I don’t know. It depends on whether you think controlled opposition is representative of a regular conservative. Y’know what the average conservative voter just can’t get enough of? Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk. They *totally* love that shit. Pump it into their veins.
The problem with the Democratic party is obvious: they're controlled opposition that don't provide an actual or compelling alternative to MAGA. Their response to being defeated by the far right was to move to the center-right, and that's a move which is incapable of fixing any of the institutional shortcomings that Trump's blatant corruption has exposed. The entire US political sphere is addicted to corporate and foreign funding, Bernie Sanders has been correctly diagnosing that as having a cancerous effect on discourse for decades.
I’m tapping the graph again. It’s very interesting observing American leftists completely misjudge the situation they’re in. I don’t know if doubling down on a losing strategy will lead to success, but there will be a point in time when the pendulum swings, as it always does, so if you’re into playing the long game, you might have a good point. In the short term, if progressives want to regain *some* ground, they should immediately cut themselves off from the Hasanoid and Destinoid factions of their base and appeal to the average American again. You’re not in a position to advocate for the extreme side of the spectrum when you’ve completely lost the middle. I really shouldn’t be telling you this, but I’m just that kind of a nice guy. The one good thing you have going for you is that MAGA has an expiry date - it exists so long as Trump is involved. Most level-headed people will lose interest once he’s not involved, and this is sadly his last term. The bad news here is that, indeed, the DNC is not offering any compelling challenger. I don’t know if they even have one in mind. The next 10-20 years is going to be pretty interesting since all the prominent faces *on both sides* are likely to die of old age and there are no replacements being pushed at all.
Americans don't even have a rudimentary understanding of what a "leftist" is, precisely because the Democratic party has been entirely unable or unwilling to try to shape the narrative. Republicans don't bother chasing trends, they just pick a lie and repeat for a decade until people with brain worms start parroting it as fact. Five plus decades of that have enabled the lunatics to start running the asylum, to the extent that the "middle" has become devoid of all common sense. Obama was a centrist, maybe even center-right going by the global political scale, but ask any American who defines themselves as moderately conservative in 2025, and they'll tell you he was far left.
That’s right. It’s just the conclusion that’s wrong. They’re not particularly interested in following politics closely, they’re too busy living their lives. They’ll judge you by what they can see with their eyes - the deeds of your worst. That’s precisely why any party that wants to have any chance at winning should distance itself from its extreme fringes, in no uncertain terms. Failing that gets you all put in the same basket, the amount of people with a nuanced understanding of politics is small. When you look at someone and think “Nazi” because you once saw a guy with a naughty flag on the Internet and that leads you to the conclusion that naturally everyone in a 500 mile radius of the event must also like naughty flags, you have to come to terms with the fact that this kind of slovenly thinking works both ways. People will start looking back at you and think “rioter”. It’s really impressive how the political right keeps baiting progressives into making unforced errors. Your most prominent figures are tripping over each other siding with everything that’s untenable and unpalatable for the average voter for Internet updoots.
Well yeah, of course it’s not the same, one side holds both houses, a majority on the SCOTUS and the presidency and the other side holds marches. It’s gonna be a rough four years for you guys if you only ever have high turnouts when it’s time to virtue signal.
Why would you get banned for having an opinion? I don’t care what people think or say about me, I’ve never made that a secret. I’m just having a conversation, you’re not forced to participate in it if you don’t want to. I’m certainly not forcing you to read my posts. My opinion is perfectly aligned with the administration’s, by the way - Nazis are not permitted to espouse their views on this website. In fact, it would be better off if they found a different hang-out.
Again, that clearly does not apply to the extreme right, because they've been the ones determining what the definition of "extreme" is for so long now. If that wasn't the case, we wouldn't need threads like this one because fascism would not be normalized enough to reach us in the farthest corners of the internet. Trump created concentration camps for children in his first term and was still re-elected, so it's not a lack of nuance that's the issue. It's a lack of human decency.
Idiots have always existed, Howard Stern had an honest-to-God hooded Klansman as part of his show’s Wack Pack on live television in the 90’s, they didn’t materialise yesterday, you just looked away for a moment. They were goofy then and they’re still goofy now. The actual right became more moderate over time, if anything. I don’t want to tap the graph a third time. It’s the political left that’s racing to the fringes, leaving the middle behind. I think the conversation is getting a little circular though, and definitely straying away from the topic of the thread. There’s probably a better venue where we can discuss this, if you really want to.
You are not a person to take seriously if you mean this genuinely. Mod status or not.
This is a not even veiled attempt to gatekeep. The original post by costello talks about fascists and nazis. Saying "actual nazis" is just a way to whitewash some users.
I’ve been on the Trump Train since he descended that escalator, if that’s what you’re asking. Never made it a big secret either. This has never been an issue with me fulfilling my functions, I’m unbiased at work.
”Radical centrism” always makes me think of this meme:
I'm not sure what you're saying. I got sick of the right wing propaganda being shoved down my throat which over time became harder and harder for me to believe.
the idea that some propaganda is left wing and some is right wing is bs. Manufacturing consent is a book that covers this quite well. Let's all just forget about imaginary directions and pay more attention. There isn't one side that is evil and one side that is good, its all one side playing divide and conquer. Im really tired of rich white people acting like they are Jesus, get off your ass and help someone instead of being a toxic bigot.
Well for the Bill Maher example, people like him actually have beliefs but are clearly right wing, they just pretend to be left wing to be contrarians, to both the left and right. Most of his speech is blaming the left and excusing the right actions as a reaction to the left "overreaction".”Radical centrism” always makes me think of this meme:
View attachment 512674
Censored for the purposes of forum compliance, you’ll have to fill in the blanks. Dang it, I love strongly believing in nothing in particular. Radical!
