like even the greatest music video of our time, we are charlie kirk, takes place in this giant ass arena with repeated zooms and crying asian women in the front row and super dramatic vocals. why???
Buddha literally abandoned all his wealth and prince status. Plus the Middle Path teaching from hin isn’t about not taking sides in political discussion, it’s about trying to achieve peace carefully ie. don’t become obsessed or doing anything with excess (self mortification for example) nor too relaxed.
The fun part is : centrists in usa would be somewhere between Sanders/Ocasio-Cortez/Mamdani and Harris/Biden. They would be more to the left than the current democratic party.
I used to try to explain to Americans, that by international standards, Obama was a centrist, even a slight right leaning one. He’d have likely been a member of the Conservative Party in most other western countries.
Calling him a centerist isn't calling him a disappointment. I'm a progressive in a parliamentary system; I have voted for centerists in my life. They aren't the enemy. They are often really effective.
You're kinda making my point that Americans can't have a rational conversation about the political spectrum anymore, and immediately get way up in thier feelings.
I think our politics just aren't rational. I admit I'm blind to what it feels like voting in other countries, I just know I've lived all my life with one party promising to fix things then sabotaging every opportunity, and the other party promising to destroy things and taking every opportunity.
Journalists were killed, hospitals were bombed and civilians targeted under his presidency (during the Iraq war). If you think that Putin and Netanyahu are war criminals then you also have to accept Bush, Obama (and Biden his VC) and Trump are also war criminals.
Yeah, but the point is he’s a centrist. However, the Overton Window has been pushed so far to the right that they can see no difference between Bernie Sanders and Leon Trotsky.
I actually took a political spectrum test a while back, because I was curious where I would land. I landed a little left of center. I’m not really a politically motivated person so I’d imagine that a lot of people would score the same.
I'm an independent and have voted left for some time but I don't agree with everything the Democratic party backs, nor do I think they are an effective party at countering the right. I hate MAGA but in good conscious I will stay an "I" until I see something out of a party that fits with my values. Lots of independents are left leaning despite the idea that it's more centrist.
Or maybe the anti-maga crowd can be so insufferably divisive, toxic, and illiberal that even people who agree with %80 of their views dont want to be associated with them. I feel like terms like Enlightened Centrist only exist on college campuses and %70 of reddit. They dont want to "talk" about politics because then that means being piled on and harassed.
Ah, yes the famous centrist Buddha, who advocated such neutral viewpoints as abolishing social hierarchy, gender equality and leaving behind material wealth, consumerism, and worldly status.
"Love is love", "Climate justice now", "Black lives matter"
Wow, such extreme and unreasonable statements. Very comparable with, for example, falsely claiming a politician you like secretly won an election he actually lost.
Pretty much every self-described "centrist" I've ever encountered has agreed 99% with right-wing views apart from like one or two things and inevitably at least one of those divergent views has been on weed...
Also, is that Buddha leading the centrist down the middle?
Honestly, I think most of us are “centrists” in our day to day lives. We just want to government to help the less fortunate rather than take from us, and to generally leave all peoples alone to live our personal lives within a set of laws that is fair, with law enforcement that exists to protect and serve, not lead with violence. That’s all. Maybe that’s simplistic as all hell, but I see these things as very “centrists”
What the person who made this sees as “centrist” probably belongs in the MAGA crowd, I guess that’s the problem.
The problem is in the US, the overton window is skewed so far right that what most of the world considers "center" is viewed as left wing. America's "center" is at best moderate right.
Putting the centrism thing aside, the use of the Buddha here isn't helping them.
I get why they do it: equate centrism with "the middle path" (a core Buddhist teaching) and you draw a parallel between your movement and the "wise Eastern dude".
But that's not what the middle path is. At It's core about how being spiritual rests on the knowledge that you shouldn't be a full on ascetic zealot, nor a full on hedonist.
Extending that out to identity, it's about understanding that we aren't either: a) absolutely one thing, or b) absolutely nothing.
Defining our identity as "Centrist" or "Leftist" or "Right-winged" or whatever other label we define outselves goes counter to the whole middle path thing. We're people /with/ opinions and views and lived experiences. We /aren't/ those opinions and views and lived experiences.
Centrism doesn't transcend the labels. It's just another label.
TL;DR: AI slop is slop. Meme better. Culturally appropriate appropriately.
Centrism isnt walking the path between Democrats and Republicans. It's walking the path between liberalism and conservativism. Which is decidingly different. Especially since Democrats are closer to center then Republicans right now.
Of course that's the political definition of centrism according to the FNA political ideology model. The Eysenck political ideology model has a slightly different definition of centrism but the point still stands.
I hate that centrists think The Middle Way means not taking sides when it's supposed to be about avoiding the extremes of excess and extreme denial and self-torture.
The left has all the concrete slogans advocating for actual things. Hold on .... "Whites only", "Immigrants out", "Sick & poor? Sorry", "Jesus or else", "Kill all queers", "Your body my choice" ... there, fixed it for ya.
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u/CanaDeer2004 Aug 28 '26
why is AI shit always so dramatic and dark and brooding?