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I want you to imagine two political parties: The Petting Dogs Party and the Kicking Dogs Party (for the sake of conversation, I have not assigned them to any real world party). Obviously, the PDP would consider anyone who joins, or even supports, the KDP as being horrifically evil. Like, if you wanted to show a character is evil in TV, you have them do what the KDP do all the time. It's literally cartoonishly evil.
Now, in the political context of America, there are only two parties. The only way the KDP don't gain power is if the PDP gain power instead. So anyone who doesn't help the PDP gain power is either supporting or allowing the KDP to gain power.
In this context, a centrist will usually fall into one of the following categories:
As you can see with those categories, it's a sliding scale of evil. The only non-evil option is to not kick dogs at all, which requires voting for the PDP.
Of course, if you have a Looking At Dogs Party, it gets messier. You'll often see people vote for the LADP where they would have voted for the PDP just so the KDP doesn't get in. But in America, the LADP does not exist.
This made me think of Kristi Noem.
But it's a good mental model for breaking down why centrists suck.
I was trying to be absurdist instead of realistic, and I had no idea who Kristi Noem was before you commented that. Why is reality so absurd?
You missed a golden opportunity for a subtle and unnecessary joke by making it Kicking Dogs Party and Supporting Dogs Party
Or... IDK... Kissing Dogs Party and Ned's Stabbing Dogs Always Party. With Supporting Dogs Party as the middle.
...
Just me?
The Dog Kicking party could have a phenomenal economic plan, but they still kick dogs. And anyone who votes for that economic plan is still voting to kick dogs.
Until someone convinces them to throw out the idea of kicking dogs altogether, it doesn't matter what other policies they have. They're still dog kickers.
If you knew someone was a serial rapist & murderer, but they volunteered at homeless shelters, donated to charity and fostered rescue animals, would that "balance it out" enough that they aren't evil anymore?
What about an otherwise good guy who helps cover up his friends sexual assault of a minor? He didn't touch the kid, but he's still helping someone else continue to do it, and I say that's enough to make him a horrible person.
Evil taints everything it touches. If there's one Nazi sitting at the table, then EVERYONE at the table is a Nazi.
The problem here is that this view is binary. There is no middle ground here. In the real world you could be pro some left-wing ideas and pro some right-wing ideas. This is the problem with bipartisan "democracies". As a centrist you are always the enemy.
Yes. It IS binary, but that's not the problem. There should never be middle ground in good vs evil.
If you vote for a party that does not support Universal Basic income, that does not make you evil. But if that party also supports killing black people, and you vote for it soley because of Universal Basic income even though it comes with the side-effect of killing black people, you are absolutely evil.
Do you see UBI being so bad that it would prevent you supporting abortion rights?
First of all, while I am strongly left-wing, I phrased it in a way that either side could be seen as the dog kickers. You assigned the parties to each side. You assigned the right wing to be the dog kickers.
Second of all, you definitely have met the people who lie about being centrist. You just didn't realise it, because they lied and said they were centrist.
Third of all, and perhaps most important... Imagine a scene in a movie where a man is kicking a dog. Then another man walks by, looks the dog in the eyes, and keeps walking. That second man didn't kick the dog, but they are just as cruel as the man kicking.
I don't give a shit what the tax policy surrounding the dog kicking is; it's still evil. And if you don't do what you can to protect that dog, no matter how little that may be or what it might cost you, you're evil too.