What happened to all the moderates?

[Jeezy911]

Modern day Republicans are Bill Clinton Democrats. The left has been pushed into insanity zone of the spectrum by socialists.

[dope_danny]

Theres plenty of studies to show that modern binary tribalism is just brainwashing on the level of a cult on a national scale. Take the vulnerable, the disenfranchised and the lonely. Especially target teens or college students and teach them they are special and have meaning ONLY if they join their side in the coke vs pepsi black and white political world. They pull them in with honeyed words and tell them to cut off and cut out anyone who disagrees starting with friends and family. They make it so these vulnerable people only have them to rely on so then they dont step out of line because if they turn on you then you have nobody.
Neo Nazis, social justice warriors. Same shit different names. Groups of authoritarian snake oil salesman that lure in the easy targets and tell them the world hates them and that they must become a radical zealot that only sees the world in black and white, in race and creed and to react to any other opinion with anger, violence and zealotry on the level of puritanical witch hunters. The different groups just target different people to brainwash but its the same shit at the end of the day. Its a climate where the rational, logic response has no place because that questions the upper echelons of the pyramid and they can't have that.

The reason it began was simple. We live in a time where we are more connected than ever and that makes data harder to parse. Our contact lists grow bigger and thats more variables to deal with. Every human after all is a unique collection of instances and experiences unique to them and at best you can meet people with comparable ideals but never 100% identical. So to blend this down into easy to digest white noise people have a very bad habit of seeking generalisations even when they dont realise they are doing it.
This makes for easy targets for any brainwashing personality cult to both lure in and esnare and to sick their sycophants onto when they need to.

All people need to do is stop. listen. think and then think some more before making a decision. If you define your self by anything ending in "ist" thought up by someone longdead you probably lack confidence in yourself really. Nobody from a very different time and climate is going to come up with an ideology and moral compass for you like a time capsule waiting to be found. I'm just glad being a cynic has protected me from being pulled in by these cults. Because thats really what they are.

At the end of the day people need to think for themselves more, research everything and never take the first answer as fact and not be afraid to be wrong and have to reevaluate things. Thats being human not part of a hive of drones giving up their humanity to be part of something foul that convinced them its the only truth and the way like any iron age pagan cult leader.

But that requires independent thought and introspection. Better to parrot image macros and phrases like "listen and believe". Head down, eyes shut and let the Orwellian nightmare unfold like a welcoming death dying to exposure in the snow, right?

[noidentity]

There can be no moderates when the other side has embraced nazis.

Which is bullshit since those Nazis are the extremes of the group and don't represent the group as a whole.

[I Push Buttons]

No, see that is an over all sense of flow, being able to separate different ideas, without automatically leaping to the conclusions on something else because you didn't see a fucking period or you didn't and nothing in YOUR head told you to stop.

Read what is being written as if you were actually attempting to have a conversation.

I am talking about equating over all obvious observations and trying to merge them into an opinion backed by shitty or no logic and almost no pattern or sense, and that really is important when you have people that can tell you all day about theory as it pertains to what they learned on the interwebs.

But can't really honestly distinguish between two ideas, one being that of an opinion, the other being proclamation or a directive.


You can NEVER be wrong if you like Chocolate and I like Vanilla, and there can be no argument with that.


However fundamental issues concerning how we treat members of our society who are born NOT like everyone else, really isn't "well we will agree to disagree" No WE DON'T.

Period if you hate people because of the color of their skin, their gender, or orientation and have decided for yourself who these people are and what they should or should be doing, based n how they were born as opposed to what YOU CHOOSE for them based on your opinion despite the over whelming fact these are fucking people. Whether you agree or are indifferent.

No, there should be no place for you, in reality on this earth let alone in public spaces, but I don't control that, but I would be damned if I am told to tolerate someone who's primary mission in life is not to because of how they believe, and who other people simply are biologically.

As for anybody saying well you are extreme in the center, or moderate too fucking right.

Dude are you having a stroke?

You keep writing these incoherent walls of texts.

[Tiravi]

That John Cleese clip is so apt.

Also worth mentioning (I think) the strip from The Oatmeal explaining why we react this way to extremism. If you don't like the style or the framing, try to ignore it and read to the end, it's an interesting point.

The Oatmeal . com - You are not going to believe what I'm about to tell you. Can't post links because I'm a newbie

[Dextroden]

Which is bullshit since those Nazis are the extremes of the group and don't represent the group as a whole.

You want to shut that down? Apply that logic to the Muslim community. Quickly, the individual will be all that matters once more. Or they'll deflect to Christianity for double irony.

[Tinykong]

All the moderates are too busy living their lives to give a shit.

[Antiganon]

Which is bullshit since those Nazis are the extremes of the group and don't represent the group as a whole.

You want to shut that down? Apply that logic to the Muslim community. Quickly, the individual will be all that matters once more. Or they'll deflect to Christianity for double irony.

False equivalence is false.

Pretty sure "kill all blacks jews and anyone we deem to be lesser humans" is the party line for nazis, not a radical extremist offshoot.

[Emode]

No one has their own ideas or opinions on things because everyone just wants to or are force to fit in.

[Taso]

Moderates exist it's just people don't want it. Every decade and century has its radicals that appeal to the masses. Sanders for example a socialist and yes he's a socialist appealed to the young generation who felt they lost everything to a Great Recession. Trump on the other hand represented a common man who spoke what others wanted to hear. Think FDR in the 30s. Both appealed to a nation that was not happy with current progress much in the same way FDR appealed to a nation not happy with a Depression.

[schwarzkopf]

Moderates - by definition do not feel STRONGLY about things, they prefer balance and getting the best of both left and right etc.

Now add to that the bubbles that sites like Facebook encourages and you find that many of those moderates get caught in either a left or right 'drift'.

I mean - I believe in a balance between socialism and capitalism, between free speech and protection of rights. But guess what - those options aren't available to 'belong' to.

SO my choices are to be left out in the cold, unable to participate - or follow a bubble to the left or the right and not be game to post about the stupidity of the extreme left, nor of the extreme right - lest I offend.

[Karrotlord]

False equivalence is false.

Pretty sure "kill all blacks jews and anyone we deem to be lesser humans" is the party line for nazis, not a radical extremist offshoot.

And here is the problem. You just equivocated the right wing, which is what their talking about, to be entirely nazis.

[Deleted]

It also depends on what you call moderate or centrist.

True. A moderate ranges from center-right, to centrism to center-left.

Trying to stay in the middle of Nazis and the left doesn't make you neutral.

Also true, a moderate can easily fight both extremes.

[Thalassian Bob]

We're all busy watching the Rubin Report and trying to figure out which outlets to get our news from.

That and pointing out the existence of great people like Asra Nomani, Faisal Al-Mutar, Majiid Nawaz and Sarah Haider (and many others) to the nutters on both sides and highlighting how they don't fit the stereotypes either side in the Left-Right conflict pushes.

[Heladys]

Which is bullshit since those Nazis are the extremes of the group and don't represent the group as a whole.

The group has embraced them ===> Fuck the group.

[Daedius]

I have no idea what I am...

[Antiganon]

And here is the problem. You just equivocated the right wing, which is what their talking about, to be entirely nazis.

Yep. I did.

You know what happened to people who just followed orders and let the Nazis do their thing? They were tried and executed for war crimes.

You do not offer safe passage, or a platform for their despicable hate filled rhetoric, or comfort, or defense, or anything to a Nazi.

Nazis are the scum of the Earth, the one great enemy which ( I thought) we could all agree were beyond reasoning with or dealing with in good faith.

When one side is doing anything other than categorically denouncing the Nazis and everything they represent in the strongest terms possible, yeah, I consider them to be as bad as the Nazis.

- - - Updated - - -

The group has embraced them ===> Fuck the group.

This.
/10char

[Slant]

I enjoy how every meme on this subject portrays the "far left" as just a typical modern liberal, whilst contrasting them with an extreme "far right" example... Ignoring that there are actual fringe left elements in this country that are legitimately retarded.

That's cos the US doesn't actually have a far left movement.

[elaina]

I tend to find moderates to be wishy-washy and lacking in conviction (swing voters, ugh), if not having completely contradictory or incompatible views (those who 'dabble' in politics). Many seem uninvolved or under-informed to me.

OR they are just cynics who try to elevate themselves "above the controversies" somehow by simply hating both sides (think: south park), which is also not incredibly useful. It's easy to bash everyone when you don't actually take a side or put yourself out there with your own beliefs.

[Dadwen]

Probably just eating popcorn.

Bingo!!!!

*I'm a grouchy bitter Moderate so I really don't care if each sides off's each other, as long and they stay the f out of my way.