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  • Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
    Oct 22, 2026, 5:19 PM

    While I agree to some extent with Miriam González Durántez that the Far Right's rise is because they are more committed to politics than an historically complacent centre, what she really doesn't identify is how the centrist political class have continually depicted the moderate Left as 'extremists' too, and thereby played into the hands of the Far Right (as an 'acceptable' extremism).

    The centre has proved to be really dangerously disingenuous in its views of the Left!

    #politics
    h/t FT

    Centrist thinkers provide commentary but refrain from political battle. Moderate intellectuals preach about democracy, write about policies, attend seminars, write reports and organise think-tanks to promote those same reports but think that elections have little to do with them. While moderates have retreated into myriad bubbles — their families, local communities, their favoured media, single-issue causes — the extremes turn up. They join parties. They fill halls. They campaign. They recruit. They post. They protest. They get organised. And crucially they rake in a lot of money from donors far and wide. They have established networks of foundations, think-tanks, wealthy individuals and new communication channels to ensure their political views are heard. And they have been doing it relentlessly for decades: Nigel Farage started at it in 1993, Marine Le Pen in 2011, Giorgia Meloni in 2012, Santiago Abascal in 2013, Alice Weidel in 2017, when she became co-leader of Germany’s AfD. Even those of us who virulently disagree with the extremes ought to recognise their grit
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Replies

  • Freekiefdriesenaar@mastodon.nl
    Oct 22, 2026, 5:27 PM

    @ChrisMayLA6

    What really frightens me is the idea that some people can not cope with the idea that the world we once experienced has deteriorated and that it will continue to do so.
    Even more frightening is the idea that some people put profit above everything else and that they rely on money to survive the collaps they expect and maybe even worsen.

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  • Freekiefdriesenaar@mastodon.nl
    Oct 22, 2026, 6:01 PM

    @ChrisMayLA6 This being sa(i)d, it doesn't stop me from positive action: I am hoping to do a presentation at a local library for interested people about financial and monetary reform, what it is about, why it matters and that they are the ones who can bring it about.

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  • BashStKidBashStKid@mastodon.online
    Oct 22, 2026, 5:29 PM

    @ChrisMayLA6 Pfft. Can you be in a bubble and wear rose-coloured specs at the same time ?

    About as politically aware as an amoeba.

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  • Claire McNab2legged@mastodon.ie
    Oct 22, 2026, 5:32 PM

    @ChrisMayLA6 This self-serving mendacity of #centrists is so deeply destructive that they really anger me.

    Miriam González Durántez is a particularly ugly example, given her marriage to a notorious liar who discarded a crucial electoral pledge then went off to pocket many millions from a notoriously exploitative company which actively sabotages democracy.

    Her husband #NickClegg should be jailed for crimes against democracy

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  • Russ CheshireRussCheshire@mastodon.scot
    Oct 22, 2026, 5:54 PM

    @ChrisMayLA6 I have no idea where the centre is any more; but I get the impression that the Overton Window is actually a rocket-propelled sliding door.

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  • ruurd@mastodon.socialruurd@mastodon.social
    Oct 22, 2026, 6:49 PM

    @ChrisMayLA6 What she does not mention is that they rise for l’art pour l’art - they’re in it for the game and for self enrichment. Not to govern the people from a specific political principle. American politics is poisoned by the blatant zero-sum-life idea of winners versus losers immediately losing view of how collaboration can make all of us better.

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