[whatwhaaaaat]

Politics isn’t a line. Center in most countries is “fine with whatever the government tells me” from forced medical experimentation to genocide.

You’re right tho in that it does seem like people who reject the lies their government tells them may be slightly more likely to say things that upset you on the internet (since I’m guessing that’s what you mean by persicution)

[mrweasel]

I was using persecution as a response to the parent post, which I took to mean that the far left and right are more likely to persecute political opponents and expect persecution themselves, so they are reluctant to approve of government surveillance out of fear that they are on the receiving.

[nozzlegear]

> Center in most countries is “fine with whatever the government tells me” from forced medical experimentation to genocide.

This is a strawman, plain and simple. Calling the political center of any country "fine with genocide" isn't an argument, it's a smear. I'm a centrist democrat, I'm not fine with either of those things and you'd be hard pressed to find someone who is. You can disagree with moderates like me, but painting them as compliant with atrocities is dishonest and lazy.

> Politics isn’t a line

No disagreement here, sometimes it's a horseshoe and you're proving the theory true.

[const_cast]

> Calling the political center of any country "fine with genocide" isn't an argument, it's a smear.

Well the US isn't doing genocide really so yeah it's a smear.

But moderates run the status-quo. MLK talked about how the biggest hurdle to integration and civil rights wasn't racists - it was the moderate white man. Ultimately things are the way they are because there are so many moderates who propose no solutions to anything and are terrified of anything that could be misconstrued as a change.

Moderates are, by in large, complacent with atrocities currently going on in the government they belong to. Moderates in Israel certainly seem fine with genocide. Moderates in the US are fine with the US' war-mongering. They're fine with the pseudo-slavery system that exists in some US states like Georgia.

[nozzlegear]

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone tried to clumsily wield MLK's Birmingham Letter as a moral fulcrum to dismiss modern centrism. That letter was written at a specific moment in time, aimed at a narrow group of people -- white moderates who used "order" as an excuse for inaction on civil rights. He wasn’t condemning all moderation for all time, and invoking his letter every time a moderate calls for practical reform over revolution cheapens its message.

> Ultimately things are the way they are because there are so many moderates who propose no solutions to anything and are terrified of anything that could be misconstrued as a change.

Are moderates "terrified" of the change itself, or do you disagree with how they want to get there? When I call myself a moderate, I don't do it because I'm "terrified" of a better healthcare system; I do it because I want reforms that are realistic, durable and broadly supported. I want change, but I want a solid plan and incremental steps to get us there -- not fiery rhetoric and slogans that crash the economy.

> Moderates in Israel certainly seem fine with genocide.

I'm not Israeli and don't pay attention to their politics, but you're playing a rhetorical shell game here by exporting the moral failure of one electorate and applying them to moderates of all electorates across the entire world. If you want to critique e.g. US policy, do it on the merits, not by hitching your argument to atrocities halfway around the world and then implying guilt by association.

> They're fine with the pseudo-slavery system that exists in some US states like Georgia.

I'm pretty in tune with US politics and I can't figure out what you're referencing here. Are you talking about for-profit prisons and prison labor? I agree that those things need to be abolished, and that's why I supported Biden ending federal contracts with private prisons. As someone who has had several family members in the prison system, I sincerely hope to see more criminal justice reform.