Lets say l support right wing policies about “free market” but left wing about ownership/property ownership/guns.
Or none of my beliefs are radical, is more correct.
Does that make me a centrist or indecisive?
A two party system doesn’t allow for nuance or dissenting opinions. I consider myself very liberal in most things. But I don’t strictly fit in the American liberal box. I think a gay couple should be able to get married, buy a machine gun, buy any drug they want at a corner store, see a doctor at no cost outside of tax, do whatever they want to their bodies, a robust support system should exist for their children, own land, do whatever they want on their land, open a cash business and do a whole bunch of other conflicting things. The world isn’t black and white.
So pretty much everything you described is left except buying something designed to kill dozens of people. So maybe prioritise.
I did, that’s why it was number 2 😉. Several of the other things on that list are also more right than left. Plus the whole last part of my statement.
You seem pretty reasonable to me
Context and culture dependent.
In the US today, I take it to mean a Republican who is too embarrassed to associate with Trump any longer but still too brainwashed to express any criticism about the political party their parent(s) raised them in.
In a two-party system, having a collection of positions that does not align well with either makes you an independent, not necessarily a centrist.
Centrist is often used to describe someone who is aligned with a party, but holds mild or compromised versions of that party’s positions. It can also describe someone who wants things to stay mostly as they are with any changes being incremental, but one might reasonably describe that position as conservative.
centrist is sort of a meaningless category, but it often seems to refer to what was once called a Progressive Conservative or Neo-Liberal.
and remember, if you go far enough left, you get your guns back!
So centrism accepts a particular framework for discussing politics. One historically grounded in traditional liberalism and the hedgemony all politics since really the 1700’s has sat under. Within that context left and right are two approaches, two forms of liberalism.
You can take other approaches to understanding politics. For example, you can to a more vertical, issue based approach, where individuals, institutions, etc… are represented by “baskets” of interests.
Centrist means you have no strong feelings one way or another.
“Centrism” doesn’t mean that.
You are describing neutrality
What if I have strong feelings in every direction?
Uuhhh… pantrist?
I love it. I’ll form the movement and we’ll be the most ineffectual voting bloc ever. And we’re using pants imagery literally
depends on whose saying it. some like me calls myself left of center because im going by historical divide but someone who derogatorially says centerist is talking right of center that because of rightward movement could be considered center in the us. granted this center is messed up because the right here is largely extreme right and they are balanced vs a right that goes from extreme to somewhat. Now the rehetoric from our extreme right paints someone like me who is left of center as some extreme leftist because I want progressive taxes, regulation, and universal social safety nets. whats funny is some parts of those are conservative. like collecting taxes instead of debt and having regulation rather than the government running the things. conservatives have been in favor of regulation and taxes in the past believe it or not. in the us.
If you think “none of my beliefs are radical,” then you’re a conservative. You don’t want change.
Centrist means you’re right leaning
