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Who are you even thinking of when you say this? Respectability centrist isn't a label I'd apply to anyone here.
In the event you're thinking of me, Charlie Kirk's assassination was Bad with a capital B, Jay Jones' texts were Bad and should have been disqualifying, if people voted for him as an endorsement of those feelings then that is also abhorrent. I'm not sure the latter is true, but I'm also fairly far removed from Virginia.
Are you ready to denounce the bullshit on your side too, or do you get to dodge that responsibility by not identifying as a 'respectability centrist?' Next time Trump does something bad, shall I demand you pop up in the comments to say something about it?
This is a reasonable complaint but there also needs to term that describes the sort of "polite" anti-confrontationist liberalism ostensibly espoused by publications like The Bulwark and The Atlantic and commentators like David Roberts and Bill Kristol.
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Nah, I know you and would have predicted you taking this stance. You're an actual reasonable person, Chris. I was thinking more of magicalkittycat and wanderinginthewilderness and a few others, newish accounts who get so deeply concerned about civility and norms violations from the right. In my discussions with them, they keep insisting that it's a general principle and they definitely apply it generally, even if they struggle to name a single example. Well, this is a perfect opportunity to build credibility on that topic, isn't it?
And yes, I do try to denounce, not "bullshit", but "actual psycho shit" from my own side. I think it's important to set those kinds of bounds.
I do not acknowledge this as an accurate summary of my positions. Even if I did, I don't see what Jay Jones's texts have to do with "civility" and "norms violation" - they are, in fact, leaked texts, not public statements. As for "struggling to name a single example" of bad behavior on the Left, I don't know how many times I have to reply that I am against cancel culture. Like, generally. Point me to any example of a harassment campaign against a random private citizen based on their politics, I am going to be against that. But again, I wouldn't term the substance of my objections "concern about civility and norms violations". I care about the fact that such methods are wrong and harmful, not that they are indecorous in some kind of abstract way.
Incidentally, I really don't care, but it's Wanderer, not Wandering.
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