Your average boomer is now in their 70’s. They are buying up property and mistreating their kids. Life is good, they think. Then they find out the youth are eating an easy food combo they never even fucking heard about, but one that’s cheap and amazing. “Avocado Toast? What the fuck is this shit? Spike the prices on avocado! Push it out of their price range!” I’m sorry sir! Avocado is cheap. It’s easily farmed. “Spike the prices” they scream, remembering their days on the stock market. They expect reason. Dominance An end to avocado toast. But it never comes. They watch aghast as young people continue to consume avocado toast despite their anger, and they take it personally. “If it’s so good why didn’t I get to have it when I was young???” they scream. They all lose their minds as the avocado trees bloom.
The boomers also own the farms that over-planted Avocado to profit off of the ‘Avocado Toast’ craze and now the market, within the next few years as most trees mature, will become over-saturated with fruit driving the price down. They won’t be worth picking.
I have a feeling we will see Avocados going through woodchippers to keep the price high.
The only thing I’m proud of when looking at gen Z is that they are completely unwilling to go to war for the military complex and giving their life fighting a battle where they have nothing to gain but everything to lose. That’s way smarter than my generation or the baby boomers ever were.
are completely unwilling to go to war for the military complex
Are they though?
"Post-millennials (also known as Generation Z or Gen Z), born from 1996 to the present, now constitute nearly 90% of the Army’s active duty junior enlisted and nearly 35% of all junior officers (Defense Manpower Data Center, 2018, p. 29). "
Interestingly do all the leftist who now chant “from the river to the sea…” support genocide of the jews because that is exactly what those words mean.
If in the year 2000 liberals expanded their traditions, then if in the year 2200 liberals still held onto these traditions would this be seen as conservative? So theoretically they’re no longer liberal even though the party stayed the same for 200 years?
it’s very likely that would be the case assuming that we learn that some of our traditions were mistaken, likely based on limited information. (or assuming that the definition didn’t change somehow)
i want clarify that it’s not so much that they’re “no longer liberal”, because if they were following more or less the same defined liberal ideals back in 2000, they certainly were liberals. it’s moreso along the line of thought that “what the liberals back then thought was outdated”.
I’ll bite. Most of what I see here in this thread against Centrism or Independents is bad strawman arguments consisting of: “There are three types of people: reasonable people who agree with me, crazy fascists, and lily-livered wimps who can’t pick a side (and are also fascists)!”
If someone says that they are “centrist” they are not telling you that they base all of their opinions on being dead center in the middle of any two positions. That would be stupid.
They are telling you that they agree with neither major party on everything, and find that both parties have views that they don’t agree with. It’s pretty easy to come to that conclusion because the US two-party system packs in an almost incoherent mishmash of beliefs into exactly two sides.
There is absolutely no contradiction in being for police reform, and against riots lasting for days. There is no contradiction in being for gun rights, while also wanting massive limits on them. There is no contradiction in wanting functional government services and universal healthcare, and thinking that free markets are effective to an extent. There is no contradiction in wanting a more balanced budget, and government services to be funded properly.
The idea that there are only two (or maybe 2.5 depending on where you live) sides in politics is a strange delusion created by your two party system.
The reason the meme creator is running into situations like this is because they don’t witness the Centrist also vehemently argue with right-wing policies frequently.
They only see them argue with them and therefore have a skewed view of Centrists / Independents and their politics. If you are left wing, and argue for left-wing policies in every case, that means you will also be argued with by somebody who believes political nuance and not just waving a party flag.
Remember, the right wing also shits on centrists because they think they are secretly left-wing since they argue with their stupider points as well.
So no, these people are not secretly right-wing and just don’t have the balls to say it. That is a horrendous take no matter where you fall on the political spectrum and only serves to limit conversation.
It seems to be Lemmy in general when dealing with Centrism or Independents. Despite very little knowledge, they are very excited to tell you the things that you think.
Are you 'murican? I don’t think the rest of the world agrees on any of the US’s “definitions” of left, right and liberal. From a European POV, the US democrats are really, really far to the right. Sanders might be leaning toward the center. The republicans are a strange mixture of libertarian regarding economical matters and very very right-wing/intrusive on personal matters. Whenever someone even mentions/comments other people’s sexual orientation and identity I automitcally assume they are creep that wants to sniff other people’s bedsheets. How can you be partly libertarian and also creepily nazi-intrusive? US-republican invention I can’t wrap my head around, that is.
How often do you see these views in daily media? Cause I see right-wing rhetoric that’s pretty fucked up on TV and in newspaper and on the streets. but I only see tankies in the most forgotten corners of the internet.
If social “media” falls under daily media, then I see it all the time. Go on X. Or Reddit. Or Instagram. or TikTok. It’s not hard to find some pretty radical leftist opinions in popular spaces nowadays, and like most spaces centered around radical ideology, you’ll get some genocide deniers in the mix.
I never really got the whole “leftists voices not being heard” schtick. There are tons of leftist flavored crazies online, and they tend to be very vocal, just like the right wing crazies.
Key word being “here.” They represent a small portion of a small internet community. How often do you hear tankie views presented seriously on mainstream news?
That’s what i am claiming here. France Insoumise is 3rd largest political force in France, they are pretty vocal in their “criticism of main establishment” which translates to “US/Israel bad, Russia and China good”
I don’t see tankies/red-browns are leftists. Ultimately they overwhelmingly support authoritarian dictatorships, and that just doesn’t feel very lefty for me
Well left/right isn’t authoritarian/libertarian, it’s collectivist economics/individualist economics.
Authoritarians with collectivist ideals are authoritarian leftists, i.e tankies,
Libertarians with collectivist ideals are libertarian leftists i.e anarchocommunists,
Authoritarians with individualist ideals are authoritarian right, i.e monarchism,
Libertarians with individualist ideals are libertarian right, i.e anarchocapitalism.
Of course there are more examples of ideologies for each quadrant with varying levels of “auth-lib” or “left-right,” but just to give you some idea of the differences. There’s also auth-lib centers, like National Socialists on the auth side and agorists or anarchoprimativists on the lib side.
Of course judge all of the above groups to your own accord, but it isn’t as simple as “left means libertarian” unless you think anarchocapitalism is a leftist ideal, which it by definition isn’t.
Yeah, I didn’t elaborate enough. If you use left-right as people usually do, as an economic position, with communism and socialism being on the left, I don’t see how that leftist position could in any way be compatible with authoritarianism in any way. The core tenet of socialism is worker collectively owning means of production and making decisions about their workspace and getting the benefits of their labour. The core tenet of communism is stateless society (among other core tenets). Both are at the core incompatible with authoritarian style government of any sorts.
You could just be socialist for example, but tankies are very keen on adding dictatorship on top, which means that they either don’t understand what socialism is, or do but for them loving “strong hand” is more important, and that makes them “non leftists” as far as I can see it.
It works for the other side of the mirror, but kinda less obviously so. Capitalism either requires on necessarily leads to accumulation of power by the few, because money is power in capitalism, and accumulating capital is the only function of capital, so anarchocapitalism is just a precursor to oligarchy (or neofeudalism in it’s worst case).
It’s literally they want “what is best for you whether you like it or not, and we’ll kill you to give it to you.” Tankies are leftists, even if they’re the “Harvey Dent’s left half personality” of the left. “Walks like the left, talks like the left, but also kills people = leftist that kills people.”
Again, it’s physically, dialectically, impossible to simultaneously be for “workers own and collectively operate the means of production” and “unelected autocratic dictatorship owns and operates means of production”. It’s either or, there is no shared ownership between the two. Same goes for the question “who is in charge of fruits of the labour” and “who is in charge of natural resources”. It’s either collective, by any mean, or autocrat.
So when they say “I want autocracy” they necessarily pick one of those, and it’s not one that is called socialism (or communism for that matter).
If “the party” is “the worker’s party,” or “the collective,” as has historically been the case, it absolutely can be. It’s like the rightoids claiming the nazis were socialist, they just want to pretend the worst parts of their ideology are actually someone else’s ideology instead of just admitting “yes, X can be done wrong, it can also be done this other way which I think is right.”
The fact that tankies are leftists isn’t an admonishment of leftists at large, the leftists at large’s inability to admit tankies are “the demon within themselves” (in terms of whole party not in you necessarily,) is however.
Of course, many on the right and left define their side as “everything good,” and the other as “everything bad,” so, if you’re one of those, then yeah I guess, whatever dude. In any case this conversation seems pointless, you’ve determined that “leftist authoritarians can’t be leftists frfr” and nothing I say will make you see just how silly that is.
that has nothing to do with the ideology of centrism itself and would be ridiculous to even pretend so.
it has to do with the complexity of the situation, and more specifically for everyone supporting Israel, having to do with maintaining country relations moreso than the edit: humanist ideals unfortunately.
You’re right on half of that, but on what issue does he meaningfully align with the left? Like I said, he seems to fall right into line with the right on everything - outside the shallowest veneer.
I’m a centrist - both sides are bad - exclusively lists things the Democrats are doing.
I don’t support the Republicans - but agrees with everything they’re doing.
It’s a great way to feel as though you’ve risen above partisanship and form your own opinions like a special smart boy - as you’re led straight to right-wing positions on every issue.
He certainly shifted right over time, but I don’t think he could have ever fairly been called a centrist.
Disagreeing with the Democrats doesn’t make you right-wing (I disagree with them on most things because I’m pretty far left - condemning the Democrats exclusively (other than the vaguest possible 'I don’t agree with the republicans) while near-universally agreeing with the positions of the GOP makes you right-wing.
Can you name anything Pool has agreed with the Democrats on (and disagreed with the conservative/reactionary/magat line) - words or actions in the last 2 years?
I’m sure we can find something - but you could say that if most conservative voters. The relative difficulty proves my point.
That is the most misleading headline ever. (yeah ok he leaned into shock value in his first statement) Ive noticed something over time. You know who thinks gun control works? useless people. People that actually think a gun is complicated and banning them works. It’s the current year and they, with all the power of the internet search engines, don’t realize there are people out there that built a functioning rifle at the age of 12, pre internet, because they were bored. Colour me shocked that people think a Tim Poole video like this is far right, it ain’t. Far right is fascist bootlick uniform types kecking in doors relying on numbers, far left is apparently crying a guy unimpressed with the tranny movement, isn’t a far left retard, must align with fascists. get a gun, you might need it.
I know, in the past, he has voiced supply for common sense gun control.
No amount of children dying should justify people having their rights taken away.
He opposes abortion rights, doesn’t he. Dead kids don’t matter, but owning a gun is more important than losing bodily autonomy and taking on a lifelong responsibility. You’re choosing to defend this transparent grifter.
What’s your guns and far left/right schizo posting (you really got unintelligible at the end there) got to do with Pool obviously being a right-winger a centrist? No matter - Gun control works just fine - why do you think the US has one of the highest rates of gun death in the developed world - particularly compared to Canada? Is homicide baked into American genetics or something? This isn’t a values statement - it’s a factual one. In the US specifically, I’d like leftists to own guns so they’re somewhat able to defend themselves when the right abandons democracy and start following through on their genocidal rhetoric.
If being shown very simple evidence contradicting your weird defence of your parasocial big brother prompts this kind of response from you, I’d strongly recommend seeking some support. I’m going to block you now - I don’t wish you harm, and continuing to embarrass you might do just that. Be well, my dude.
Let’s hear you defend abortion after this. I’m pro choice but i would just love to hear you try defend that position after this one, without… embarrassing yourself
Of course if you define “leftist” as meaning “doesn’t support genocide” amongst other things then obviously leftists don’t support genocide. But that doesn’t seem to be the actual real world definition.
edit Oh and of course there’s Hamas. Left is unabashedly supporting the genocide of Israelis.
Such stupidity - examples like state capitalist, single-party China is about as communist as the DPRK is democratic. Want to bite the bullet and link capitalist genocides?
That’s not what centrism means. It’s not an immediate compromise between the two. It’s acknowledging that not every single stance held by a political party is the correct one.
I can support background checks and other limitations on firearm purchases, and also not want open borders. We should be doing something about the excess of gun violence, and we should be doing something about the thousands of immigrants jumping our border.
The word “centrism” does kind of imply a mix, or “center”, between two positions. I would phrase it that the word is used for basically anyone whose thinking doesn’t fit neatly into the “left” or “right” category, though - including people who are just lazily mixing positions, and also people who are really thinking outside the box but just happen to agree with a couple positions from those ideologies.
Right?! When I posted it, I was making a statement about enlightened centrism and not even thinking about the Gaza situation. Instead of genocide you can insert any morally abhorrent thing that should not be tolerated. But I get why people think it’s related, it’s on everyone’s mind. Thank you for noticing though.
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