The Age of Solipsism

[DeistPaladin]

The Age of Solipsism and the Futility of Centrism


Historians will look back on this strange time in human history and call it "The Age of Solipsism". It's a time when so many people live in their own alternative-reality bubbles and facts no longer seem to matter anymore. Reality itself is up for grabs, all opinions are equally valid and all that's important is what you want to believe. Our politicians can lie with impunity and our media doesn't do fact-checking or call them out on it. They bring on two sides to scream at each other and let their audience decide what they want to believe is true.

This brings us to another reason why the DNC's common strategy of running to the center in order to capture independents and undecided voters is futile. No matter how centrist the Democratic candidate is, the GOP will keep banging the drum and repeating two simple words, "far left, far left, far left". They do it every time. They're doing it now. They will continue to do it in the future.

They say Biden wants to defund the police. It doesn't matter that Joe Biden has said he doesn't want to defund the police.

They say Joe Biden wants government run healthcare. It doesn't matter that Joe Biden has said he doesn't support government run healthcare.

They say Joe Biden is on the side of rioters. It doesn't matter that Joe Biden has repeatedly condemned the rioting.

Nobody in our media will call out the Republicans for lying. So they just repeat the same lie over and over again and, like Goebbels advised them from beyond the grave, that repeated lie becomes the truth.

This is not a new strategy. Anyone remember John Kerry, the milquetoast moderate Senator that we ran in 2004? Bush claimed he was so radical left, that he made Sen. Ted Kennedy look like a moderate. Yes, THAT Ted Kennedy, "the liberal lion of the Senate". Remember when brave reporters in our media stood up and asked the President, "Excuse me, sir, but have you lost your mind?" or "Excuse me, sir, but how can your opponent be both wishy-washy and a fanatic?" Of course you don't because that never happened.

So it doesn't matter how centrist the Democratic candidates are.  They magically become "far left" as soon as the campaign starts. It doesn't matter that the facts show your candidate is a centrist. It doesn't matter that Republicans are lying. No one in our media will ever do their jobs and challenge their lies.
This is yet another reason why the centrist strategy fails in the modern age. Our candidate is going to be "far left" anyway. Why not run an actual liberal next time?

[Anomalocaris]

Perhaps the fundamental problem with us, from the perspective of the humanity overall, is we think only The United States Can be the shinning light for humanity and therefore it must be fixed, when in fact we may not be fixable, or the effort to fix us is not worth it, and the United States should be contained, marginalized and minimized instead.

[onlinebiker]

As long as you keep voting for the same lizards - it's going to be lizards in charge.

Enjoy your status quo.

[Mister Agenda]

The Democrats are a center left party, if not an actually centrist party. Most of the voters it's trying to appeal to are Democrats. The Dems are a big tent, it's always a balancing act to get them to turn out, you've got to appeal to the centrists/moderates, center left, and left wing. I count at least five wings on this party. All of the red districts flipped blue in 2018 were taken by centrist/moderate Democrats. If you want to make the Party more progressives, you' have to increase the number of progressives in it, and then they are going to have a tough time making inroads in conservative areas.

But the Millennials and Gen Z are more progressive, in time demographics will erode social conservatism and increase progressivism and it may not be possible to make it happen faster than that.

[Ranjr]

The shift began in the '70s and solidified when Reagan made the Republicans the party of god.  Southern and flyover white voters swung to the party of Lincoln, bringing racism with them.  Republicans like John Anderson and Howard Baker faded away.  Their supporters, including me, drifted Democrat, adding an element who looks at the far end of the table and asks, really kids? 

I wonder if William F. Buckley would take responsibility for something he set in motion but would certainly denounce.  Namely, the Limbaugh legacy of low brow digs and neglect of veracity that built the pile of shit supporting Trump.

[PabloTescobar]

Whit happened tae the ''Age of Aquarius,  did we miss it?

[onlinebiker]

Whit happened tae the ''Age of Aquarius,  did we miss it?

Like every other youth movement they grew up - and realized nobody else was paying the bills anymore....

[Divinity]

In a country where money runs everything, don't be surprised that the people with all the money don't want to give that money up for the 'social good', and instead buy influence in both parties. And most people can't be bothered to give a damn about it. Much easier to think "Well what Can I do? It doesn't really affect me anyway."

So we're stuck between two parties who don't really give a damn about anyone, but one party is much more obvious about it, and far more blatant with the harm they want to do.

The Right might want to be careful though. One day, the left may very well realize people actually like left-wing policies once implemented. And they'll realize that accusations of wanting to give people healthcare won't be very effective as an attack.

[Rhizomorph13]

In a country where money runs everything, don't be surprised that the people with all the money don't want to give that money up for the 'social good', and instead buy influence in both parties.  And most people can't be bothered to give a damn about it.  Much easier to think "Well what Can I do?  It doesn't really affect me anyway."

So we're stuck between two parties who don't really give a damn about anyone, but one party is much more obvious about it, and far more blatant with the harm they want to do.  

The Right might want to be careful though.  One day, the left may very well realize people actually like left-wing policies once implemented.  And they'll realize that accusations of wanting to give people healthcare won't be very effective as an attack.

If only we could get actual universal healthcare instead of the abortion that Obamacare was. There was some good, but that program can largely be pointed at as a demonstration of how problematic government intervention is regarding healthcare. It takes too much hard analysis to recognize that many of the healthcare programs that were nuked by Obamacare were really bad and cost a lot more in the long run than getting proper healthcare.

At any rate it all just makes me tired. The facts are on the liberal side that taking care of people in all situations is much more beneficial to society than ignoring disparities in history and pretending that the game is fair and the invisible hand of the market will help those that help themselves i.e. just get a good job and then a more good job and hur dur pull yourself up by your bootstraps.