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why not the centre?
(quokk.au)
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this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2026
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Realists (who sometimes appear to be centrists) wish many leftists would value actual harm reduction over purity.
Where is this "actual harm reduction" that I keep hearing about?
Surely you can think of some cases in your political life where you had to choose between a bad and a worse option?
Simple things, like voting strategically for the least bad of two options in FPTP voting systems, even if the candidate isn't perfect. Like voting for Lincoln (racist white supremacist) over Douglas (enslaver).
Promoting and voting for the best candidate possible who is likely to win their election, even when they aren't as good as you wish they were.
"Come on, guys, sacrificing some people in our society so we can have rich people is better than sacrificing alot of people in our society so we can have filthy stinking rich people!"
It's almost like the trolley problem was created to wrestle with the horrible choices life sometimes puts in front of us, instead of just giving us something to talk about in philosophy class.
Now if we don't have destitute or uneducated people, where are we going to get children for pedo billionaires to rape? Bet you didn't think of that human rights violation, dirty commies!!!
You got it backwards.
It's: "come on, guys, people are afraid of big sweeping changes, so - since filthy stinking rich people control the narrative - it's better to make changes where some people will be sacrificed for the rich, than sacrificing all people for the rich".
And your reply is the perfect example of a leftists who values purity over harm reduction.
Who? Who are these people?
I'm pretty sure you just mean rich people are afraid of any progress - especially because progress is a direct threat to their privilege.
No normal person is afraid of getting their basic human needs. I think the complete opposite is the case.
Around 90% of the population of this planet.
No.
That's false - a lot of people think that them getting their basic human needs would collapse something and cause irreparable damage. It's bullshit, of course, but people - in general - are just by default afraid of change.
That's absolutely false. I mean, come on, look around. If that were true, we wouldn't have a resurgence of right-wing, liberal capitalism parties all across the board, and the US wouldn't be what it is!
I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean. Could you elaborate?
You're NOT reducing harm, you're steadily increasing harm when most of our problems could be easily solved by ending harm.
That's the issue, really. People won't get behind anything new or radical etc., so the options usually are "getting worse slowly" or "getting even worse right now", and picking that latter is not better than the first one. What's the solution? Fuck if I know, but allowing the latter to happen cannot be it
Improved. But yeah, the privileged constantly endeavor to violently maintain their privilege.
Exactly. By assuming the harm will carry on, these people consent to it
OK, please elaborate on how having some but not all people get out of the shit-hole is not reducing harm. Oh, wait, it's not even "not reducing harm", it's "steadily increasing harm"!
Leftists wish many centrists (who always appear to be right-wingers) would value human life over 'harm reduction' a.k.a. perpetuating a system that causes widespread harm, death, and suffering.
Imagine how much better the world could be if we didn't have to constantly fight with 'centrists' to do the right thing instead of them trying to meet the far-right in a compromise.
What exactly do you think they are trying to reduce the harm to if not human life?
They're trying to reduce the harm to their own privilege.
You never hear people talking about "harm reduction" for palestinians, etc.
It's strictly about keeping chuck and nancy happy.
Let's do a thought experiment.
You have a group of people who grumble about the status quo but are fed information that any change to the status quo is bad for them.
There's a filthy rich dude who controls the information they are being fed.
You have two options:
Number 1 has around 0,00001% of succeeding.
Number 2 has around 30% of succeeding.
Which do you choose?