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

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

 

[AnOminous]

As I have continued to take that political compass test for the last couple decades, I have been startled to find that I'm now actually a centrist.

I started out at the lower left quadrant outright fucking commie part of the test, but as time has gone by, I've moved further and further toward the center to the point I'm now actually at it. I am now the political equivalent of True Neutral.

I don't know what I feel about this.

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"

This is the one thing I like about this. Literally everyone hates you if you tell them you're not even opposed to them, you just plain don't give a shit.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

Well, since I think that both Democrats and Republicans should go fuck themselves, where does that put me in this whole debacle?

Alt right. Anything that isn't mainstream media approved is evil.

 

[I-chi]

"REEEEEEEEEEE YOUR EXISTENCE MEANS WE AREN'T 100 PERCENT VALIDATED IN OUR TARD RAGE REEEEEE"

Getting this fucking assmad because your black and white worldview can't rationally shift the blame on the people who think both you and your enemy are completely retarded, but you'll do it anyways because you're still FUCKING RETARDED. You are your own punchlines, and you can't accept the fact.

Here's a great idea: You want people to give a shit about you again? Stop courting champagne socialists and college age hoodlums with a vandalism fetish and no off switch. Stop accounting race realists and frog memeing subhumans as valid intellectual representatives of your ideology.

Stop being autistic and we'll stop pointing at you and calling you autists. I'll be as smug about it as I want to be, and biting at me and people like me for choosing not to swallow the same bullshit alongside of you proves us right again and again.

Get fucked, both of you.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

As I have continued to take that political compass test for the last couple decades, I have been startled to find that I'm now actually a centrist.

I started out at the lower left quadrant outright fucking commie part of the test, but as time has gone by, I've moved further and further toward the center to the point I'm now actually at it. I am now the political equivalent of True Neutral.

I don't know what I feel about this.



This is the one thing I like about this. Literally everyone hates you if you tell them you're not even opposed to them, you just plain don't give a shit.

That test has turned to crap, it had me with socialist tendencies and I've voted for almost nothing but right wing fat cats and lolbertarians. You didn't change, the test did.

 

[AnOminous]

That test has turned to crap, it had me with socialist tendencies and I've voted for almost nothing but right wing fat cats and lolbertarians. You didn't change, the test did.

It's not just the test. I really have moved to the center, to escape from the psychotic, twisted, evil version of what the left has become.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

Well the test still sucks even if it got you right that time. Anyway F for your far left position.

 

[Ravenor]

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".

I have had that argument ranted at me in the past, including with the additions of "Some people don't deserve a platform". my argument is and it tends to make either side rage is "Everyone get's a platform, you are the ones who personally decide how that message is taken, and for anyone to commit to one side or the other in the name of equality is assinine".

The majority of people in the UA and Europe especially today don't care, they don't care about identity or what you do they are about a very small group of people and for anything else ts a MEh at worst the problem is demagogues on either side and how people chose to think about larger issues and how they feel they have to think and feel like they belong.

This isn't a new feeling and it will be the same millions of years from now if we live that long as a species, hell it's even enshrined in our biology and our closest living relatives the great apes biology. But and this is a big but understand that we are all individual and we all make our own value judgements on what someone means to you and also how your actions may have an impact on you, There is a collectivist mindset that has become almost cult-like and in some areas that effect every one that's arguably a good thing but in others it's bad, and this really need to be understood and a distinction needs to be taught between the two.

The problem is today it's more convenient than ever to pick a side and become a die-hard supporter without facts based on their initial feelings than ever before, and when you find a "fact" offensive toy are more likely to not arue it but recoil in horror from it.

 

[AnOminous]

I have had that argument ranted at me in the past, including with the additions of "Some people don't deserve a platform". my argument is and it tends to make either side rage is "Everyone get's a platform, you are the ones who personally decide how that message is taken, and for anyone to commit to one side or the other in the name of equality is assinine".

This is exactly why this "de-platforming" bullshit is what it is, which is BULLSHIT. It essentially amounts to claiming you only deserve a "platform" if you absolutely, completely agree with everything the fascist idiot in charge of "platforms" approves of.

 

[Dr. Kaufman]

Centrists are like the most passive and benign people out there. Anyone who thinks they're some kind of threat, outside of some soft power, is exceptional.

 

[Derp Potato]

Centrists are like the most passive and benign people out there. Anyone who thinks they're some kind of threat, outside of some soft power, is exceptional.

They're considered a threat because more often than not, they don't take everything at face value and either wait until more facts come out or just couldn't give two shits to begin with.

 

[The Fool]

I've never actually seen right-wingers care about centrists, from what I've seen it's just lefties that, for some reason, think you're being a ultra-alt-righter for being centrist.

 

[Dr. Kaufman]

They're considered a threat because more often than not, they don't take everything at face value and either wait until more facts come out or just couldn't give two shits to begin with.

That's accurate, which lends more credence to the fact that the only people who think they're a threat are exceptional.

 

[Lipitor]

You guys are forgetting about a recent tragedy which was completely caused by just ONE centrist. He needed to see everything cut in half right down the middle.. This is the real danger of centrists.

Spoiler

 

[Ravenor]

This is exactly why this "de-platforming" bullshit is what it is, which is BULLSHIT. It essentially amounts to claiming you only deserve a "platform" if you absolutely, completely agree with everything the fascist idiot in charge of "platforms" approves of.

I do honestly feel as if this ability is tied to a certain level of mental maturity that seems to become less common to explain to certain people in a way they understand, especially in generation feels over reals (I am not being dismissive here I do genuinely think there is a generation of people who value their feelings over genuine facts) who are mentally incapable of addressing a opinion they can't comprehend and it makes them feel bad.

I mean every older generation shits on the next one to an extent but I am shitting on parts of my own the ones after me, but I am part of the first generation that's able to prove that civil and human rights are more under threat than anytime before including in our parents lifespans, that has also has also had the most progressive mindset, the problem is when you gaze at the far horizon you forget the sea beneath you and right now it's starting to become one hell of a choppy sea.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

Alt-right shitposters hate centrists with a passion but they actually hold a lot of economic left positions so ironically they could be argued to be centrists.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

I do honestly feel as if this ability is tied to a certain level of mental maturity.

That combined with holding deeply unpopular positions they know on some level can only survive if protected from ideas with a higher memetic fitness.

 

[Medicated]

I mean every older generation shits on the next one to an extent but I am shitting on parts of my own the ones after me, but I am part of the first generation that's able to prove that civil and human rights are more under threat than anytime before including in our parents lifespans, that has also has also had the most progressive mindset, the problem is when you gaze at the far horizon you forget the sea beneath you and right now it's starting to become one hell of a choppy sea.

I believe it's that when you are young, you have a naive outlook of the world, you know the type of college student that thinks they can change the world if we all just work together. You know better than those idiots in the history books. The type of thinking that gets you killed because you thought backpacking through Iraq would prove what nice religion Islam is.

When you get older, you've experienced the world outside of your parents household and the college dorm. You realize people will get away with whatever they think they can. Older people start to become more cynical of humanity in general because they've had to experience the cold hard reality of the real world. They begin to realize people become leaders, not because they are great leaders, but usually because they are simply the most ruthless and rose to the top. They realize certain things in the world are part of humanities make up, corruption, greed, lust, power, and while minimized, will never be destroyed. And they alter their thinking and outlook based on those realities.

I think it's why you see people, as they get older, move rightways across the political spectrum.

 

[TowinKarz]

I've never actually seen right-wingers care about centrists, from what I've seen it's just lefties that, for some reason, think you're being a ultra-alt-righter for being centrist.

There seems to be a belief that no person really is a centrist, neutral people are just deep-cover hard-opposition sleepers waiting out there for their moment to suddenly strike and hop over on you enemies side at the last second.... It's the same belief that drove the "power and privilege" model of racism to be championed by the left, because it means just existing as a centrist who has no strong feelings about racial issues makes you guilty of racism anyway, inherently, unless you fight like a goddamn wolverine to prove you aren't.

And that's another reason why the left is self-destructing, they think Trump winning WAS all those "hidden" right wingers finally rising up and showing their "true" colors, not a vast bloc of people who migrated out there where it's naturally quieter.

And the constant attacks on those people for being "secret" alt-righters is only making it worse.

 

[break these cuffs]

Centrists are soyboy virgins afraid of having an opinion that someone might find offensive. They wear their lack of conviction like a badge of honor. It allows them to weasel out of any opinion when they get called out. DAE both sides are crazy and I'm the only one who's sane?

Spoiler: The future is written on slate boards

No clayfags allowed.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

That test has turned to crap, it had me with socialist tendencies and I've voted for almost nothing but right wing fat cats and lolbertarians. You didn't change, the test did.

The Political Compass is garbage. It was made to criticize the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown Labour Party for being too far right. The point was to show how Blair/Gordon are right wing and that most people are left of them, so they should vote for a real left-wing Labour Party. They have retarded questions about astrology and shit to help guide you to the left part of their compass.