Comment by const_cast
Comment by const_cast 9 hours ago
> Calling the political center of any country "fine with genocide" isn't an argument, it's a smear.
Well the US isn't doing genocide really so yeah it's a smear.
But moderates run the status-quo. MLK talked about how the biggest hurdle to integration and civil rights wasn't racists - it was the moderate white man. Ultimately things are the way they are because there are so many moderates who propose no solutions to anything and are terrified of anything that could be misconstrued as a change.
Moderates are, by in large, complacent with atrocities currently going on in the government they belong to. Moderates in Israel certainly seem fine with genocide. Moderates in the US are fine with the US' war-mongering. They're fine with the pseudo-slavery system that exists in some US states like Georgia.
I wish I had a dollar for every time someone tried to clumsily wield MLK's Birmingham Letter as a moral fulcrum to dismiss modern centrism. That letter was written at a specific moment in time, aimed at a narrow group of people -- white moderates who used "order" as an excuse for inaction on civil rights. He wasn’t condemning all moderation for all time, and invoking his letter every time a moderate calls for practical reform over revolution cheapens its message.
> Ultimately things are the way they are because there are so many moderates who propose no solutions to anything and are terrified of anything that could be misconstrued as a change.
Are moderates "terrified" of the change itself, or do you disagree with how they want to get there? When I call myself a moderate, I don't do it because I'm "terrified" of a better healthcare system; I do it because I want reforms that are realistic, durable and broadly supported. I want change, but I want a solid plan and incremental steps to get us there -- not fiery rhetoric and slogans that crash the economy.
> Moderates in Israel certainly seem fine with genocide.
I'm not Israeli and don't pay attention to their politics, but you're playing a rhetorical shell game here by exporting the moral failure of one electorate and applying them to moderates of all electorates across the entire world. If you want to critique e.g. US policy, do it on the merits, not by hitching your argument to atrocities halfway around the world and then implying guilt by association.
> They're fine with the pseudo-slavery system that exists in some US states like Georgia.
I'm pretty in tune with US politics and I can't figure out what you're referencing here. Are you talking about for-profit prisons and prison labor? I agree that those things need to be abolished, and that's why I supported Biden ending federal contracts with private prisons. As someone who has had several family members in the prison system, I sincerely hope to see more criminal justice reform.