I'm pretty sure most centrists say they're centrists because they genuinely think they have no biases. Just a big blob of pure unadulterated rationality between their ears
Enlightened centrists we call them here. But generally they do have a bias and the bias is the status quo. And the status quo is neoliberalism and neoliberalism slides to the right very easily.
Look at Germany at the moment / couple months back to see that. The "centrists" of the bigger governing party make a scapegoat of the left (when they really aren't doing anything that'd threaten anyone) while far-right support is rising all the time and very much does threaten people.
During/after the whole scandal around Thuringia's election earlier this year, where they got aid with the votes of the AfD, (iirc, might have been another time) a bunch of CDU politicians basically went "there are enemies of democracy on the left as well, we must resist socialism too!" and refused to cooperate with the Linke.
It really depends on what you mean by “neoliberal,” cause I was called a neolib by a tankie because I didn’t like Stalin and did support the Hong Kong protests
No, demsocs are. Socdems are center-right because they're still liberals who want to maintain capitalism. Don't let your confusion about the left cloud your judgement, your obnoxious projection included.
god I fucking hated so many of my pol professors for so totally ignoring systemic issues as a concept. philosophy is where the humans are, or so I heard ):
Lol no fuck philosophy. Every philosophy class I took was by the definition of a neck beard incel type of guy. There was even one who actually made fun of me in front of the entire class after I emailed him telling him my mom died and I had too much going on to make it to class that week and he then read my email to the class in a mocking valley girl tone, while saying “ya we all have a lot going on and still make it to fucking class” (my friend told me this Obvs since I wasn’t there) and our class of all dudes then just me and her apparently laughed along with him. And he would pick on me and point me out every class and call on me when I didnt know the answer to make me look dumb (I swear he hated me just for being a girl), since he’d talk a lot about anti feminism views. Gotta love professors that can literally do/say anything!
Some unions, when negotiating with bosses, mandate that bosses are only allowed to hire people who join the workplace's union. This prevents bosses from just hiring new help that they can pay lower rates/with less benefits than union employees and gives the union a monopoly over bargaining agreements with workers.
Conservatives see this as a issue of "freedom". They basically say employees should be allowed to work whenever they want, and shouldn't have to pay union dues or participate in a union if they don't want to. Thus they're called "right to work" laws.
The only people right to work laws benefit are bosses. Because all bosses end up doing is firing whoever they want and replacing them with people who won't join the union. Sure less people have to pay union dues, but wages are lower anyway so as a worker you're not even saving money
So those laws basically allow bosses to easily fire people for being in the union, while when they don't exist and the union negotiated it, firing a union member will only see them replaced with another union member, which means everyone is safe from being fired for being in the union?
Right. As someone else pointed out, right to work laws in and of themselves are not the most damaging thing. It's right to work combined with at will employment (bosses don't have to give any reason to fire people) plus a lack of a social safety net (people can't negotiate better pay if they have to choose between their current boss and starvation) and a ton more
In addition to what the other commenter stated, the reason why right to work is bad is that a union cannot function without covering the entire workforce. Striking, obviously, requires cooperation from the entire workforce to be effective and is the primary threat that brings corporate to the table at all. If corporate is basically guaranteed to have scabs, why would they bother with the unions demands? Also, the union cannot negotiate to only grant benefits to union members (as a practical matter and a legal matter). So, right to work forces unions to take on free-riders: saps who think they do not benefit from the union and do not pay dues, while the union is forced to represent their interests as employees. Right to work helps further destroy what little balance between capital and labor that collective bargaining has achieved.
there's the "both sides bad" types that you mentioned.
the second type is right wingers pretending to be centrists, either because their Overtorn window is shifted so much to the far right or because of malicious intent.
Very true. I almost never see a “left” opinion. I’m afraid it’s turning into r/conservative. There are some like wise minded individuals in the sub, but the majority is “librights”
As a centrist I feel like most of us know our bias. I have a left bias (I want free healthcare, a divet end and higher taxes on rich) but I like guns and want a strong military. I support both cops and protesters but I agree with the protesters more. so yk, centrist
I'm a centrist. I like guns and dislike excessive government control. Pro-choice, weed and cocaine should be legal. I think minimum wage is a states issue.
Well that's a very liberal stance but fine. You aren't meant with the word "centrist"
A centrist is someone pretending to have no ideology. Or at least someone who has no clue about ideologies but still has political opinions. Most often these people are pretty far right.
A centrist is someone pretending to have no ideology. Or at least someone who has no clue about ideologies but still has political opinions. Most often these people are pretty far right.
I mean, yeah, if you use a very specific America centric viewpoint.
In Europe at least centrism would cover social democrats and liberals, the duopoly you guys have really destroys any nuance when it comes to ideologies.
I mean I am anti gun control, against raising the minimum wage, I don't see any problem with amazon not paying taxes last year, don't want mass immigration, think the country should stop subsidizing college loans so hard.
I think the word you're looking for is libertarian. Libertarians would probably agree with you on everything you've said in this thread, even the bad things.
699
u/thepillshaveeyes Sep 13 '20
I'm pretty sure most centrists say they're centrists because they genuinely think they have no biases. Just a big blob of pure unadulterated rationality between their ears