Culture Centrists. The real threat to Democracy - Could your co-worker be a dirty moderate?

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The warning signs are flashing red: Democracy is under threat. Across Europe and North America, candidates are more authoritarian, party systems are more volatile, and citizens are more hostile to the norms and institutions of liberal democracy.

These trends have prompted a major debate between those who view political discontent as economic, cultural or generational in origin. But all of these explanations share one basic assumption: The threat is coming from the political extremes.

On the right, ethno-nationalists and libertarians are accused of supporting fascist politics; on the left, campus radicals and the so-called antifa movement are accused of betraying liberal principles. Across the board, the assumption is that radical views go hand in hand with support for authoritarianism, while moderation suggests a more committed approach to the democratic process.

Is it true?

Maybe not. My research suggests that across Europe and North America, centrists are the least supportive of democracy, the least committed to its institutions and the most supportive of authoritarianism.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/23/opinion/international-world/centrists-democracy.html




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Yeah if the last two years or so are any indication, the Left really isn't allowed to try and take the high road on the whole "supporting authoritarianism" thing. This is some of the dumbest bullshit I've ever read, and I spent most of the morning reading all of those "Haha TotalBiscuit died" replies. Whoever wrote this article should be fucking ashamed of themselves and should burn their diploma in a dumpster, because they clearly aren't planning on using it for anything worthwhile.
 
Wait, so I'm not allowed to have an opinion of my own without going to the extreme of either side?

I'M the downfall of democracy? Not the ones who feel like they need to go to the extremes of their beliefs and anyone else is a literal enemy? No? Well fuck.
 
It is endlessly amusing to me that there are people who think of other people that have actively decided not to be a screeching idiot as some kind of witch that needs to be destroyed.
 
It's HK-47 dijo:
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Yeah if the last two years or so are any indication, the Left really isn't allowed to try and take the high road on the whole "supporting authoritarianism" thing. This is some of the dumbest bullshit I've ever read, and I spent most of the morning reading all of those "Haha TotalBiscuit died" replies. Whoever wrote this article should be fucking ashamed of themselves and should burn their diploma in a dumpster, because they clearly aren't planning on using it for anything worthwhile.
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Gotta love Germany and Italy in that graph.
 
I examined the data from the most recent World Values Survey (2010 to 2014) and European Values Survey (2008), two of the most comprehensive studies of public opinion carried out in over 100 countries. The survey asks respondents to place themselves on a spectrum from far left to center to far right. I then plotted the proportion of each group’s support for key democratic institutions.
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Because clearly you can only be far right, center, or far left drawing from an entire political spectrum. How is this adequate basis for an argument?
 
Yeah the left-right axis is shit at describing political thought. Almost all my positions are pretty extreme but since they come from different ends of that axis they'd probably say I'm a centrist.
 
You know what really annoys me about this, and other articles of its ilk... It's written by people who are on one side of the argument or the other always with a skew to there side of the argument ignoring the fact that the majority of people sit closer to the middle than they do towards the extremes of either side.

There is a near future series of books called Damemon where someone designs an omnipotent AI that is designed to make the best choice, that has everything available to it from Murderbots to a fully functional aid network (an everything inbetween) and the Main Character follows it's development as he has been a victim of and beneficial of this AI and the associated group is given the Yes / No decision if it should shut down.

At the end, after all, he has been through and having the explanation that not everyone is directly able to access it and nobody can fully access or control its (apart from two people, in interesting plot ways) and the ideal is sitting in the middle with minor fluctuations between the population.

Now I know it was supposedly an omnipotent AI that was amoral it's only focus was maintaining a balance i.e. a benevolent dictator situation as a vehicle for the message and political theory of that being the best kind of government that could not be developed any time soon it's god damned compelling to stay closer to the centre than it is to tie to one side or the other, because it's the one choice that allows freedom as the power is spread around equally if not directly and where focus is given it's due to need.
 
Golly dijo:
Because clearly you can only be far right, center, or far left drawing from an entire political spectrum. How is this adequate basis for an argument?
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Nah, to people like the author of that Op-Ed, you can only be far right or centrist, which is just slightly less far right to them.

I remember reading an article a while back (fucking having a time trying to find it again) of some college lecturer arguing that colleges should stop debating or accepting anyone right wing at all and should focus on debates between left and far-left if they want to make "true progress".
 
King n Yellow dijo:
Nah, to people like the author of that Op-Ed, you can only be far right or centrist, which is just slightly less far right to them.

I remember reading an article a while back (fucking having a time trying to find it again) of some college lecturer arguing that colleges should stop debating or accepting anyone right wing at all and should focus on debates between left and far-left if they want to make "true progress".
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Some years back I heard a discussion on NPR between both sides of business tax debate: one guy thought taxes needed to be raised on businesses some, the other guy thought they needed to be raised more.
 
This really does prove my point that the best way to piss off any ultra-partisan on any side, don't just pretend to be on the exact opposite of them, all you have to do is to just simply say "I don't care"
 
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