this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
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Yeah you really have no idea what you're talking about.
I'm ionaore what it is that makes so many lemmy users think that centrist (like me) are evil or dumb or just enabling right wing extremists. I think it's fair to say that such view are actually quite extremist in themselves.
Let me put it in a similar story as this apparently works for you?
Leftist: all right wings are Nazi's and they all want to commit genocide, we should kill them all before they kill us!
Centrist : well, let's not go so fast? Things aren't that simple nor that black and white. First off, a dead man can't learn, and a lot of actual neo Nazi types are just misinformed, disgruntled and would do well with the right people to look up to. Then, I'm quite sure that most right wing or conservatives aren't anywhere near liking neo nazi ideas, let alone genocide.
I think a lot of the more extreme ones have, like you, over simplified world views that cause these extreme views. I think if you simply keep talking you will find that nearly all of them are like you, have families and friends and a dog, they love people too, they simply have different experiences and ideas than you have. Talk to them.
Also, if you kill allmrifht wing and conservatives, isn't that genocide? I assume you're against genocide, so why are you in favor of killing "them"? That is king of a right wing thing, according to you, do you want to be that?
In short, it's not that simple, moet people really aren't that bad.
Leftist: WHAT? HOW DARE YOU, YOU NAZI! WE SHOULD KILL YOU FOR DISAGREEING!
Centrist: wut?
Yeah except the left isn't calling to genocide or punish people for voting right-wing politicians in lmao. But the far right is supporting genocide and is propogating hatred & genocide of LGBT, poor people, minorities, leftists, etc. which you can clearly see by laws that are being passed right now in Europe and especially the US, like Florida trying to make wearing drag punishable by death & many parts of the country passing laws labelling public homosexuality/trans as a "sex crime", bans on books which have these subjects all around the country, a wide variety of laws being passed targetting minorities in many European countries spurred by anti-immigrant & anti-LGBT sentiment... Then of course you have the good old fashion wealth divide which is especially present in the US, which by not taking a stance against the people in power you are just causing to continue...
You are enabling right wing extremists. You are voting these people in and your argument for it is "b-but i made up something the left wants to do! i saw a few people on twitter say this so it's true!" Meanwhile we have real examples of the right wing supporting & causing genocide in real time extremely frequently and across the entire first world, yet that doesn't seem to bother you as much as fake people in your head.
There is no stance on the right that you can morally pick and choose from like centrists like to say they do, everything in the modern day's right-wing is meant to oppress certain groups and/or to consolidate power in other groups. The only things I could maybe give you a pass on for agreeing with the right are "i don't like high taxes" (which itself is a naïve position because it usually means "i don't like high taxes for the rich, but if you mean you don't like high taxes for the lower/middle class then that's understandable) or "we should regulate immigration".
The meme in the post is definitely an over-exaggeration for comedic effect. No centrist would actually say they support some genocide. But the point is you are the main group enabling these people to come to power and do these horrible things by not taking a hard stance against them, and a relevant thing is the "both sides" rhetoric which is tossed around all the time (and which i used to subscribe to as a former "center/right libertarian"). I hate tankies too, but that is not an excuse to enable fascism. I used to be hardcore conservative, I know right-wingers aren't born hateful people and they're just brainwashed, and most most of the left has the same rational opinion, partly because many or dare I say most of the left in the US and some of Europe was born and raised around the same right-wing extremist-religious hateful garbage that's so common. Doesn't mean you can "talk them out of it" though, it took me years to come to terms with that fact that modern right-wing beliefs are wrong. Especially fascists/neo-nazis as you bring up, they have the hate programmed into them by their environment practically, are usually surrounded by it all the time pulling them in like a black hole, and it takes a lot more than gentle words to get it out of them, with most examples taking over a decade of prison/gulag/CCP brainwashing/some other immoral and unreliable method to make them change their mind.
I don't know why or how you decided that I personally want to kill conservatives? Are you OK? Do you need some kind of help, honey?
Cringe-ass comment
Somebody says something you don't like. Cringe
Who is taking about killing conservatives? What are you on about? Lol
The OP post was talking about "the others" wanting genocide. Whenever I talk with the liked of you, you damn near always talk about how we should "kill all the nazis" preemptively. That is what I'm talking about. Maybe we should just not kill anybody and go back to talking with eachother? I know, crazy thought.
Let me remind you, because it has briefly escaped your reality, that you don't know me and can't possibly know every person that you come across online to make such broad and absurd generalizations. And that you're ignoring our past interactions trying to "talk" and reason with those we disagree with only to come out the other end exhausted by the hordes that don't want to listen. You can include MAGAs, force-birthers, conspiracy theorists, antivaxxers, homobhobes, and many other subtypes of conservatives in that very long list. I've gotten old talking to these people.
I don't even wish death on the people who would rather see me beaten to death. But if I've ever said anything about murdering anybody, it has been done in jest with plenty of tongue in cheek and in a space where I know it's not gonna be taken seriously besides "the likes of you" who think mindless talking is the answer.
So yeah, crazy thoughts, but not from me.
Oh hey a strawman response to a strawman post!
I'm on the left and I constantly fight to remind people that the vast majority of people siding with the actual fascists in government are just being manipulated by propaganda and are as you say. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" comes to mind. When I discus this I'm almost always agreed with by other leftists. The "let's kill them all" are the ignorant, angry, vocal minority.
Also strawmen don't help arguments at all lol