First, a tiny bit of metaphorical background.
The game "Among Us" (for those living under a rock the last few years) is a popular computer game, made particularly popular just before and during the COVID disaster where you play a bunch of astronauts trying to complete tasks to repair the ship before alien infiltrators who look like them kill them and throw each other out an airlock trying to mob justice the alien to keep from all dying a horrible death.
I say this, because we now live in an age in which fascists are willing to go to any lengths to kill, imprison, cancel, enslave and humiliate anyone who isn't them. This isn't a new problem, but the fascists have a number of new tools and allies. The traditional allies of the fascists are the authoritarian sympathizers and those who fetishize law and order. The other traditional allies are those who blame "The other"; those who hate people not like themselves. Of late, Fascists have begun to do this to any other they could find; LGBT, BIPOC, Liberals, Antifa, Cartoon Characters, MNM's, you name it. And the new tools are just as frightening. With AI enhanced research tools, as well as demographic data gleefully handed over to them by the filth gnomes of silicon valley; they in some ways know more about us than we know ourselves. Palantir, Blackrock, the Wagner Group and an entire dark ecosphere created by the filth Koch brothers have allowed them to know just where to squeeze society in its most vulnerable sectors with messages tailor made (sometimes at the individual level) to exploit fear and ignorance. And they also have billionaires on their side. Indeed, most (if not all) Billionaires see the handwriting on the wall and realize that the internet and modern sensibility, as well as demographic trends away from a clear white majority mean that more and more people are understanding that the very idea of a billionaire even existing is problematic to society. As such more and more of them are turning towards the Big Lie and helping undermine our democracy. And some crypto fascists are pretending to be Very Concerned Citizens who are not Maga but are Maga enablers. So, just like in Among Us, you have to ask the question...who do you trust?
In modern times, the number of people sympathetic to Trump varies between 25% and 40% depending on the benchmark you use. You would think that as dark and dire as that is, that 60% to 40% is more than enough to out vote them in any election; but between exploited flaws in the highly problematic (and rotting) 1789 constitution along with capricious short attention spans, lack of intelligence or simple desperation due to economic slavery at stagnant pathetic wages; the number of people who want to kill and enslave everyone else vs the number of people actively trying to keep that from happening is about actually (to my observation) at parity.
Group A is Maga and Filth Billionaires and group B is ....practically everyone else. That's Neoliberals, Neocons, Libertarians, Progressives, Leftists, Liberals, Corporate Democrats, Blue Dog Democrats, Non Fascist Evangelicals and even Socialists and Communists. ANYONE who doesn't want to be a maga slave finds themselves having to hold their nose and vote for someone or indirectly work with someone they want. Aside from the fact that this proves our system in the United States is fucking terrible, it also brings to mind a popular Benjamin Franklin quote.
"We must, indeed, all hang together or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." Because they were all white, male and (presumably) straight, we assume that they were of a similar mind, but the Continental Congress represented a similar gaggle of anti tyrannical forces we find ourselves arrayed against now.
But in an age where the MSM is co-opted to be either pro fascist or treat fascism and not fascism as equally the same sides that must be compared one with another, we run into an issue. This brings me to the extremely outdated idea of the horseshoe theory. This old trop explains that authoritarian principals exist on both the left and the right and that only the trusted sane center can hold the disparate elements of the right and left together against the rampaging hordes of frothtards. And MAYBE in the 20th century that might have been correct, but now? No, I really don't think so. First off, the very lie of the theory holds that there is an equal balance of idiocy on both sides of the spectrum. Regardless of whether or not that's true in the past, it certainly isn't now. Those babbling about how Ukraine is run by Nazis and how Putin is a swell guy are vastly outnumbered by tin foil dunce caps on the right than the left. For every goofus Glen Greenwald, Tulsi Gabbard or Julian Assange, there are a dozen to a hundred Tucker Carlsons, Roger Stones and Steve Bannons.
The Center is not the glue that holds us together. The people actually in the streets, the people taking this fight to the people who shoot, kill and harm actual civilians are the actual ANTIFA folks who counter protest against the filth Proud Boys and filth Oathkeepers. And while this group is as varied as the continental congress, far more come from the left than the right. The center is not what holds us together, its the progressive left that does.
The horseshoe theory is quite dead.
But in an age where imagery matters, and highly complex ideas need to be conveyed to short attention span low information voters; words matter, symbols matter. How do you convey the need to stay away from fascism and that simply being in its orbit is unacceptable without alienating allies you need to survive? Specifically speaking, both siderism is totally unacceptable. Treating both sides as the same legitimizes fascism and anyone doing it is (wittingly or not) an ally of fascism. To some, centrism means putting themselves between both sides, and this kind of centrism is capitulation to fascism. To some, centrism is simply denial of the inevitable failure of capitalism and to place themselves between communism and Fascist capitalism; somewhere in the territory of Social Safety Net Capitalism (which by European standards is actually Center Right, but by American Corporate Standards is The Center).
I, personally, like to bash Centrism because anything having to do with Fascism, anything remotely in its orbit, is bad. But I also rationally recognize I need people who define themselves as The Center but aren't Both Siderists by any stretch of the imagination to stand with me against Fascism. We all hang together or we all hang separately. So as many memes and sayings roll off the tongue intuitively against Centrism (aka Both Siderism), I cant use the term Centrism BECAUSE of Centrists who define themselves with The Center (Bothsiderism Centrists vs The Center Centrists.) I recognize my need to use clearer terms (Both Siderism) and hope my Centrist (The Center) allies understand that they need to give up the idea that The Horseshoe theory applies anymore. Our leaders are progressives....not Centrists (of either variety)
