
Having certain dislikes of politics and to actually dislike facet of both political parties currently and having dislikes of both current political parties in order for them to be close to the center, which is again what a centrist is.
I completely agree. I think that people using the term centrist as a vague cover for what is usually fairly right wing politics is prevalent and a lot of people have seen this. YouTube personalities and posts on x / posts on blue sky / posts on freaking truth social they all claim to be centrist or they all claim to be a more "common sense voice" when they in fact aren't and this is very prevailing and I've seen this myself.
My own political journey has been extreme frustration and an understanding that both sides of the political aisle in the United States specifically are so ungodly terrible that I cannot bring myself to actually cast my ballot for anyone. That is a bit of an aside because that is only my own political experience, my own political opinion. I'm not going to cast my ballot for somebody who is actively corrupt or actively making stupid choices. So that is an aside and kind of detracts from my point, to be honest.
I think likening racism to political centrism, which is, again, what you are agreeing with, is not an apt comparison. You're agreeing with a commenter above that said "the middle ground between racism and not racism is 50% racism" Being a centrist in that agreeing with some stances of the conservatives and agreeing with some stances of the liberals is not the same thing as being 50% racist. Not at all. Being 50% racist could mean that you agreed with the South advocating for slavery as a way to keep the prices of cotton down in the United States but disagreed with slavery because it involves back-breaking labor without any payment to these poor people, you know, the slaves. The comment is honestly another thing that just shows the degradation of the political system in the United States down to two camps and two parties. It's the idea that the entire right is effectively racist until they can prove it, and the entire left is somehow communist, and pedophiles. Then if you happen to be a centrist, if you happen to be in the middle, as I've met many centrists, they exist. And again, it is probably the most viable of all of the political ideologies, if not for corruption and political manipulation to herd the population into either Democrat or Republican sides.
Me saying that I believe that we should only spend money that much we can actually tax from the population, and that if we continue to spend money to an obscene degree, then we are going to have a very difficult time in the world economic stage. That is true economic conservatism. Many people who claim to be conservatives, many people who claim to be far right, many people who claim to be, you know, a middle ground right, they don't believe in this form of conservatism. And most of them on the right don't practice what they preach.
So I guess that's one example of a stance that I take. And this idea that the middle ground is somehow, you know, partially siding with Donald Trump is extraordinarily stupid and just leads to people attacking each other for like no reason. Which is ultimately what I think Donald Trump stands for, which is just a bunch of people fighting in a metaphorical street fight. I agree that centrism generally isn't viable because there really isn't a political party that you can vote for and we only have a two-party system which again has fueled corruption in Washington and corruption in the States. I think that centrism only isn't viable iIf you take into account the political corruption, if there was less political corruption in Washington, if third parties were viable, which again is a far shot off from the reality that we currently live in. But still, if third parties were viable, then political centrism would, I think, be in many ways, Where the vast majority of people's political voting would land because I think the vast majority of people are actually just centrists forced to choose a side in a corrupt political system. Thanks for responding to my comment
i think we are mostly in agreement, though I'll address a couple points of contention on my side.
I wasn't necessarily trying to equate racism with political centrism, i was using that comment as an example of how the idea of 'centrism' isn't always a viable or practical one.
it could just as easily have been "The middle ground between wet and dry is 50% wet".
But you can see that this reads " This would be the best option if it was possible, but it isn't, currently " ?
I agree with the sentiment, though i disagree that the optimal location is the "centre" , as i said before.
And it seems you agree given the follow up about the partially siding with trump being ridiculous.
As i was saying before i don't think centrism is a good label for what you are describing because it isn't really the centre of anything, it's some other thing on a whole spectrum of things.
I think that using the label "centrism" hurts any argument significantly more than it helps and coming up with some other , more accurate way of describing your position would greatly benefit any discussion around that area.
But labeling and categorising things is hard, especially in a concise and descriptive manner and as you say modern political conditioning tends towards thinking in rigid boxes.
As a complete aside (and a contrived , though i'd say accurate description):
In an effective two party system a vote that doesn't correspond with either of the two sides is effectively a vote for the ultimate victor.
This isn't a commentary on the politics of either side, i mean this as general statement on how voting would effectively work in that kind of system.
Assuming you agree with that point of view, how do you reconcile the potential ethical and moral outcomes of not voting at all ?
Genuine question, zero baiting.