Actual centrists recognize how extreme the right has gotten, and vote accordingly. Bothsiders are the brainless, egotistical tools of the far right, going along with normalizing fascism because they don't want to think too hard.
Everytime I have a discussion with someone who says “both sides are the same”, they always end up voting right. I ask if both sides are the same why not vote left?
It's weird how often people say they "Aren't for Right or the Left" and "Think BOTH parties are the problem", but only ever have negative things to say about the Left.
I've had a guy tell me he votes for Trump because he's trying to take a balanced centrist view of things. But dude, if Trump is the center, wtf are your extremes?
Let's just start with the fact that American political system is super skewed to begin with and no actual left has any power.
Dems are highly pro-capitalist, moderately nationalist and merely call to strike a bit less horrible balance between the interests of people and businesses. This is not left, this is a bit better right.
This fallacy keeps people trapped in an idea that the only possible options are "good" ultra-capitalism and "greedy" ultra-capitalism, which is not true.
People that try to have "both sides heard" totally ignore that there are way more than two angles in this conversation and that Dems are not some sort of a political extreme. Reps, ironically, kinda are.
And Democrats often think they vote for something actually good, when it's actually just a lesser evil. Keep that in mind, no matter what you decide.
It’s the media, not the people. If you read the same article from sources across the political spectrum, you’ll find the further right you go, the more information is omitted and the more opinionated the journalist becomes. So, someone who reads primarily right wing and centrist media will naturally have a right wing opinion when reading centrist articles.
After the VP debate, I was stuck under two babies and couldn't get up before CBS did it's spin room coverage and fake analytics. During their focus group of 6 undecideds, I nearly fucking lost it when one said "I like that Vance said he's pro-family".
This shit repeated on my stream I was watching several times and I inevitably woke up my 8mo having to get to the computer before every last drop of my sanity was gone.
Interestingly enough I always did research on both candidates right up to Romney. And I always voted blue. There are people out there who don't like either party and aren't on the right.
on reddit, there's a place that requires you to flair yourself with your political compass, flaired myself centrist (after someone said "FLAIR UP!!!!!"), someone said "NO YOU'RE NOT!!!", later took the political compass test, came out centrist.
guess what i am now, given where i currently am
As a centrist, I hate how I get smack from both sides. Rightwings hate me whenever I have leftwing opinions and leftwings hate me whenever I have rightwing opinions.
Economically I'm leaning right - I want the state to provide free healthcare, schools, universities etc but founding a company has to be easier, we can't afford to keep pouring 1/3 of our yearly budget into pensions on top of the budget for pensions etc.
Socially I'm leaning left - I don't care at all if someone is trans, homosexual, whatever, and want men and women to have equal rights.
So I am neither left or right. And there also is a party that aligns with most of my beliefs (and is against some others but there never is a perfect party).
The issue is that internet politics are often viewed from a USA-centric standpoint. When I say I'm neither left nor right (because it depends on the topic, as explained above) I see memes like that come up. Although my economically right views for my country would be far left from an US-american standpoint anyway.
Please describe someone who could be considered neither left nor right. Is it possible you are viewing the absence of left-wing qualities as being right-wing?
This is absolute hogwash. Actual centrists bring up some Republican talking points (at least, the valid ones) when talking to a Democrat, because democrats don't seem to understand them.
Surprise surprise, Republicans think centrists bring up Democratic talking points.
Centrists get the same bullshit demonization from both parties, because both parties are insanely convinced that getting rid of the dissenter makes the issue go away.
It would have been nice if he issue was just something simple, like a religion. But no, demonization is too convenient - an easy argument for pawns to make. Step on someone else, make yourself feel better. Classic.