this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
397 points (92.9% liked)
US Authoritarianism
826 readers
12 users here now
Hello, I am researching American crimes against humanity. . This space so far has been most strongly for memes, and that's fine.
There's other groups and you are welcome to add to them. USAuthoritarianism Linktree
See Also, my website. USAuthoritarianism.com be advised at time of writing it is basically just a donate link
Cool People: [email protected]
founded 8 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
How? It’s making fun of the fence sitters in the discussion of whether or not slavery is bad.
Ok then explain what you mean.
"It’s making fun of the fence sitters in the discussion of whether or not slavery is bad."
nope, it's conflating slaves and slave owners, implying that centrists can't tell the difference, which 1. is a problem a fraction of a percent of extreme conservatives can be theorized to indulge in, and in no rational, accurate way related to centrists.
it is a lazy meme to get you all blindly riled at any buzzword target without considering the validity or content.
wwworking.
"Ok then explain what you mean."
what i mean by what, precisely?
I can see that interpretation. If you believe that it’s saying the centrist is smart. It’s not, it’s making fun of the self-conception of the centrist as smart.
This is posted to c/usauthoritarianism, not c/lostcause. It’s making fun of the people who fence sat on one of the most authoritarian systems in the history of the US.
At one point in time slavery was a central political discussion and was not fringe at all. Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election with less than 50% of the popular vote. Most people were fine with the continuation of slavery as a system at that time.
At the time the centrist position was “popular sovereignty” meaning centrists would have allowed each state the right to decide for itself weather or not it allowed slavery. In other words the now right-wing position of “states-rights”.
In the grand scale of history slavery-abolitionism is a fringe far-left political position. But the left won that fight so now it is normal for nearly everyone to agree slavery was bad. Which is why centrists now believe slavery was bad. But at the time when slavery was a relevant political issue that wasn’t the case at all. Centrists took the position in the center of the 2 sides. The 2 sides were the slave and the slave-owner.
What do you mean by “proximal repetition”?
Edit:fixing grammar
while a lot of your information is accurate in certain contexts, it is not the situation political context this meme is referencing.
"What do you mean by “proximal repetition”?"
I mean that people responding positively to this meme have had their groupthink reflexes triggered by the closest (proximity) excitative buzzword and are chuckling along with the implications of that buzzword, regardless of how accurate or relevant the meme is as an idea.
All they understand is that there is supposed to be a joke, and they are content with that.
I like that you're at least providing an entire honorable, relevant context.
They’re mostly just being lazy/impatient and not explaining the full context of the meme. Mainly because this is a left-wing community and you keep defending centrism. We on the left can be impatient and hostile towards people who fence-sit especially on issues such as slavery.
I think there are understandable reasons for their hostility.
This is a political community dedicated to criticizing the US’s authoritarianism. I would say criticizing the history of slavery and racism is relevant to that political context.
Thank you :)
"They’re mostly just being lazy/impatient and not explaining the full context of the meme."
another very charitable take of the denizens here that does not hold up to casual scrutiny.
"you keep defending centrism"
I'm defending critical reasoning against lazy prejudice, whether it's propped up by unsourced news or a flawed premise in a meme.
i'm tut-tutting a mob.
it isn't going to quash the tide, but mobs should be made aware that not everybody will come along with them just because they all agreed to fraternally plug their ears and close their eyes.
have a good cybersurf, I hope your good vibes are contagious.