ID: 3 panel comic:
A surprised looking person pops in to existence on a floating rock surrounded by fire, next to the devil.
The person asks "wait a second-- why'd I end up in hell??"
The devil, now taking up the entire frame, replies: "because centrism enables fascism"
First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
- Martin Luther King Jr, Letter from the Birmingham Jail
One of my most used quotes, in fact I used it earlier today, it's just so fucking accurate.
I consider it to be the defining quote on how I choose to act as a person. If my words or actions aren't aligned with the goal of total liberation, then I immediately reassess my position.
Definitely words to live by.
Context for readers: The direct action MLK Jr spoke of was political action and progressive legislative reform. The reason I bring this up is sometimes Tankies and Anarchists use his words to incite violence, which MLK Jr would strictly oppose.
Non-violent protest is an opening offer, not the endgame. It's a promise not to be violent so long as there's an honest dialoge.
Without the threat of eventual violence, they have no reason to listen at all.
Says the white moderate who was taught so by the establishment that doesn't want you to consider violent opposition to their violent oppression a viable option, which he absolutely did, as, without even the slightest sense of irony because the reality is going over their head in its entirety, they tell you they "agree with you in the goal you seek, but cannot agree with your methods of direct action”.
Perhaps educate yourself on MLK and what he actually stood for, rather than what those who murdered him for opposing them want you to know, before you so confidently spread misinformation and continue in the task of whitewashing his legacy.
"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself.”
1964, I guess white oppressors forced him to write this.
If a Nazi sits down at a table of 3 and nobody says anything. There are now 4 Nazis at that table.
Refusing to vote because "I'm sick of " also enables fascism.
I'm totally fine, on paper, with actual centrists. It's just that they actually seem to actually exist in the real world. Everyone claiming to be one is really just a right-wing conservative who's afraid to say so.
I’m totally fine, on paper, with actual centrists
I'd like to know what I'm in the center of. Because if it's a Nuremberg Rally, maybe that's not where I want to be.
There is a middle ground between the unregulated facists capitalism of today and the anarchy or authoritarian socialism of tankies.
That middle ground means that capitalism is allowed but is regulated. Minimum wage is a living wage, slave or child labor products are not allowed on the market. We do have social services including healthcare and UBI. However, there is no middle ground on perceiving much less treating anyone as lesser. Nazis and supremacist groups and systems are stamped out like the filth they are.
middle ground between the unregulated facists capitalism of today and the anarchy or authoritarian socialism
Sure. You can enjoy the moderate centrism of the LAPD, the United Fruit Company, and Focus on the Family.
Nazis and supremacist groups and systems are stamped out like the filth they are.
No they aren't. They're in the highest eschalons of authority.
There’s no lasting compromise with capitalism. Capitalism inherently depends on and leads to a concentration of wealth and power.
Capitalists can and do use that wealth and power to pervert the political system to their advantage, eventually chipping away at those regulations and social services. We saw this happen with the erosion of the gains from the New Deal and Union power over the late 20th century in the US and even in Europe we’ve been seeing austerity and far right parties start to take power and try to do the same.
Political freedom and equality is intrinsically tied to economic freedom and equality. We can’t really build a better society while there are still people with the means and motive to pull us back into servitude.
That middle ground means that capitalism is allowed but is regulated
Lmfao, here's a clue - capitalism IS regulated, and it's still decaying in to fascism, because that's what capitalism does.
Which is the perfect example of how centrism enables fascism - because you prioritise capitalism and its status quo along with the privileges they grant you, over the lives of the people it oppresses, marginalises, and literally kills to exist.
You are part of the problem, no matter how much faux logic you use to try and maintain your own cognitive dissonance.
It doesn't help that it seems the vast majority of people think that "centrism" is a political position unto itself, defined by being on the fence about everything and never committing to any stance on any issue.
As opposed to the actual definition, which is just someone whose collective of political positions is such that it's not really accurate to refer to them as either kind of -winger.
It's kind of like the bisexuality of politics. Actually, as I write that, a lot of biphobia, which comes from both the homo and hetero, is kind of rooted in the same bullshit 'logic'. Just like the majority mentioned above see centrists the way I described, biphobes see bisexuals as indiscriminate sluts who are willing to bed anyone and everyone, as opposed to simply someone who is capable of being attracted to members of either sex.
If someone is "left-leaning" or "right-leaning", that is an actual centrist, by definition. Otherwise, it wouldn't be merely a 'lean'.
centrists are close to the status quo common sense view.
the status quo is soon-to-be-mask-off-fascist neoliberal capitalism. which is very much right wing. which makes them (inadvertently or not) right wing.
they are even if they dont understand politics at all so they dont even know exactly what they believe in as long as their support ends up going to them.
you can be slightly left from right, that doesnt fundamentally change.
Problem is accepting the reality would mean they have to confront the fact that they're on the wrong side of it, so they will do everything in their capabilities not to.
The capitalist status quo is protected by a political wing we call "liberalism" and a paramilitary wing we call "fascism."
Carrot and stick, good cop/bad cop - pick your metaphor.
For far too long, leftists have laboured under the delusion that liberals are merely "misguided" people that can be "pushed" left as soon as we could get them to read this or that book by our favourite Beardy McDeadguy. This kind of understanding of these people we call "centrists," "moderates," and, by far the most accurate term, "liberals," completely ignores the fact that it is liberalism - not fascism - that is the true ideology of privilege. Privilege that means that liberals are even more invested in the maintenance of the status quo that the rank and file of fascism are.
The left has always proven itself capable of defeating fascists - but it seems that it has no real answer to the insidious, co-opting tentacles of the liberal and the mountain of lies liberalism is built upon.
Flippant Anarchism. A lighter take on social criticism with the aim of agitation.
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