I've been seeing a worrying number of these people on Lemmy lately, sharing enlightened takes including but not limited to "voting for Biden is tantamount to fascism" and "the concept of an assigned gender, or even an assigned name, at birth is transphobic" and none of them seem to be interested in reading more than the first sentence of any of my comments before writing a reply.
More often than not they reply with a concern I addressed in the comment they're replying to, without any explanation of why my argument was invalid. Some of them cannot even state their own position, instead simply repeatedly calling mine oppressive in some way.
It occurred to me just now that these interactions reminded me of nothing so much as an evangelical Christian I got into an argument with on Matrix a while ago, in which I met him 95% of the way, conceded that God might well be real and that being trans was sinful and tried to convince him not to tell that to every trans person he passed, and failed. I am 100% convinced he was trolling -- in retrospect I'm pretty sure I could've built a municipal transport system by letting people ride on top of his goalposts (that's what I get for picking a fight with a Christian at 2AM) -- and the only reason I'm not convinced these leftists on Lemmy are trolls is the sheer fucking number of them.
I made this post and what felt like half the responses fell into this category. Am I going insane?
When people criticize centrists, they frame it as the middle ground between universal health care, diversity and taxing the rich vs outright fascism.
What centrism actually is, is the middle ground between fascism and "if you try to lose weight you're fat-phobic and if you don't offer up your home to the crack-addicted homeless guy who keeps harassing your 12-year-old daughter you're a nazi."
The alt-right doesn't have a monopoly on idiots. Definitely a plurality, though.
Going to need to see some honest arguments for forcing people to house sexual predators... In fact I'm quite sure there's an amendment saying you can't be forced by the government to house anyone on your personal property (which I do think should be lessened, or we should have more Rights to passing by laws). Sounds like you're believing the progressive side is a very slippery slope.
It's for people who can't even imagine that unhoused people struggling with addiction could ever actually get help...
In their vision of the future those people stay on the street instead of getting help so they can stand in their own again. Even if they never can, them having their basic needs met makes it safer for everyone.
It's not that they intentionally are arguing in bad faith, it's just a total.lack.of empathy. They don't see those people as humans that need help. Homeless desperate people are a "thing" to them, not a bunch of individuals.
I understand that addiction doesn't happen in a vacuum and every addict is a victim of their circumstances. I also understand you should be able to walk down a dark alley while waving a wad of cash without being mugged.
At a certain point you have to acknowledge reality and say "even if we want to work toward a perfect world where people get the help they need and we don't hurt each other, we don't exist in that world so we need to protect ourselves and those we care about through common sense."
Letting addicts set up a tent near a residential neighbourhood or handing over our wallets to the less fortunate guy threatening to stab us doesn't help anyone.
Imagine, we could have a better world if the capitalists would pay their fair share. If that happened, you wouldn’t need to argue!
I didn't think I'd have to quote myself today, but in the original comment I made which you're replying to, I explicitly said:
I am completely in favour of taxing the rich. Billionaires should not exist, and in fact it is unethical to be a billionaire because to hold that much wealth which you will never be able to use while others are suffering is outright evil.
But this is exactly what I was saying. You aren't centrist if you look at the Republicans and Democrats and say "they both make good points." You're a centrist if you look at the Republicans and Democrats and say "the Democrats are the only sane option, and even though they aren't ideal they're way better than the alternative and voting for them is the only thing preventing the United States from becoming a fascist dictatorship under an absolute idiot."
See: any comment section regarding homeless encampments when the reality people in places like Vancouver are facing is used heroin needles left on their doorstep and in playgrounds and women being harassed on their way home.
I have a friend in Calgary who regularly has to deal with junkies shooting up right in front of his door and trying to get him to let them in.
Great example of neoliberalism...
Try to act like the only thing that matters is extreme social views on either side to distract from what happens when the only two major parties are "fiscally conservative".
That's the whole point, the rich buying both parties and starting culture wars so no one pays attention to what the rich want.
Sorry, but isn't that exactly what centrism as I described is against? The extreme viewpoints of either side. And what's in the middle? Typically moderate politicians like Biden who are ostensibly on "the left" but only insofar as the politicians on "the right" are batshit fascists.
But the "enlightened centrists" crowd act like centrism is the point between Biden and Trump. Biden is the goddamn centre point.
Biden is only "the centre point" if one end is trump and the other is the bare minimum you want from a president.
He's not even the middle between what people actually want and trump.
The only people who say online that Biden has been a bad president are right-wing trolls and Russian propagandists, or those who have believed the crap they spew.
Remember when the left was screaming at Biden to forgive student debt and then he... started doing exactly that? How far back have you had to move those goal posts in the last four years?
Why would Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists be "happy" with Biden and believe him to be a good president when Biden is a firm Liberal Capitalist, which stands against what Leftists stand for?
And here, children, is one of those Russian propagandists, or "tankies." Easily identifiable by their .ml instance.
In what way? If we had a socialist president, I wouldn't expect right wingers to be happy either.
I genuinely don't get where you think I am doing Russian propaganda, considering Russia is a bourgeois dictatorship and not a beacon of leftism. I don't know where you get the idea that I am a tankie either for saying it makes sense that leftists don't agree with right wingers, just like right-wingers don't agree with leftists.
This is just slander.