“Meet me in the middle” says the unfair man. You take a step forward, he takes a step back
“Meet me in the middle” says the unfair man.
Centrism, as in what? The center of the Statesian political parties? Then yes, considering both parties are right-wing. The center of two arbitrary points? Depends on the points. “Centrism” is inherently an irrational way to describe political views, being in the center of two points adds no value. If someone says we should kill everyone with glasses, and someone else says we shouldn’t, we shouldn’t kill half of the people with glasses. What centrism does in practice is give people cover to obfuscate their actual views, it isn’t a position by itself.
give people cover to obfuscate their actual views
which are usually right-wing, since those are the ones ashamed about their own views.
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.
MLK’s perspective on centrists is perennial. They’re Judas goats.
In western capitalist dictatorships, “centrism” means an acceptance and non-opposition to the status quo of capitalist rule, liberalism, and landlordism.
Any opposition to poverty, homelessness, hunger, or rule by capitalists, is deemed “radical”, and outside of respectable discourse, even though these should be just a baseline of human decency.
Some resources:
I view myself as a centerist. Left of center. Thing is that, in the us, there is no conservatives anymore. Closest would be the libertarians but even they are like basic scientology bringing the people in to then bring them into the thetan thing. Balanced bugets, pay as you go, respect for the history and past of your country while recognizing obvious problems and celebrating getting passed them to a better way, looking for consensus and regulating commerce and recognizing labor. Anyway this lack of real conservatives means its pretty much left or lunacy. Take your pick. Center is as real conservative as you get with any sanity. Since Im kinda left its pretty easy of a decision for me. Keep in mind center to me is not the middle of our republicans and democrats because again one is bat shit crazy. So someone trying to claim center because they are taking a bit from both viewpoints is not center to me. To me you have to take the center of sanity and not include crazy assed bull-trump.
