Microblog Memes

I tell people that Bernie is a centrist and his policies are the bare minimum of acceptable compromises that should accept, but what we really should do is abolish billionaires and turn every company into a worker's co-op

Sorry to bring the news but…the rest of the world have been calling US Democrats right-wing and Republicans far-right for decades.

My dad used to joke that the US is the country of freedom, where you can choose between the right and the right.

The right does this and it seems to work for them.

As a moderate conservative, I would like to see the end of private land ownership in a stateless, moneyless society.

I'm not just a centrist, I'm a conservative! I agree with Adam Smith, the father of Capitalism.

For instance, I agree with him that monopolies must be regulated or they will corrupt the government:

It is to sell the one as dear, and to buy the other as cheap as possible, and consequently to exclude, as much as possible, all rivals from the particular market where they keep their shop. The genius of the administration, therefore, so far as concerns the trade of the company, is the same as that of the direc- tion. It tends to make government subservient to the interest of monopoly, and consequently to stunt the natural growth of some parts, at least, of the surplus produce of the country, to what is barely sufficient for answering the demand of the company

...

They will employ the whole authority of government, and pervert the administration of Justice, in order to harass and ruin those who interfere with them in any branch of commerce, which by means of agents, either concealed, or at least not pub- licly avowed, they may choose to carry on.

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I also agree with him that landlords are parasites and need to be heavily taxed:

As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed and demand a rent even for its natural produce.

A tax upon ground-rents would not raise the rents of houses. It would fall altogether upon the owner of the ground-rent, who acts always as a monopolist, and exacts the greatest rent which can be got for the use of his ground.

If you call yourself a captalist but don't even believe in what Adam Smith said, are you really even a capitalist?

As a hard line right winger I believe we should aim for a world where all forms of work can provide a dignified living

I'm a centrist. I think we should have a maximum wealth cap set at 1000x the median household income. I am willing to do this via tax policy instead of the guillotine.

I've been doing that for years. I've been claiming to be a conservative and supporting things like universal healthcare. I even give it capitalist flair by saying that ensuring everyone has more money means I can then take that money by selling them shit they don't need. How the hell am I supposed to sell my useless crap if everyone's spending their money on rent?!

Ditto with stuff like housing the unhoused. I don't want filthy drug addicts strewn about the streets taking up my park benches and constantly asking me for 'bus money'! Get them houses so I don't have to see them anymore! Also god I hate kids, especially when they're just hanging around on the street being annoying and intimidating. Build some youth centres so they have somewhere to go and get them away from me!

Altruism through selfishness etc etc etc.

"I don't care what everyone else says, there's no need to execute the wealthy en masse. Workers just need to seize the means of production."

This is literally what I've done my whole life. I have never identified as a leftist, always as a centrist, it's not my fault other people don't understand where the center is.

"There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation"

When Pierre Trudeau said that in the 1960s, it was a thing that many conservatives believed. Who'd think it was possible that in 2025 we'd be wanting the conservatives to be like the conservatives from the 1960s.

That's what I'm doing for a long time now, but I just learned about the Overton Window haha.

I like the method of pushing the left further left through extreme demands.

Legalize abortions until age 5!

Mandatory puberty suppressors for all teens!

Reparations for anyone except white straight abled males!

Make Israel a world culture site whose government is run by the UN!

Behead all billionaires!

100% inheritance tax!

No religious education for those under 18!

Socialized medicine for all people and their pets!

The Window keeps moving for one simple reason.

The GOPs vote in every election. They may hate the candidate but if they've gotten the Party's endorsement they'll vote.

The Left keeps waiting for the perfect candidate to come along...

Or abandon the political labeling system entirely and make it socially outdated by learning to confront someone labeling themselves by responding to them with something along the lines of: "Why would you allow someone else to tell you what it is you believe in? You don't get to decide what being a conservative/liberal means. Someone else decides that. You aren't part of it. So why would you let whoever that is tell you what you should think?"

Change the meaning of what it means to even use the labels and the weapon of using the labels to divide us no longer functions.

It has been dismantled, and they will have to come up with something else.

And just because they will eventually invent a new weapon, does not make it pointless. This is just the never ending metaphorical arms race we are all living in, but it gets easier once you see it for what it is.