Somewhere In The Middle...?
It's conventional wisdom that "the truth lies somewhere in the middle", or that "there's two sides to every story". Or even that "the truth always prevails"... O how I wish that last one was true...
source: Pixabay
I'm sorry, but there's no truth to be found in the middle when we're talking politics or science. Maybe that claim can occasionally be true, but only if we expand the meaning of "the middle" to include everything except the utmost extremities of a spectrum. And even then some truths will be missed because they are really situated at one extreme end. Political centrism obscures the obvious truths that reside at the very edges of the Overton window:
The Overton window is the range of ideas tolerated in public discourse, also known as the window of discourse. The term is named after Joseph P. Overton, who stated that an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within this range, rather than on politicians' individual preferences.
source: Wikipedia
Observe that the definition talks about the "political viability" of an idea, which says absolutely nothing about the truth or practical viability of that idea. The Overton window moves with time, as it repositions in concert with the changes in public and political discourse. In the past decades we've seen the window of public and political discourse move ever further to the right; this started with the advent of Reaganomics during the 1980s, and got an extra boost when the Soviet Union gave up and converted to capitalism. What happened in America, was mirrored in almost all modern western countries; we all adopted the politics and culture of neoliberalism, we all started privatizing the commons because government was the problem, not the solution. We all cut taxes on big business and the rich because the free market was a "win-win" machine that would "lift all boats" on the wave that was "trickle-down economics".
We all know that's bullshit now. Let me rephrase that: all who believe their own eyes and ears can see in their immediate surroundings as well as in the news, yes even in the mainstream news if you pay attention, can now gather enough empirical data that strongly suggests that Reaganomics and the benefits of neoliberalism are myths. Wealth trickles up, not down, and we have the immense levels of income inequality that's developed in the past half century to prove it. But during this time, the Overton window has moved steadily to the right. And it's not that the political right has moved very much further in their desired direction, but the political left that has moved ever more to the center, it's the left that conceded ever more ground to their ideological opponents.
Case in point: Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama, the last two Democrat presidents of America were so far right on the political spectrum that they could rightly be called "Republican Light". Clinton further deregulated the banks, paving the way to the 2008 financial crisis. Obama started a regular war on whistle-blowers, prosecuting them under a century old espionage laws so they can be convicted as traitors, and he upped the drone-wars to never before seen highs, bombing seven countries; I'll never figure out how that man could ever even be considered for the Nobel Peace Price, but he got it anyway. The Democrats in 2019 are ex-progressives where it matters: the economy. The only way they differ from the Republicans nowadays is on fringe subjects, like gay marriage, abortion and social justice. I'm not saying these aren't important, I'm just saying that there's a bigger, all-encompassing problem that supersedes them all, which is the neoliberal ideology that has turned every aspect of life, including the governing of the country, into a marketplace.
Beware of so called progressives who claim that they want to change the lifes of the middle class and the poor for the better, but simultaneously claim that this can be accomplished WITHOUT significantly raising taxes on the rich, their corporations and their wealth. Beware of "progressives" who say they have a plan to provide health-care for ALL without ROBBING you from your private insurance. These claims are logically inconsistent. The rich are the rich because the economy allows them to step on the 99%; this can not be changed without demanding them to take their foot of our necks, it's that simple. The Democrats once were the party for the working people, they were the ones willing to take up the fight against big corporations; that willingness has now been reduced to just one man, Bernie Sanders. He is the only candidate for 2020 who we can be sure to take on that fight. He's not a socialist, not a communist; Bernie is a capitalist, despite what's said about him in the media. But his proposals for the economy ARE situated on the far left of the current Overton window, and now you know why; Bernie is what the Democratic party used to be, before Reagan, when the corporations and the rich payed at least somewhat of their fair share in taxes, when banks were regulated in a way that strictly separated normal banks from investment banks so that the people's money couldn't be used to gamble in the stock market. Don't be fooled by the label "extreme left"; the "extreme" part of that label is caused by an Overton window that has shifted extremely fast extremely far to the right. That move needs to be arrested and reversed to move the balance of power back to the workers and away from the oligarchs.
Jimmy Dore talks impeachment, Bernie debate bias
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, keep steeming!
Recent articles you might be interested in:
| Latest article >>>>>>>>>>> | Compensation Olympics |
|---|---|
| Self-Driving Humans | Busting Taxation Myths |
| NO MA'AM | Billion Dollar Gospel |
| Archipelago Of Zeus And Apollo | Free Market Fundamentalism |
Thanks for stopping by and reading. If you really liked this content, if you disagree (or if you do agree), please leave a comment. Of course, upvotes, follows, resteems are all greatly appreciated, but nothing brings me and you more growth than sharing our ideas. It's what Steemit is made for!
Just for Full Disclosure, I'm invested in these crypto-currencies:
Bitcoin | Litecoin | EOS | OmiseGo | FunFair | KIN | Pillar | DENT | Polymath | XDCE | 0x | Decred | Ethereum | Carmel | XYO
@helpie is a WITNESS now! So please help @helpie help you by voting for us here!
