But hell, I'll bite. I've ranted about this before, and I know my views don't fully apply to Americans, but I truly believe that using left/right as labels is playing into the elite's hands. You ask a left-person or a right-person their opinions on the rich, and both of them will come to the same conclusion, but as soon as you mention either side, then they start fighting. Thus, the picture is ignored; it's about teams now, it's about cancelling and gotchas, no more about the imbalance of social power.

Honestly, how can anyone be so binary with their political beliefs in an age where we have functional neural networks, global interconnectivity and instant access to whatever we desire? Our water is so fucking clean that we shit in it. We have so much food that there's obesity in ourselves and in our pets. When a disaster happens, when the walls break down, are you really going to be so petty and pathetic as to worry about left or right? I don't reckon.

I refuse to use left/right since I don't even think it applies in my country. Allow me to explain. In Australia's system, we have two separate houses of Parliament, preferential voting, state, federal, and local elections, councils, a monarchy, and territories. Preferential voting ensures your vote is never wasted and goes exactly where you want it.

Where do I fit if I vote for Fusion first, Animal Justice second, Greens Third, Labor fourth, and Liberals fifth for Representatives? While also voting for UAP, One Nation, or Liberal for Senate? What if I throw independents into the mix? Shit, the way parliaments are designed is that parties have to come together to get bills and acts through.

Can you legitimately blanket all that with just one side? Not in Australia, at least. Only advice I have for Americans is to leave, find a better country, they'll be more than willing to take you in and as an American, you can certainly afford to leave to almost every other country.

What an utterly bizarre view they have.

I don't think that "both sides are the same", but there is a Venn Diagram of shared interests under the two party system; the overlap is fairly large (e.g., both parties are susceptible to lobbying, both parties fight to maintain first past the post voting, etc.)

Homie just heard a bunch of words online and attempted to string them together into a coherent political opinion. They failed, but hey they tried.

It betrays a deep level of self-awareness of being on the "bad" side and knowing that if you say your actual values around a large number of normal people you will face criticism and attacks, so it's shame. Centerism is almost always some level of shame, or at best woefully immature ignorance of actual politics.

And Democrats often think they vote for something actually good, when it’s actually just a lesser evil. Keep that in mind, no matter what you decide.

well i mean to be clear, not voting for a literal fascist, is a pretty good vote.

Of course the both sides argument comes from the right because America has no left

I'm undecided on Trump and the GOP in 2024, I can't tell if they're brutally evil or evilly brutal.

The thing is real fiscal conservatism relies on evidence. They just want to sell off the government so they can make a profit replacing it. A real fiscal conservative would have already passed universal education, universal healthcare, universal background checks, taken military procurement to task, and repealed half of the laws restricting unions.

The Republicans talk about laws that spend less and create more revenue, but they fight tooth and nail against ones that actually would do that.

"I want to smoke weed and not pay taxes and I lack basic empathy for anyone with problems worse than my own."

Code for "I'm conservative but know a gay person and/or once smoked a marijuana."

This is prominent in the online dating scene. ‘Why don’t women like total dickhead conservatives, derrp? Guess I’m “moderate” or “not political”.’

This has actually been studied

Anti-Authoritarians and Moderates view it as best to be seen as Anti-Authoritarians, Authoritarians view it best to be seen as Moderates.

They literally view opportunistic claiming of the center not just as a political tool but as a social survival tactic to not be ostracized for their bullshit.

Exactly this. Many of them are concerned about how it might affect their work too and their families if they found out they're were horrible racist people.

It's part of the reason why the KKK wore clokes

The extreme center, no political ideology, only opportunism!