That, and the democrats are at least competent when it comes to implementing neoliberalism...

I would prefer a government that is further left. I think it would be more moral and create better outcomes for the people, but until we have a chance for that I'll take competence...

Ratchet theory: Republicans push things to the right, Democrats prevent movement to the left.

This is what I've been saying about US politics for a long time. They've got two parties - the far right, and the batshit crazy right.

Most Democrats don't realize that capitalism relies on actual slavery... presently. They don't know that the products they consume revolve around supply chains that even include child slavery. They don't know the actual effects of US imperialism, regime change, and third-world exploitation. They don't know that an estimated 40% of US agricultural workers are undocumented immigrants — modern slaves, with no human rights. I'm not being hyperbolic at all, but I suggest everybody do their own research.

Democrats are propagandized to not want to come to terms with the fact that even first-world workers are slaves. They may not be "owned", but damn near — everybody is getting a raw deal under capitalism besides those that extract the vast majority of value, wealth, power, influence, and control.

Democrats are subjected to intense campaigns that include gaslighting, propaganda, and coercion, while critical facts and the actual reality is veiled to them.

I'll admit Trump is a lot clumsier about saying it out loud, but 2000s Republicans were absolutely on the same wave. Being virulently anti-anyone-dark-than-an-italitan, actively eroding free speech, and hating anyone who worked for a living has been standard conservative shit since at least the 1800s. If anything, the 2000s Republicans had more of a war-boner to boot. Trump did in fact bring the facism home a fair bit more openly, but let's not mistake a new hairdo for a new political movement.

The early 2000s Republicans are the same people as 2025 Republicans.

Some of them changed their beliefs. They moved right - or were moved right by an incredibly effective decades-long propaganda campaign.

And some of them didn't change their beliefs at all - they're simply more emboldened to express beliefs that weren't acceptable twenty years ago.

Give it twenty more years and Democrats will be where Republicans are now.

There is, after all, no middle ground on most social issues anymore

There never was, unless you consider supporting desegregation but not interracial marriage a middle ground I guess.

Okay I read the source now and what I found funny is the part where people describe how "moderates" on dating apps are just conservatives. An observation I can regard as true in my experience, they are just self-aware enough to not be dismissed outright, but not self-aware enough to actually change a thing about themselves and become a better person.

This is DEEPLY VALIDATING thank you

Seriously. The rhetorical shift:

Study of American men's self-reported political affiliation shows that "moderate" aligns pretty closely with "conservative."

Headline assigns "moderate" political affiliation to Joe Biden, to suggest that Joe Biden's policies align closely with "conservative."

Biden campaigned on being the most progressive president in U.S. history. Did he deliver? Not on all metrics, but whatever it is he did, he wasn't a secret conservative pretending to be moderate. The most you can accuse him of is being a moderate pretending to be progressive.