What's a Centrist These Days?

My take is below but I am interested to hear how other people may define it

Capitalist (not the USA hyper capitalism rather a sensibly, not overly, regulated free market)
Anti Monopoly/Pro antitrust
Pro Free Trade
Pro universal health care with private option
Pro gun, not Wild West but regulated
Anti War, Peacekeeping only
Pro Military defense
Pro Immigration, but capped
Anti Illegal immigration
Pro LGTBetc
Anti NIMBY
Pro Gentrification
Pro Environment
Pro Welfare/Social Support net
Pro Hard on crime
Pro taxing religion
Pro choice
Pro smaller government (not like fucking DOGE but less than we are used to)
Pro country/patriotism

My understanding is that a centrist can be one of two things:

1: An ultra far right person who is trying to convince non-far right people they are a reasonable person.

2: a fence-sitting indecisive coward who is ruining it for the rest of us.

Centrist where?

Good point, variations do exist from region to region

It's not a bug, it's a feature.

I'd also question if we mean Centrist in terms of support for individual policies, or the policies of politicians centrists support. Commonly the two don't align.

Sorry to burst your snarky one liner bubble but that is patently untrue, variations of free market capitalism exist within this world, look at Europe vs USA as an example. Different regulations, different tax structures, different focus on how that money is spent via a vis social programs and thus different outcomes and quality of life

Japan would be another example I think

The irony here is your solution to everything is more government however it’s your government that is letting you down in this regard, not the free market

You dirty leftist commie


A lot of these do require nuance or definition, though. Capitalism, for example, cannot maintain a free market without regulation - you do note 'sensibly not overly regulated' - and regulations protecting the environment, health, etc, are needed.

Immigration needs nuance, in how fucking difficult or onerous the process should be.

But other than that, welcome to the American Left Wing, mate

Exactly.

Which you just described.
How do you think they got there, fucking flag color?

The context is you’re decrying capitalism when it’s actually your government enabling it and making it worse than it needs to be

In any event I’m glad we agree on the overall merits of capitalism, there may just be hope for you yet

I think the American left wing hates a few things i described but yeah there’s some alignment there for sure

Totally agree that a lot of what i said needs nuance though those were pretty broad strokes

I don't disagree with most of the list, but gentrification can cause a lot of problems for people already living in the areas that the gentrifiers want. Too many times you see people (usually people of color, often elderly) getting pushed out by mostly white hipsters due to higher rents and overall cost of living.

So you could say I'm cautiously pro-gentrification as long as it's done the right way where long time residents aren't forced out to make way for a shitty IPA brew pub or avocado toast emporium.

If true someone should tell Dem leadership who are out here discussing how to get to the right of almost all of those.

I think these two sets cancel their partner out.

Gentricide creates displaces communities by creating a sense of NIMBYism which drives the housing crisis which in turn spawns low level crime while eroding the social safety net.

I find it a fairly self-serving label, used by people who think that what's normative is the same as what's moderate or reasonable. And as has been pointed out, if it's just the muddled "average" of what people in one society think, then it's not the same thing from place to place or from time to time and what one person regards as "centrist" would be regarded as quite extreme by the standard of most cultures that have ever existed.

Oh no, Trumpism has been the last straw. I think billionaires should be abolished.
But I'm also realist enough to know I won't live to see that world in my lifetime.
Jury-rigging it to European standards is the best I can hope for.

As far as American/Canadian politics, identifying as a "centrist" feels to me like a red flag indicating the person may have fallen for conservative propaganda. Canadian Liberals and American Democrats are very much in the middle of the spectrum and support most if not all of the things listed in the OP, but Conservatives/Republicans spend a lot of time and money trying to convince the public that they're actually dangerous far-left extremists.

Random example: I still have friends that work for the federal government, they've been telling me about how the Liberals have been cutting back the public service since 2022. It started with large numbers of term employees working on covid related stuff not being renewed, but this year it's escalated to permanent employees having their positions eliminated, and all of this before Carney won the leadership while promising to enact cuts of his own. But ask a lot of people, they'll tell you the liberals are the irresponsible big spenders that keep inflating the public service.



TLDR: "Centrists" are falling for conservative propaganda.

You're not allowed to be neutral, hint at seeing merits to both sides, or just not give a shit about someone's pet cause. "The opposite of love is indifference" is a contageous mental disorder.

Because if we could all just be "neutral" we'd hate trannies as much as you.
Cuz that's neutral.

Lol, Jesus H. Christ.

Oh please, you're not neutral.
You can't possibly expect anyone to believe that.
At this point, I think you're just about the most far- right poster we have on this board. And the only reason you're still here and they are not is because A) You're still breathing, and B) You aren't openly endorsing Nazism.

Billionaires are fine, they just need to be taxed a lot more

Except that being billionaires, they have the means to pervert the system so as to prevent that.
So, they have to go. No billionaires.

By the way, the opposite of love (or compassion) is indifference.
Anyone who says outerwear is looking for permission not to care about the plight of others.

That's on the government

The government and society are not discrete things. Billionaires have the ability to buy the government.

I'm pretty centrist by your standards. Only 4-5 I disagree with.

Yeah but you're also an incel loser that nobody likes

Agreed!

No longer even theoretical - we're literally watching the result of that purchase in real time.