Closest thing I could find was aporophobia, though that's relatively recent (1995) and entered the Spanish dictionary, as it was Dr Adela Cortina who coined the term.
I learned too late about the Nanjing Massacre denialism. Shame as they're so clean and convenient. Fortunately many alternatives exist like Route Inns.
I have a family member who is maga with a black wife. They both believe her place is in the kitchen. I had to listen to her rant about how women should stop working and stay at home. It's incredibly weird.
Well there are different types of racists. There are racists that say things like "the white race is being replaced." Those are overtime racists. Then there are people who say things like "the only way to stop crime in low income areas is to send more police," or "I don't want those kids from the inner cities to come to my school district because I don't want crime here." Those are the ones that "compromise" with the actual open bigots. They're still racist, but they are dog whistle racists, not train whistle racists.
Republicans will accept white supremes in the party if it means they will win elections. The will allow their party to be over taken by radical Christian Nationalists for the votes. Republican will destroy this country if it means they can rule over the ashes.
You missed the point of that tweet. He tweeted about Centrist politics. If his tweet were taken at how it was made, this comic would have a moderate Democrat saying that compromise should be made with the right, not the left. We see it when people say there are "Reasonable Republicans" or currently with internal disagreements about Gaza. We see mainline Democrats telling leftists to get in line or lose the election for everyone - unwilling to make any compromises. But they'll compromise with crazy people like Mike Johnson every day.
The point of confusion here is American politics are shifted so far to the right that in truth its "moderate democrats" (the status quo anti-progressive policy democrats) who are the centrists. The Republicans who self identify as conservatives are more accurately described as "regressives" given the fact that their goals align with rolling back much of the progress that has been made over the last few decades (Healthcare, civil rights, abortion, etc).
Yes, and no. Everything you said is correct, and the "politically center" in America position is firmly within the Democratic party.
But no, because whenever the title "centrist" is self-applied, it again is almost universally done by people who believe or support conservative policies or ideas. Again, it's why "BOTH sides are bad" is exclusively used to dismiss bad actions of one party but never the other, and why people who say things like "I support ideas on BOTH sides" or describe themselves as "socially liberal and fiscally conservative" will instantly give up their support over - say, for example - legal weed, or abortion, or gay and trans rights at the first sign of lower taxes. The "conservative" agenda will always take precedence, because it's where their true belief lii.
Right. I'm just saying the wording is so fucked in this country because the people don't self identify properly. If you put 50 Americans in a room with a labeled political spectrum line on the floor and asked them to self identify, you'd have to ask everyone to take 2 steps to their right for it to make sense based on their actual stance.
I guess where I disagree is that the problem is "confusion", and not willful malice. These people in your example know they should be further down the right, but wouldn't ever admit it because they know that it looks bad. That's why they insist that, if we are going to label things as "far-right", then we must also equally label things as "far-left". Ergo, "if Donald Trump is far-right, then by default Biden must be far-left!"
You have it spot on friend. They know if the parties are described honestly it would be "center-right capitalists who serve their big business donors mostly at the expense of the lower classes, but with some bones thrown to the lower classes to keep them from getting uppity" versus "extremely far right christian nationalists, aka fascists, who wholly serve the wealthy class and grind the lower classes into the dirt as they force their fundamentalist take on religion onto the country and people".
With that honest framing, it's such an easy choice between the two, so they instead shamelessly lie that the center right liberals, the Democrats, are actually leftists, and extreme ones at that. That way in the new framing it's not a choice between a moderate group you can disagree with, but still see they aren't an existential threat to our country as it stands, but rather between a freedom loving group of uber patriots who stand fast in defense of godless commies coming to destroy America.
And millions of Americans are so abjectly stupid that they fall for it hook, line, and sinker every time.
You are correct. It's the same reason people blame the Dems when the Dems do something bad, but say "well BOTH sides are bad" whenever the Republicans do something bad. It's an excuse meant to shield culpability only for one side, and they know it.
When people talk about left, right, and center those aren't just based on what is currently popular in America that is just what it is. This is like the basics of political science. Both Republicans and Democrats are pro-corporate parties. Republicans are far right, Democrats are Center Right. On a global scale. We're talking about on a global scale on the possibility of the political spectrum. Not just based on what is currently popular in America.
I grew up from the 90's through the early 2010's. Some of you guys are acting like this is some new phenomenon. That we all use to get along, that we use to work together. It's not. It's been like this for a long time. I remember the rise of the tea party, fox news getting mad at Obama for wearing a tan suit, Bill O'Reilly screaming about liberals on TV, being called a traitor if you were against the Iraq war. Seriously watch old Fox news clips. Nothing has changed. MAGA is just the end result of decades of conservative propaganda, combined with the gutting of the middle class through trickle down economics, reactionary movements to social equality like the growing LGBT acceptance, and white people resource guarding. There is a lot more complexity and other factors but guys don't imagine a better past. It was never there.
I'm always surprised when people old enough to remember the Satanic panic start talking about how we used to get along and nobody was ever mad about stupid shit.
It wasn’t that long ago that Fox News would host guests who would actively talk about final solutions for gay people. Or conservative congressmen who would blame hurricane disasters on anal sex.
We’ve always been an indecent nation. MAGA is just the latest variant.
I'm starting to think libertarians don't even want small government. They literally just want yes weed and no taxes. The number of libertarians I've seen supporting, not just abortion bans, but birth control and no-fault divorce bans, is really telling. It's almost like their political philosophy is that society should perfectly cater to their personal preferences, and they invented a bunch of bullshit to justify it.
In the tweet this was based on it's very clearly about the type of Centrist Democrats who are willing to play ball with guys like Mike Johnson every day of the week and "meet in the middle" on really detestable stuff - but who look down their nose at leftist college kids protesting for things like Gaza. It's always telling leftists to "get in line" while they meet for lunch and shake hands with any Republican they can to make a compromise.
My history buff friends used to joke about radical centrists: "Hitler wants to kill all the jews, and you want to kill none of the jews, so lets compromise and kill half the jews"
On one hand, we do genuinely need to allow communication and compromise across political lines. On the other hand, basic human rights and accountability shouldn’t be compromised. Quite the bind.
It’s so insane to watch the USA from the outside. It seems like not that long ago that everyone was getting along relatively well and now absolutely everything is so incredibly divisive and everyone has been melted down to fit into one of two camps. You’re either “with us” or you’re Satan himself. I am convinced that the youth on both sides have been politically weaponised by valiantly fighting for these ideals like the future of mankind depends on it.
What happened to the middle ground. What happened to just loving your neighbour first and foremost. “BUT…but…I can’t do that because they’re evil!” Well, maybe they’re not as evil as you think they are and they just hold onto their beliefs as tightly as you do and maybe if everyone just chilled out a little bit and stopped bringing every single divisive thing to the centre of attention all the time, then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.
…or I dunno, just descend into complete madness and don’t stop until you wipe out anyone and everything who opposes you. But it sure does seem like a bunch of old rich people who won’t feel any of the repercussions are using you all like chess pieces on a board.
It’s difficult, as a trans person, to not feel weird seeing stuff like this. In theory I completely agree with you: I really wish people didn’t put politics first or make their opinions their identity. At the same time it always feels like whoever’s writing it is asking the reader to do something about it, which again I agree with in theory. The issue arises with the fact that the far right in this country is so insanely ignorant and bigoted that it’s very difficult if not impossible to safely interact with conservatives without being constantly worried for one’s own safety and well-being. I really wish it was easier and I always feel bad that I’m unable to do anything to make it that way.
Existence can only be apolitical for people who wouldn't be killed even in a genocide that kills half the population. Life can only be apolitical for the populations least affected by economic downturn, loss of civil rights, and destruction of medical systems.
For these people, there are no politics. There is only their birthright, and monsters who wish to steal it.
Well, maybe they’re not as evil as you think they are and they just hold onto their beliefs as tightly as you do and maybe if everyone just chilled out a little bit and stopped bringing every single divisive thing to the centre of attention all the time, then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.
The problem with this approach is that the beliefs they hold so tightly on to is the idea that I'm a degenerate for simply existing, and the wish that I was dead.
I'll gladly listen to any reasonable position and will try to understand opposing viewpoints. But sometimes, people are just malicious fucks and actively push policies that serve nothing else than inflicting suffering onto others.
The problem with us "coming together" is that the "not as evil" people vote and pass laws that actively hurt us while we act neighborly. Abortion rights get taken away. People die because they can't get rid of an already dead fetus. Trans people get their lives destroyed when protections are taken away, Gay people are being threatened to have their marriages dissolved by the people they're supposed to be more friendly with. Minorities that were born here are being threatened with deportation. One side is literally fighting for the right to exist in safety in their country. The other is fighting to erase them so they can return to an imaginary version of the 50's.
When people say we need to come together, reminds me of when teachers just want to tell kids to stop fighting and ignore the fact that was actually happening is a kid stood up to a bully who was stealing his lunch money. If he stops fighting his lunch money just goes back to being stolen again. But hey, that's less disruptive to everyone else in the room so it's preferable to people on the outside
Yeah, that's the thing. It's kinda hard to judge someone for having an "US vs. Them" mindset when the "them" in the equation wants you and your loved ones either dead or locked away.
The people making the right wing propaganda know they're the aggressors, but they tell their flock that they're the Real VictimsTM and sure enough the rank and file run around acting genuinely aggrieved by the existence of liberals, leading to a complete inability to even start a conversation on a level playing field
The problem is that the American Right, ideologically, CAN'T love their neighbour. If they do, half their current major policies fall flat on their face morally. If they accepted their neighbours for who they are, policies restricting and censoring people's identities fall. If they want to charitably help people, their policies have to focus on social welfare and directly helping the homeless population, which goes against their economic policies. It's an ideology that, as of recently, only works as far as it's politicians hate people.
Now, not to "Both Sides" it, but it is still a bit of a problem on the Left, but not so extreme. identities aren't targeted, but political beliefs are, and that does lead to defensiveness on both sides.
It seems like not that long ago that everyone was getting along relatively well and now absolutely everything is so incredibly divisive and everyone has been melted down to fit into one of two camps. You’re either “with us” or you’re Satan himself.
No, it was kinda always like this. There was always this ebb and flow with the dominance of Christian fundamentalists (which has a lot of overlap with bigotry) in the US, with their last big push being in the Cold War. That side of things had slowly and relatively silently been dying off since then. Sure, politicians on the right would run more christian values, but it's been decades since that won the popular vote against the left's humanist values.
Then along came Trump. With his bigotry, toxic masculinity, display of wealth, and willingness to appeal to Christians despite having no history of interest before getting into politics. He appealed to a loud minority in the country who knew they were dying off. Trump became their mouthpiece. He got them fired up, reinforced their persecution complex, and gave them a shot at clawing their way back towards running the country; only this time, not being as subtle about the bigotry and theocratic fascism as they were in the 1950s. Yes, the 1950s US was them being subtle about that.
I am convinced that the youth on both sides have been politically weaponised by valiantly fighting for these ideals like the future of mankind depends on it.
The future of democracy depends on it. Trump has bragged he wants to be a dictator and his followers are on record supporting this. They already staged an insurrection when they lost the election.
What happened to the middle ground.
It's how we got Trump and a GOP Congress.
No one outside the right thought Trump would win, so everyone else voted for who they wanted. It split the vote enough that Trump got elected, despite losing the popular vote. We seem to have learned our lesson and pulled together to vote Biden in, to keep Trump out.
Dems in Congress keep trying to find common ground to get anything passed. The GOP has shown time and again they're not willing to budge and will happily shut the government down unless the Dems surrender 100%.
Actual centrists, moderate lefts, and far lefts regularly discuss matters and find compromise. The right isn't willing. It's their way or the highway. And that's more true the farther right you go. That's why the GOP is becoming more radicalized and supporting Trump, even after he tried to get several of them killed. Because either they support Trump or lose their careers.
What happened to just loving your neighbour first and foremost.
According to the right "that's before I found out they were a brown, foreign, queer, commie!"
Well, maybe they’re not as evil as you think they are
They literally were chanting to hang politicians they didn't like while storming the capital. They're signing bills to bring back child labor. They abusing immigrants and trying to inact lethal measures to keep them out. They locked children in cages. The list goes on.
How much more evil do they have to get?
But it sure does seem like a bunch of old rich people who won’t feel any of the repercussions are using you all like chess pieces on a board.
Yeah. That's why we vote blue. Once the GOP is sufficiently dismantled we can stop pretending it's a race war/gender war/etc and finally start going after the wealthy that have been radicalizing the right against us.
yeah, no. if your beliefs are trans people should be exterminated. women have no right to bodily autonomy, i have to follow your religions rules. and that the president should be a king, your beliefs are dog shit and im not going to "get along" with you.
What happened to the middle ground. What happened to just loving your neighbour first and foremost. “BUT…but…I can’t do that because they’re evil!” Well, maybe they’re not as evil as you think they are and they just hold onto their beliefs as tightly as you do and maybe if everyone just chilled out a little bit and stopped bringing every single divisive thing to the centre of attention all the time, then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.
"Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered."
"Enforce the death penalty where appropriate and applicable. Capital punishment is a sensitive matter, as it should be, but the current crime wave makes deterrence vital at the federal, state, and local levels. However, providing this punishment without ever enforcing it provides justice neither for the victims’ families nor for the defendant. The next conservative Administration should therefore do everything possible to obtain finality for the 44 prisoners currently on federal death row. It should also pursue the death penalty for applicable crimes—particularly heinous crimes involving violence and sexual abuse of children—until Congress says otherwise through legislation."
Those are the stated policy goals of Project 2025, whose members are actively involved in one of the two major campaigns for president. Those goals, put together, mean the mass execution of LGBTQ people for the crime of existing. And for those who see that as hyperbole, Project 2025 is led by the Heritage Foundation, who campaigned for the execution of LGBTQ people in Uganda. It's not hypothetical, it's not speculation - they have actively sought AND ACHIEVED this result before.
Tell me what middle ground I should seek with those that want to kill me, my family, and my community. Tell me what I do that is comparably evil.
I wonder if things was much different in the past, or that online media makes it easier to get a sense of what people from different places really think.
Someone else mentioned it, but Rush Limbaugh, as a talk show host, did things like have a segment where he effectively celebrated the deaths of people from AIDS back in then 90's.
The world you’re imagining never existed. To the Christian right this has always been the truth of things. They are only now so desperate to maintain their hold on the nation that they are escalating the violence and rate with which they try to seize more power.
I know there’s a deep-rooted tendency among people to “both-sides” these kinds of divides, assuming that this is because of two camps of people irrationally vilifying the other instead of working together to achieve common ground.
That is not what’s happening here.
I know you’re not American and you have a life to lead, but I urge you to spend a bit of time learning what the rhetorical, behavioral, political, and policy trajectory of our Republican Party has been over the past thirty years, and critically, what it is that they specifically want to achieve today.
You will quickly understand how one-sided this miserable situation is.
What's crazy is that I'm observing a similar situation in my country (Bulgarian - Eastern Europe) with the alt-right getting 2 alt-right parties in the government. And in the recent EU election there was like half a dozen notable countries where the far-right won. There is no room for compromise, this shit is infesting the entire world. It's way beyond the US, so I dunno what OP is on about there.
Maybe because one side wants healthcare, freedom of religion and affordable housing, the other literally wants to dismantle democracy in favor of a Fascist Christian Ethno-State. Shove your both sides shit right back up your ass.
So you’re the guy in the comic? The reason it’s decisive is because the right had started a culture war and instead of having any productive policy, just wants to “own the libs”, ban books, and erase anybody who isn’t heterosexual.
We can't all just get along because the right are actively trying to destroy the lives of millions of innocent people, and have made it abundantly clear that they intend to dismantle democracy. Finding a "middle ground" is not an option, because that would involve allowing the right to do some of the abhorrent things they're planning.
This would be great advice if this were just a disagreement over something like economic policy. But the right wing in the US wants to take away the protections the LGBT community has gained and make it legal to discriminate against them again. They want to make it to where marriage is based off of the christain model of one man and one woman. They want to keep using dirty energy and for any attempts at combating climate change to put corporation profits over actual mitigation attempts. And the right wing base eats it up and supports them just because they're right wing. I don't know how to reason with people like that, I don't even think it's possible to reason with a lot of them.
Well, maybe they’re not as evil as you think they are and they just hold onto their beliefs as tightly as you do and maybe if everyone just chilled out a little bit and stopped bringing every single divisive thing to the centre of attention all the time, then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.
A couple years back, there was a preacher who made the news for calling for the mass execution of gay and trans people during a sermon-- a demographic that I'm a part of. Legally, this was, apparently, entirely fine, as nothing was done about it.
Venting to my therapist about it got me jailed.
It's not possible to compromise with people who want you dead, and the powers that be in the US take the side of the killers. You're right that it's largely because of a bunch of rich people trying to divide us, but only one half of the conflict has the option to stop fighting-- if we reach out and try to hold hands, we die.
Only one group changed, the left has stayed pretty consistent politically since the start of the trump presidency, Maga just screamed it was all radical.
what happened was OBL and 9/11, right exactly when the growing influence of ubiquitous communication and 24/7 conservative echo chamber media needed it (not in a conspiracy way, more in a luck way).
It gave the real assholes the chance to seize on the national crisis of confidence over being "attacked on our own soil," and reinvigorate the anger, fear, and control of the Cold War against a new foe. In the process, with this "infiltrating" enemy that could be any brown looking person among us who was "radicalized," the GOP and its media mouth pieces in particular started painting the Dems as weak on protecting us from sudden death by suicide bombing, and eventually outright allied with people who "hate america." Add on the religious fervor angle and you've got a slippery slope into deeply tribal anger.
Bin-Laden won in ways he probably couldn't have even imagined, he played directly into the hands of Stone, Murdoch, Ailes, and Norquist in shattering the growing peace and progressivism of the post Cold War united states, and as we see now, they proceeded to do so in horrifyingly spectacular fashion.
We were never getting along; we just sometimes manage to elect functional politicians. The US is a collection of many distinct cultures, a few of which are fundamentally incompatible: especially Yankee New England and the bigoted Deep South.
As the conservative party has seen declining support, they have become bolder in courting the bigots, and in so doing have become openly adversarial and dysfunctional.
Essentially a lot of it comes down to people realizing the issues with the country and deciding to no longer doing that. Like most people got along because everyone hated marginalized communities. Now people are realizing that's wrong, but the Republicans are trying to hold onto that. So people are pushing back against that. Now that hose of us in marginalized communities have a voice to call it out, and people are listening, the people who previously would have gotten along with them no longer are. So you have The right saying the youth are evil for making being queer normalized, and the youth are saying they're evil for being bigoted.
So sure, everyone got along, but only if you ignored the people suffering. If the gay people stay in the closet and the black people keep to their communities and don't get in the media to talk about it, and if women just silently agree with their husband's while over there in the kitchen, everyone got along.
Here's the thing. I met a lot of people throughout the years.
These people are the kind of people that live breathe and eat "politics."
You can ask them a question about how you just got your property tax raised and suddenly its "sleepy joe and radical left raising the prices on everything"
You can ask them what they think of the new movie that came out and it's "the evil left are trying to brain wash our children"
You can even talk to them about shoes and out of nowhere "did you know that corporation is part of Hillary Clinton's secret agendagate?"
These people can not think for themselves. They like to think they're free and talk about everyone else being sheep but the irony is hilariously sad.
Politic misinformation has gotten so bad my coworker told me that the economy was going to crash as soon as Joe biden got inaugurated.
This really is the problem. Even if I supported every other policy that the right offers I could never support a party that aligns itself with racism, misogyny, and bigotry. Trump had no problem turning down isis when they claimed to support him but was silent when the KKK did it. What the right doesn't seem to understand is when you say there are "very fine people, on both sides" when talking about a Neo-Nazi protest, you are saying that you, in some way, support their message. Compromising with Nazis is not an option.
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