Maybe I’m the centrist in this scenario, but isn’t that just normal left? I’d expect far left to be like “we are going to exterminate all the rich then give their stuff to everyone else”
People who already have their needs accounted for always seem so convinced that things will turn out hunky dory if things escalate to violence, and yet so rarely pass thought on the folks who are already struggling enough without The Troubles Part II Red Cap Boogaloo coming to a car bombing near them.
Well, it's hard to tell liberals and conservatives apart, mostly because liberalism isn't left wing, but actually slightly right from centre, and both liberalism and conservativism share some similarities.
This is what McCarthyism did. It's the great goal post mover.
Also leftists: nothing ever gets done. Both parties must be the same
Edit:
More info from Pew 2022 election polls:
Age and the 2022 election
Age continues to be strongly associated with voting preferences in U.S. elections. Nearly seven-in-ten voters under 30 (68%) supported Democratic candidates in 2022 – much higher than the shares of voters ages 30 to 49 (52%), 50 to 64 (44%) and 65 and older (42%) who did so. Compared with 2018, GOP candidates performed better among voters who turned out across age groups.
Also:
Older voters turned out more reliably in both elections – and continued to be largely loyal to Republican candidates.
No far left is "dissenters will be forcibly 're-educated' or removed from society or put down". "Far" is general violent intolerance. Your post is standard left vs. far right.
@FlyingSquid In my humble experience and understanding 'centrism' has been always an euphemism for 'far right' for the "politically correct" miserable cowards...
Good lord... the comments on here proves that lemmy.world is flooded with politically incompetent libs that couldn't tell the difference between left and right if their lives depended on it.
If you believe that there is such a thing as an actual "left" in formal political establishments, this means you.
I can't tell them apart in the way they both seed discord to keep people united behind them. I can't tell them apart in the way they tear apart families with propaganda. In that sense, I'm a centrist.
You can argue one of them does less material damage all day, but they both rely on each other to exist in their current form. They are both predatory institutions that I will not be a part of.
Centrists: the far left left and far right don't represent the majority of their side, that's why they're called "far". Both sides have some good points and some very awful points.
The following is super generalized and should be taken as a very poor summary of some more 'hot' topics from each side.
Left, better for social and universal needs of the people. Get a lot of the automatic guns off the streets. Make a heath system that does not put people into years of debt, or outright denied service because "sorry this specialist doctor for your hyperspecifc issue is not in your insurance network."
Right, don't play "catch and release" with criminals, better foreign policy of not letting people come in from anywhere.
Far left, everyone else in the world needs our money at the expense of our own dying Americans, kill the police, we must ban every book that doesn't agree with our teachings, let violent criminals roam free because they have 'mental ailments' and if you're a white male - fuck you and your entire heritage.
Far right, the military needs our money at the expense of our dying american, guns for all, crimal charges for abortion, the confederation was the 'true' victor, we must ban every book that doesn't agree with our teachings and if your not a white male - fuck you and your entire heritage
Reality: both sides are fucking over the lower/middle class for the benefit of the rich. They'll use what ever tatics to emotionally manipulate people into broad scale hating each other.
This nation needs to end the left/right party bull shit, it makes 0 sence to boil all of the major issues down to 2 boxes at the voting booth every 4 years.
I can tell them apart, but the result of the two is the same because once you centralize power (to get more leftist stuff done faster), those with power realize that the far-right offers dictators more. See Russia, for starters. Look at lists of what countries have the smallest percentage of poor people - it's all social-ish democracies like Iceland, Japan, and France.
ALL Leftists according to rightists: "all I want is basic needs met, obviously anyone who doesn't grant a toddler universal basic income, and free on demand sex change surgery and accompanying hormones is obviously a nazi. Also, fuck white people, fuck men, fuck anyone in an incumbent demographic category. Simply by being male and white you should immediately pay reparations for daring to exist. Anyone who even asks about any of these subjects is committing a crime and should never be allowed to speak again. Also it's illegal to not be attracted to fat people"
ALL Rightists according to leftists: "Anyone who I'm too stupid to understand shouldn't exist. There is no middle ground or grey area on anything, it's my way or the highway. All minorities shouldn't exist at all, no one should exist who doesn't conform to my specific set of arbitrary values. Anyone who says otherwise is a communist and hates themselves. Literally everyone must die. The police never make mistakes and any form of authority must be taken as 100% true at face value"
Centrists: "you both seem extremely closed-minded and I'm struggling to come to any conclusion other than being extreme is bad, and that these are complex subjects. I will try to focus on not being extreme."
Yeah anyone can write literally anything you fucking idiots
Edit: how you know you were right - butthurt downvotes without accompanying replies
Centrist here. I don't think the point of horseshoe theory is that the far-left and far-right are the same. The point is simply that they have similarities. Like both wanting to use violence to achieve their aims.
Pretending that you don't favour certain groups over others is exactly why sane people don't take you seriously, regardless of what group you associate yourself with in an attempt to siphon off some legitimacy from others you don't actually have any real relation with.
When your only idea to solve problems is violence you don't care for having people's needs met, you just want to dominate others and still claim to be the good guy. I see that on the side of "the left" and you can distance yourself from that without becoming right wing or conservative.
Is that really 'far' left, though? Far left is, "let a handful of governors control everything, on behalf of communal ownership, and they will make sure everyone's needs are met fairly."
Far right: give me absolute power so I can make the country strong!
Far left: give me absolute power so I can make everyone in the country equal!
Centrist: Both of these groups are made up of grifters and the rubes that fall for the scam that is ideology. We know from history the problems with ideologies, and only those ignorant of history (whether deliberately or not) fall for bullshit "ideologies" whether they be "left" or "right".
In fact the "political spectrum" is just a construct that's only useful as a shorthand to quickly distinguish between moderate political parties. The complexities of functioning society can't be reduced to a one dimensional line FFS. People who are tricked into thinking this way are ill-equipped to govern a functioning society. History has shown that the one dimensional political thinkers have failed at governing every time they've been given the opportunity to do so.
Far left: we're going to dress in all black and burn buildings down to protest racism of which many of the shops will be locally owned by people of color.
Far right: we're going to ravage the civil liberties of every group of people that aren't white religious old rich people and convince poor white people it's the patriotic thing to do.
Centrists: You're both fucked but one of you is less fucked I guess.
Well, far left is anarchism. I haven't heard how they're going to make my basic needs met. But then I haven't ever heard how they're going to get their basic needs met. Or any needs met, for that matter.