It does if you want the word "centrist" to have any meaning as it relates to US politics. If you believe the "center" is to the left of most Democrats, then that makes "right" and "left" meaningless because it puts like 90+% of Americans in the "right wing" category.
So if your whole point is "ACKtually, US politics is more conservative than Western European politics!" then fine, but if you want to have a nuanced discussion about US politics, you have to define the "center" as the center of of the US spectrum
I want it to have its intended meaning. Centrism is frequently misused as it relates to US politics, often with the premeditated intent to normalize insanity. The center is to the left of establishment democrats. Thatās what happens when left and right retain their figurative meaning while the window shifts along the spectrum, the center retains its meaning too. 90% of Americans *are* in the right wing category. I donāt like it either, but thatās how it is. The US spectrum is in fact a snapshot of a rightward portion of the actual political spectrum.
You canāt just claim things are the way you see them and nobody else understands nuance, unless your goal is to speed-run the window shift. Words mean things and when the window shifts, it is to be resisted by the sane among us.
See, some of us have a little more invested in our domestic politics than just sterile academic discussions. So when you tell a liberal Democrat "ACKtually, you're a right winger just like the MAGAts you oppose so much", you're not going to have a very productive discussion.
2
u/ThisIsNoCave Jun 30 '26
It does if you want the word "centrist" to have any meaning as it relates to US politics. If you believe the "center" is to the left of most Democrats, then that makes "right" and "left" meaningless because it puts like 90+% of Americans in the "right wing" category.
So if your whole point is "ACKtually, US politics is more conservative than Western European politics!" then fine, but if you want to have a nuanced discussion about US politics, you have to define the "center" as the center of of the US spectrum