Can there be grey area in politics? -

[Give Her The D]

This kind of thing has always annoyed me about current politics:

"You dislike the current DNC but consider yourself a liberal? You must be a Republican in denial!"
"You're a Republican that thinks Trump's a jackass? You're a Democrat with TDS, dumbass."

The question I've been considering is, is grey area a thing in politics if people are like this? Why is it that it has to be one or the other, instead of just liking what you like? It really comes off as being a jackass to me if you're like this, but that's just me though, I guess.

 

[crocodilian]

Yes, politics can be more than a false dichotomy. Did you really need a thread to realize this?

 

[Silver Chariot]

In private, people generally take the points they like from both sides. They're grey on the inside, at least until they get into power. IIRC there are some Presidents who enacted policies that were not in the favor of their party, but I can't remember which ones right now.

Of course, in public, you have to act like a demagogue in order to attract views. People love looking at a good fight. Honestly, it's been that way since ancient Rome. The Gracchi brothers incident is a fine example of that.

 

[Give Her The D]

Yes, politics can be more than a false dichotomy. Did you really need a thread to realize this?

I was wanting more of an answer on why people have to act like this instead of just realizing you can like what you like, instead of just supporting 100% of what your party does.

 

[crocodilian]

I was wanting more of an answer on why people have to act like this instead of just realizing you can like what you like, instead of just supporting 100% of what your party does.

The simple answer is people are inherently tribalistic. Human beings didn't evolve as solitary animals, they evolved by working in perpetual groups to accomplish things. One downside of this evolutionary choice is the simple fact most human beings yearn for each others' approval and a sense of belonging among their peers, sometimes to excessive degrees. Becoming a good goy for some political group is a way of obtaining this, despite many aspects of modern politics being designed around the concept of a Roman forum, where you were supposed to debate and disagree until a logical conclusion was reached. The group was supposed to agree on something, eventually, but only after flexing your own mental faculties and testing every option logically.

But maybe that's not the answer you want. You want to know why the public shaming you mentioned in the OP has become such a phenomenon in the current year?

The answer is "Joseph McCarthy was right."

 

[The Last Stand]

It's called being a centrist or a moderate. Or if you really want to be technical: center-left or center-right. Policies aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[heyilikeyourmom]

No, there’s no room for gray areas in the age of the Trump regime. Pick a side and get to rioting.

 

[Angry Shoes]

Not if you're an extremely online autismo.

 

[Dildo]

All political intrigue and dealing is a gray area.

Ignore what you see on the stage; all politicians including Trump are pragmatists at heart. It doesn't matter Trump has been divorced several times and he married a hooker; he'll still go on about how much he loves the bible and get Melania to lead however many hail Mary's she needs to do in public to secure a specific voting block. I'm sure Mike "Shock the Gays" Pence has several pieces of legislation he would like to have passed but held back in order to compromise and negotiate a new platform with Trump.

It's less obvious in two party states since most of the dealing goes on behind closed doors; but it's more obvious in minority or coalition governments with several parties making the best of what theyve got rather than veering off deep into any one political stance.

 

[ZeCommissar]

People don't like centrists for many reasons. Maybe they think they are just cowards who fear being judged by picking a side, maybe they could be too easily influenced by their enemies into joining them, or maybe they believe they are just political opponents under a disguise. "If you are not with me, then you are my enemy"

More powerful individuals are pragmatic because they HAVE to be. If they just tried to roll in and immediately implement the extreme sides of their ideology they would get blocked by the opposing political party very quickly, and people would riot. Most politicians understand that stability is more important to their long term goals.

This does not mean the average person is pragmatic. People used to kill each other regularly over differences in politics and religion. They could care less about "long term goals" or freedom of speech. That part of us hasn't gone away, but our culture and society usually keeps that in check and we call those types of people terrorists.

I am actually impressed we are able to have such discourse nowadays with very few deaths and violence that is usually condemned by everyone. People used to hang you if you called yourself a communist, now they just call you a faggot.

 

[queerape]

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: control left, alt right, means delete center

 

[Spunt]

Having come here from the Something Awful forums I can assure you that the idea of shades of grey in politics is not as universal an idea as some people here seem to think it is. The Extremely Online autists of SA (and places like ResetERA) genuinely, literally believe that there are only two political schools of thought:

1) The exact things that they personally believe
2) Literal, actual swastikas-and-genocide Fascism

I've been told there that to believe otherwise is "toxic" and a "dogwhistle". This is the reason extremists (particularly on the Left) spend just as much, if not more, time fighting amongst themselves than they do fighting their political opposites, because from their point of view there is genuinely no difference between someone whose definition of Revolutionary Socialism differs from theirs by three words in chapter 12 of the charter and Joseph Goebbels in person.

Also, there is a difference between a "pragmatist" and a "centrist". I would count myself as the former and very much not the latter. I believe that the best kind of politics is one that works on a continual state of slow improvement and compromise, edging closer towards human happiness and the fulfilment of our potential. Big, ideological rules about what can and what cannot be done lead to stupidity and bad decisions that fuck people over. Politics works better when it evolves towards a goal, not when it tries to make huge, artificial utopian revolutionary leaps all at once, because those things usually end up in dictatorship and genocide. But that doesn't mean I think that politics should evolve to the centre, I have very definite ideas of what a good society looks like and what it doesn't. But we get there by changing things slowly.

 

[Idiotron]

Literally everything in politics is a grey area.
To think otherwise is idiotic.

 

[Fek]

Every last flippin' thing in your life is gonna have bits that are grey and muddled. Why would politics be any different?

Had this stuck in my head since I popped this thread open. Thread theme?

Billy Joel - Shades of Grey (Audio)

In 1993 Billy Joel released his twelfth and final, Grammy Nominated studio album entitled River of Dreams. Listen to 'Shades of Grey' performed by Billy Joel...

www.youtube.com

 

[Dysnomia]

I am a left leaning moderate. But I think that more than ever, today, many people see it all as black and white because that's what the media likes to show. Why? It gets them sweet advertising bux. You watch the news show with the mouth piece you can nod your head to the most. Then maybe you watch the one you disagree with the most because you feel like yelling at the screen. But it's all a dog and pony show. And most of all you need to remember that you can think for yourself after all.

More than anything these networks want to make money and they know who to pander to in order to get the best deal.

Unfortunately a lot of people think that either left=crazy ranting SJW or right=backwards women and minority hating caveman. That isn't true at all and if you keep thinking that way you are just pandering to mainstream media and their craving for $$$. And it's all mainsteam media. No matter what they tell you. They all want you to think they are some secret indie network of truthspeakers the mainstream doesn't want you to know about. But save for a few nutcases on the fringe they are all mainsteam.

 

[Freedom Fries]

It's pragmatic in a lot of ways. You figure the other side will push for that, so you don't have to help. Plus if you did help you wouldn't get that inch you agreed with, you'd get the whole damn mile.

 

[Monolith]

REEEEEEEEE FUCK YOU CENTRIST

EXTREMISM NOW!

 

[Guts Gets Some]

Extremes suck, especially in politics. I prefer the gray middle ground; take info from both sides and judge accordingly to what you believe in.

I truly feel no real person could actually side FULLY left or right; either extreme are the notions of a textbook crazy person.