Having a centristic position is the worst one one can have at the moment. Extremists from both sides try to pull you in and discredit you if you dont follow. We live in times where society is split as never before.

The era of social media is the era of populistic Piet Pipers. And while the only viable option is to stay in the middle, those rat catchers from both sides try to make you feel bad about it.

Fuck them, bro. Do your thing and stay strong. There are people who like you and who doesnt only deserves your ignorance towards them.

Im being gaslit and attacked by everyone in the extremist furry/LGBT sphere
I dont even have any interactions with right wing folks.
help!

You're right. There's so much division that it's insane. Its hypertribalistic.. it makes me sad to think about it because I remember when we were alo united and we were able to agree to disagree without bonds being destroyed..

Now? Man, people will cut you off just cause you have different opinions, even if they're harmless to anyone. It's insane..

the fandom was an open place a couple years ago!

Right? It was all fine.. The more I think about it, I think it started to get divisive after Obama got into the White House, then once Trump got in, the masks pretty much slipped off from both sides, more pronounced on the Left though.

I wish we could go back to those simpler times, but those days are gone... I'm not gonna let anyone bring me down, especially if they're gonna get pissed cause I don't follow their values, opinions, nor follow their cult (from either side).

There's no room for centerism when one side is "women and LGBT should have human rights" and the other is "women and LGBT people should not have human rights". Being in the center means "I actually don't care either way if LGBT and women have human rights" which is a worse opinion than either being "left" or "right"

And this is exactly the thinking why pur society is split like this.

There is always place for a rational center and saying "centrists just dont care" is an insult and shows exactly that you...or any extreme lefts or rights...have no idea what it means to be a centrist.

Centrists mostly act rational and logical, figure out the reason for problems to solve them sustainably.

The more left or right you go, the less logic or rationality survives. Only emotions and hatred.

Im a stoic. Emotions have always been the worst reason for any decision being made.

Trying to find the logical center between hate and humanism is in of itself illogical.

Its not about the center in between. As I said, you seem not to understand what centrism is.

And you react exactly how I described it in my first answer. Not being part of the left activism instantly pushes every centristic person to the right. This devision must stop. It harms all society.

Centristic people are the majority in society. We are just not so loud as both extremes. But we receive all the hate from both sides which pushes us down further and further. Right now you see where this leads. Both extremes are in a war and the center just tries to live their lifes and not getting into the crossfire.

Beimg centristic means to evaluate everything. To look deeper, find the root of problems. We do not look on the emotionally laden surface and fight with superficial points of view. Emotions are poison in every discussion.

As a centrist you find the logically best fitting points of view. And these can be seen either right or left.

For example:
A logical left position:
The only logical point of view is that every person was born as a human with the same rights as everyone else. Any physiological and ethnic traits do not matter a single bit.

A logical right position:
(I can only speak of my country)
Uncontrolled migration and abuse of the law of asylum; paired with a bad integration politics and ghettoization of migrants by ethnicity is a huge problem for the general society. Solutions must be found to prevent abuse of the state safety net and integrational success. Otherwise the wealth of the whole society decreases.

Both things are logical problems which has to be seen as exactly this. Populistic Piet Pipers of both extremes pump both problems up with emotions near explosion and throw them back to society which in return seperates further, frontlines harden up and hatred increases. The ones who win are very few. The ones who suffer is the whole society.

We have to stop thinking in left or right, black or white, good or evil, and start sitzing down all together to solve this problems.

That we have not done this yet and rather fortifying the trenches is exactly the reason why fascists, nationalists and autocrats like Trump win all over the world. Those are the benefactors of a society which is stupid enough to devide itself instead of unite against those horrible people.

And we have to push BOTH extremes back into their holes because BOTH extremes are venomous for the rest. Both spread hate, both try to win a war which shouldnt exist in first place. Like this everyone loses and only the ruthless win.

your right. im trying to find the center of humanism, away from left extremist hate 👌
to be centrist is to have your own views instead of blindly following either mob, left or right, usually for the better.

To be completely fair, I don't think extremism on one side is worse than It is on the other. How I try strive to be is to treat people like human beings. And I definitely try to listen to people and understand their perspective that may differ from my own (the only things I will not let my mind entertain is the idea that supporting gay rights, women's rights, Trans rights etc. is somehow oppressing someone else. Or the idea that someone is inferior based on skin color, religion, sexual orientation etc. And I will never support any kind of hate group). I'm autistic, and I've been judged all my life for something that's out of my control, so I promised to never do the same to someone else. I don't lean far right or far left, but I do consider myself left leaning.

I only follow furries so my feed is exclusively left wing extremism. It's a pain in the ass.

One of the biggest problems is the extreme push that came from the far right after Trump got into office, and how a lot of people tried fighting against it in a more civil way. But when that doesn't work, you have to come at it with more aggression, which I'm honestly not completely against. But the key is not to descend into extremism yourself. Again, I'm not completely against being direct. As the old saying goes "No good deed goes unpunished," if you're too nice then people take advantage of that, that's why you gotta be a dick sometimes.

Aggression is never the answer.
You lost the vote, boo hoo. Instead of crying about it start treating people on the other side of the political spectrum nicely. Crazy idea I know

I wasn't trying to be hostile at all with my response there. All I was trying to say was that sometimes you have to be a little aggressive in some situations. Again, I try my hardest to treat people nicely, but at the same time, I'm also someone who won't put up with other people's crap. But I try to be nice.

you dont have to be aggressive. violence begets violence. be fucking civil, always.
the violence has to stop and the acceptance has to begin.
if the other party is acting that way, its your responsibility to be more of an adult than they are.
turn the other cheek and show kindness to your enemies.
its basic bible bullshit, its not hard.
people on opposite political alignments need to be nice to each other.

I didn't say anything about violence. I will never resort to violence. All I was saying was that I don't put up with people's verbal crap. I will not resort to violence, or wishing assassination on political figures for that matter.

You're part of the problem. Politics, morality, and philosophy are very complex topics, so much so that they are each their own entire field of academic study, and people get doctorate's degrees studying them. You have a lot to learn if you think it boils down to just "women and LGBT people have rights" vs "women and LGBT people don't have rights." That is a false dichotomy that you are trying to force on people, and you are specifically trying to create an "us vs them" mentality which is part of the problem. There's more than just that one issues here, and more than one axis of alignment, given the number of issues and policies at hand and how they interact. OP specifically said they are not sexist and not transphobic, and yet, because they don't claim to be on your side of the false dichotomy, you are automatically labelling them on the opposite side as someone that doesn't care about human rights, even though they didn't say that. Learn to recognize the complexity of political opinions, and learn to tolerate other people who don't necessarily share every single opinion you do, instead of immediately hurling insults and slurs based off assumptions you make of anybody that isn't part of your in-group

I’m sorry but everytime I see this argument that one side is for giving rights and the other side is for taking rights away, i just think it can’t get more stupid than that.
Let me translate what i think that actually means: wah I’m X social label which means I should get free shit for being X cause that’s my right as being X cause X is a minority label we came up with and if you disagree and think I should have the same human rights that everyone is born with and nothing extra then you’re a right wing bigot! Wah

Being in the center means I care about both and I make rational decisions through thinking instead of just doing/thinking what is popular. If you truly believe my opinion is worse than right or left, you need to do some serious research and stop assuming you know everything.

That was the lunatic fringe talking about repealing the 19th. Nobody with half a brain wants the voting rights taken away. As for LGBETC, the issue was transition operations for minors.

Honestly, most people don't actually give two shits about who you wanna fuck. It becomes a problem when people at large are forced to kowtow because gods forbid we accidentally hurt someone's feelings. If y'all didn't prove their point by being just as if not more vicious when things don't go your way, we wouldn't be IN this hellhole of a situation.

So you're doing the exact thing that Zealot is bothered by. This isn't how you make friends homie.

I know I'm considered right wing even though I'm a centrist that leans right. I really don't know why those on the Left will attack anyone that doesn't follow their cult. Like, I could say that I vote for Trump and still be friends with others. To people on the Left, that's like the greatest sin, as I should hold all of their opinions and values when my values are my own. That's not to say that the Right doesn't do that, cause some of them do that as well.

Don't let ANYONE, either from the right nor left tell you what's right or wrong, what's good and what's evil, cause chances are, the one that's attacking you for your individual stances are the bad guys all along.

Stay strong and don't let anyone tell you not to be yourself. And if people don't want to understand and still want to try to make you be at their sides, give them the middle finger.

rules of woke:
1: its ok to assualt/harrass/doxx nazis/zoos/trump supporters
2: everyone I dislike is a nazi

Pretty much. The fact that they can't see that they're acting like a cult is baffling and says a lot about them.

Fortunately, people are waking up.

For real though

Saw some posts on Bluesky after the election and... my god... the shit some of these far-left types would post about assassinating Trump and Trump supporters and getting enjoyment just thinking of their opposition getting beaten until they bleed from the mouth and all that. Some pretty sick shit along with the usual "don't look at my art if you didn't vote for Democrats" type crap.

They really don't realize how many people have turned away from their politics but just don't raise the subject with them in their posts. They cannot be reasoned with at all. That has to happen on its own as it did with me.

Woke honestly started out as a good thing, but people have either used it as a term to shame activists or gone to the extreme with it

BLM and all the other affiliations existed for about 5 seconds before people started using it as an excuse to treat others poorly or go riot/loot.

All of these groups allow individuals to attack white/straight/right/zoos/etc without repercussion.

It's not about equality, it's just about oppressing a different scapegoat. We should be working together instead.

There are also people who genuinely wanted to use it as a good cause

That's great, but I didn't make this post addressing those people.
It's about the people who abuse it/are brainwashed by it

I know. I was just putting it out there that the extremists dont represent everybody. I don't know why you're getting aggressive with your responses, I actually thought we were having a good conversation.

keep in mind this post is my vent against harassment im getting from certain groups.
this whole thing is in addressing that, so I apologise for any misgivings.

And I never said anything about violence. When I say aggressive I mean verbally so, but that's just cause I'm someone who doesn't take crap from people. But it is also very hard to be civil nowadays when people are pushing for taking away people's rights and such.

Sounds fair!
Am assuming you mean centrist for US standards? since there's a big difference to center in EU for example.

But doesn't even matter since people will find ways to hate one no matter what q_q
Have also been accused of leaning too far in both directions xD

🍻

Sorry to hear your going through that, I'm going through the same thing, so completely understand and support you.

Don’t let them silence and bully you! The intolerant left are always going to be that! Intolerant. And with the recent election in the US it’s only gotten worse. The more of us that stand up and say that their shitty opinion of us doesn’t matter or change anything the more power it takes away.

<3

Wooo!

I always liked you, and I still do! <3

And they wonder why they lost so bad in this election....

Seriously though I used to be one of them right down to the raging at centrists and right wingers like I as hot shit and knew it all. It's pretty much a cult-like mentality on that side that's been growing in potency over the past 15 years.

Long story short I started actually listening to the other side instead of talking down to them. We had common ground on the issue of the transgender and illegal immigration. Literally lost a friend because I did not agree with illegal immigration (and I was still hardcore left wing back then) and he went right to playing the racist card in spite of the fact I am against ALL who come here illegally.

At the end of the day all I have to do is look at who stuck around when I had opposing views. My more right-wing/center and Christian friends stuck around even as I shoved them away. When I reevaluated my views and saw I was behaving like a shithead it turned out I just really hated Christians and Republicans. When I started finding agreement with them my more left-wing friends left one by one and of course the randos who would leave some rather rude shouts and block me right off the bat. That is the behavior of children who really shouldn't be on this site.

Still not a fan of any religion honestly but that's the point of tolerance. I don't have to accept it. I'm still mainly Liberal on social issues... I loathe that term "Classic Liberal" because let's be real here... today's so-called Progressives are not Liberals at all. Liberals do not attack free speech the way our modern left has been doing. They do not weaponize science against their opposition. I could go on but yeah... I am shifting more in favor of right wing on economics and moving away from supporting Socialism and the welfare state like I used to.

Never in our history has anyone who has worked to suppress free speech have been "the good guys" but these people have shifted so far left they've made the center look far-right to them. I don't know whether to be scared about that or feel pity for them because modern "social justice" is very much discriminatory just flipped to a different group of people.

During my time on that side I can tell you we justified the harassment, the doxxing, the bullying, etc via a skewed interpretation of Popper's Paradox

The people harassing you believe they do not have to show ANY tolerance whatsoever to the slightest inkling of intolerance they see from their opposition. Their interpretation of it basically leads to a one party system (in their favor) not unlike a theocracy because as you can see they do not tolerate having differing views on matters they deem to be social justice matters.

They are the zealots of the left wing and sadly they have amassed a great deal of power because they gain it by emotional blackmail and coercion. It works. Wasn't until I stopped giving a shit about having emotionally unstable people in my life that it became easier to let them go and replace them with more tolerant people who can actually have disagreements without throwing tantrums about it. I'd rather be around proper adults. Not middle schoolers in adult bodies thinking it's fine to harass people and work to isolate them from friends because they do not approve of some opinion you have.

Hatred is a hell of a drug and that's precisely what these people are running on. I still have some there, honestly for being gaslit for years and the blackmail from otherwise good friends I trusted if I didn't remain thinking as they do. It just doesn't control me like it did and I found better outlets for that anger.

The literally few left wing friends I have left we get along for the most part but we clearly must avoid political discussions of any sort. However with my center and right wing friends, no big deal at all. We find disagreement it's a simple as we explain our reasoning and why it fits our viewpoint and views either change or we agree to disagree.

Seems like though people have had enough of that side's extremism much like we got sick of the right's version of it when using Christianity to impose their own moral code onto everyone else. Once they lost moderates it has just been a downhill spiral for them. Yet they're doubling down....that's that cult-like behavior again.

Trolls will be removed, especially if you block me.

Whew, I am very glad you made this! Never again will I give my money to someone who sincerely uses the phrase "woke hatemob".

Suit yourself!
I only use it because I have been subjected to it, but if you won't acknowledge people harassing me that's cool!
Your just going to look like a fucking idiot to anyone paying attention to this problem.

This is exactly where I stand. I'm not an "Alt-right extremist" I'm just a what was considered a centrist in 2012.

people are a pain in the ass

It's nice to know that I'm not alone in my views among my fellow furries.