I disagree wholeheartedly with this statement. The “center”? Of what? Between what?
You can’t have a “center” without first defining what those boundaries are. A major part of “leftist” belief is that those boundaries are in fact false and that rather than the political world being divided by left and right, it is divided up and down, that the rich govern everyone else.
Most centrists lack clear definitions of what it is, as you highlighted. That is my point. Western centrists are just like, a train station lobby of people milling about without clear platform or opinion. As you get further away, people have increasingly clear definitions. Your idealized leftist is hardly common. Most vigorously review their neighbor’s qualifications and are quick to purity test and reject those remotely to the right of them. At the furthest extremes, all pretense of the current world are effectively evil and should all be scoured away
Now, we are discussing political opinion and discourse. To your other point, I agree completely that the true divides are those of class/wealth.
A more modern take in Political Science is to consider which groups will work with what other groups. Democrats generally don’t work with anarchists, but they will work with democratic socialists (to some extent, anyway), and DemSocs might work with anarchists. Republicans won’t work with democratic socialists, but will work with free market libertarians.
Notably, Horseshoe Theory doesn’t fit into this model. Free market libertarians won’t work with democratic socialists, either. So one way to define the center is to find the centerpoint between all these group connections.
However, another way to look at it is a graph rather than a line. Free market libertarians may not work with Christian nationalists, but both will work with the Republican party (not a perfect example, I admit, but that’s the gist). That graph might not have anything that can be properly called the center.
I disagree wholeheartedly with this statement. The “center”? Of what? Between what?
You can’t have a “center” without first defining what those boundaries are. A major part of “leftist” belief is that those boundaries are in fact false and that rather than the political world being divided by left and right, it is divided up and down, that the rich govern everyone else.
Most centrists lack clear definitions of what it is, as you highlighted. That is my point. Western centrists are just like, a train station lobby of people milling about without clear platform or opinion. As you get further away, people have increasingly clear definitions. Your idealized leftist is hardly common. Most vigorously review their neighbor’s qualifications and are quick to purity test and reject those remotely to the right of them. At the furthest extremes, all pretense of the current world are effectively evil and should all be scoured away
Now, we are discussing political opinion and discourse. To your other point, I agree completely that the true divides are those of class/wealth.
I think i see what you’re sayin. Certainly there’s a hard divide between peeps that think “capitalism can or even should exist” for a prime example.
A more modern take in Political Science is to consider which groups will work with what other groups. Democrats generally don’t work with anarchists, but they will work with democratic socialists (to some extent, anyway), and DemSocs might work with anarchists. Republicans won’t work with democratic socialists, but will work with free market libertarians.
Notably, Horseshoe Theory doesn’t fit into this model. Free market libertarians won’t work with democratic socialists, either. So one way to define the center is to find the centerpoint between all these group connections.
However, another way to look at it is a graph rather than a line. Free market libertarians may not work with Christian nationalists, but both will work with the Republican party (not a perfect example, I admit, but that’s the gist). That graph might not have anything that can be properly called the center.
Nice discussion. I agree.
I’d clarify the distinction between work, and association/discussion. Especially here in online platforms