I took days off from Mastodon & almost didn't return. I considered why I find Mastodon even more annoying than Twitter, which is saying something. The reason is politics. If I stick to COVID, my engagement is fine. (Not everyone agrees with me, but that's fine.) But, if I post about my progressive politics, I find I'm attacked not by conservatives but by hyper-critical, nattering lefties. The purity tests here destroy political discourse. I'm going to have to block more on “my side” of politics.
This is why, unchecked by whatever forces are at play in their party, all parties eventually become further and further from center. The furthest from center are the most vocal, the "true believers," and will always drag the party their direction when able. Just look at the Republican Party. They finally stopped fighting the extremists and joined them by shifting the entire party their direction.
I don't really believe in the linear description of left vs right(it's much more complicated than that, and this is how we ended up with a dysfunctional 2 party system, and that's a whole other post), but, in those terms, the 50% who are furthest to the left or right are always pulling those who aren't. The 40% are pulling those and on and on while the 1% are pulling the 10%. Basically, no one has zero pull one direction or the other.
This is essentially also why every capitalist society will eventually become an oligarchy.
I could write an essay on this, and I won't, but this is why "blue MAGA" (or whatever you wish to call them) is as real as MAGA is and you will never satisfy everyone with your positions.
I've always been liberal, I've drifted more liberal as I've aged and I've always been comfortable with the fact that my preferred policies won't make every liberal happy. Is what it is.
Rather than fight with people who essentially believe in the vast majority of what they do, it would always be better to focus their attention on people who have very different views instead of alienating allies, but, just look at the Democrat Party's treatment of "progressives" to see how well liberals are doing at that.
@BE I reject the false equivalence that there's a blue MAGA equal to red MAGA. Yes, I'm complaining about a vocal minority of far-lefties who love to criticize other lefties for not being sufficiently pure. So, Blue MAGA exists. But any implication that the left has moved as far from center as the right or that both left and right have equal problems with extremism will be met with a very forceful rejection by me.
I'm not sure if you're riffing off of what I said, or misinterpreting it.
Did I say that the left has moved as far from center as the right?
Did I say that the left and right have equal problems with extremism today?
Blue MAGA exists, it's just not accepted by any party. MAGA, as I stated, has been accepted by its party and the party has decided to move to it.
@BE You said, “all parties eventually become further and further from center.” That implies both parties are moving to the extremes, and I don't see that to be the case.
We can get caught up in labels without clear definitions, but I think there is a Blue MAGA that is accepted by the Dems (generally represented by the more extreme fans a certain socialist VT senator) and then there are far-left anarchists (who I would not associate with the term Blue MAGA). But, I might be splitting hairs.
I'm speaking long, long term. Maybe in your lifetime, maybe not. Political entropy is a real thing, though.
I am *not* saying that you are seeing Blue MAGA ruling the Democrat party today. I *am* saying that the likelihood is that at some point, if the US survives long enough, that will be the case. That's simply the way it works in the sample of world democracies that we have.
It is often the case that the shift from center is in response to another party's shift from center. Data suggests this is where we're at, although just slightly at this point.
