I would call myself a (left) centrist, but I guess in has a different meaning where you live. In the Netherlands not even a right party is about letting people die without insurance.
The VVD, D66, SGP, CU and JA21 have all said they want a freeze on adding new treatments to the basic healthcare package, which is determined by the government. Critics say this would lead to patients being denied new treatments which could, for example, cure their cancer or other chronic illnesses.
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/10/the-big-election-issues-healthcare-and-health-insurance/
Kinda sounds like they are about letting people die without insurance, and given enough time in power would build further on these policies. Your baseline intolerance for healthcare cuts may be higher, but make no mistake they want to take it away from you.
Realists (who sometimes appear to be centrists) wish many leftists would value actual harm reduction over purity.
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.
I don’t think they’re necessarily “bad people”, but leftists can be really annoying when they argue using straw men, like OP.
The fact that you think it's a straw man and not the thing that's literally happening every day is why I think you're a bad person.
In a sane country, centrism means you still support universal healthcare. Obviously not in the US and overtime less and less in other countries.
Centrism is a myth, it's right wing for people too afraid to call themselves as such. You can't sit in the middle of capitalism. You are either for or against it.
Let's look at French centrism, the proposed 2026 budget included funding cuts for healthcare. It was only after protest and having to negotiate with left parties that they saw an increase. If left to their own devices, centrists would eventually and slowly kill of healthcare through a million tiny cuts. Centrists don't support it, it's just bad optics for them to be visibly against it.
Hey now, I'm a centrist!
I'm just the center of the left. You know, where respect for humanity exists.
(i couldn't resist, sorry)
This is a "don't look at what the right's doing!" kind of post.
Or maybe just pointing out that our "center" is far right.
All Center is either far right, right or tumbling to the right
Then it's certainly muddling everything up and making the terms all confusing if that's the point.
This is looking at the right.
And this is why the right will always win. You can never be left enough to not get into arguments with "real" leftists.
No, it's that you're not left if you're arguing for keeping capitalism. It's a very low bar to pass.
Leftists disagree with each other on basically every other aspect of how society should run, but not this one.
They're worse than conservatives. At least with conservatives you know they're assholes. Centrists are also assholes but they waste so much time trying to convince people that they're not.
This is such a wild statement. Conservatives are way bigger assholes, but that's overshadowed by the fact that they're more obvious? Centrists are at least trying to be reasonable.
The entire reason that ICE is in the streets is because Trump wants to beat Obama and Biden's deportation numbers. He is just too stupid to do it in a way that isn't stupid.
I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the entire reason, but so? Deporting undocumented immigrants isn't an unreasonable policy. You might disagree with borders in the first place, but that's a pretty radical position. The being in the streets doing things stupidly is a much bigger issue than believing in borders.
And there you go, that right there is the difference we are talking about.
I think it is bad to round up kids and working people and throw them into cages without trials or rights or representation.
You think that is OK as long as the guys doing it aren't hassling white people in the streets while they do it.
That is the difference between a leftist and a centrist.
The part that you have a hard time understanding is that your position is a LOT closer to the Republican position than you care to admit.
What? That's not my position, I'm not a centrist, I'm not telling you my personal political positions, I am describing centrists as they appear to be and not some sinister devious caricature.
When I say something is "reasonable", I'm not saying it's correct,. I'm just saying that it was arrived at through an attempt, successful or not, to reach a balanced and realistic solution.
No one in the center thinks rounding up kids and working people and throwing them in cages is OK. Most people who aren't MAGA aren't cheering for cares. But people do want some kind of record keeping and security to keep out actual criminals.
And the white people in the streets is what makes headlines, so that's when the people who aren't regularly plugged into the news find out about these things.
I'm not singing their praises for not taking an interest in the first place, or not being more vocal in their discontent, but I'm not going to pretend that being ignorant or conflicted about throwing kids in cages is worse than throwing the kids in the cages.
Yes the centrists have many failings, but I don't see the benefit in framing them as the real problem. Just seems like it takes out focus off the real problem.
No one in the center thinks rounding up kids and working people and throwing them in cages is OK.
Then why are you constantly telling us we have to vote for people who do? Why is this literally the only position centrists have on immigration? Remember when Biden was really proud of his deportation numbers and used them to dunk in Trump and the dnc ate it up?
Again, not me telling you that, and still missing the point. The fascists are the reason we have fascists. They are the enemy, the centrists are just bad allies.
I'm not opposed to criticizing centrists, I'm opposed to distracting ourselves and acting against our interests by claiming bad allies are the real enemy. People like to feel like they figured out the real threat, and it was secretly some seemingly innocuous force. But usually, the obvious threat is obvious for a reason.
I think deporting undocumented immigrants is asinine. We are a country founded on immigration you clown.
There's a logic to it. I may not agree with the logic, but it is there. For what it's worth personally I agree with you.
Something something "white moderate".
Scratch a liberal...
Muh civility 😭
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