There are a lot of centrist extremists around right now.
It’s not. Adhering to doctrine w/o discernment leads to extremism. Holding the center between two poles as a grounding principle—without consideration of where those polls reside ideologically or the effects of occupying that center ground—is extremist.
The center between a good position and a bad one is closer to the bad position than is the good position.
It may be necessary to compromise in the moment if that center point is all the can be practically achieved. But that center is not preferable to the good position.
It may be necessary to compromise in the moment if that center point is all the can be practically achieved. But that center is not preferable to the good position.
Even any good position is certainly not the best possible position. Even the best position only points toward some ideal, worth striving for even if unattainable.
Preference instead for the center between something good and something worse suggests moral vacancy.
Preference instead for the center between something good and something worse suggests moral vacancy.
Indeed, a willingness to comfortably reside in any center will inevitably benefit the worse position, by counterfeiting a less good center as the best possible good.
Which inevitably establishes a new, worse, center—territory those who desire only the center will happily occupy.
Which inevitably establishes a new, worse, center—territory those who desire only the center will happily occupy.
Realizing that I wrote about this sort of ideology in The Revisionaries, though I didn’t have political centrism specifically in mind. 
Far right nationalism, supremacy, and greed have most certainly fueled our nation’s decades-long train ride to the far right of the political spectrum, but it is extremist centrism that laid down the tracks.
"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."
-Elie Wiesel
-Elie Wiesel
This is what centrist extremism looks like.
Framing an objection to these points around a sense of personal insult is telling.
If you’re in danger of casting in with what you know to be wrong because of a perceived insult, then you deserve the insult.
If you wouldn’t, you’re likely not subject of the critique.
If you’re in danger of casting in with what you know to be wrong because of a perceived insult, then you deserve the insult.
If you wouldn’t, you’re likely not subject of the critique.
