https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Party_(Netherlands)

Not typical for parties wearing that name. That being said the German Zentrum (CxU predecessor) did in fact happily vote with the NSDAP in favour of the enabling Act which was the major turning point in establishing Nazi Germany.

"I'm neither right not left" = far-right. Always.

That's some 1984 level shit

Yep, it's called Fish Hook Theory:

Note that there is no such theory outside of Internet slang. There is no merit in it. Just as horseshoe theory is without merit. There are complex, underlying causes for it making so much sense, but do not be baited by comfort.

The main difference between "neither left nor right" and far-right is hypocrisy.

Or sometimes denial

Reminds me of the Apocalyptic Cult in Parks and Rec, the “Reasonableists”

HAIL ZORP

We had a similar short-lived party in my region, leading up to this 2026 regional selection. For about 20 days, we had a centre party made up of far-right dickweeds who rejected their party's choice of chief dickweed and started their own.

It was comically bad, but used the same "we're the centre" nonsense while being ver-ry far-right.

Of course, they mended fences and rejoined the mob.

Some green parties tried the same nonsense for a while, though I think they all admit to being left by now. The argument was that they'd work independently of party blocks with climate as the only issue.

Of course right wing politics are always an environmental disaster, but sometimes you would see unusual constellations in local politics.

I'm curious, what does the center look like?

Like the center has to be somewhere right? I'm solidly left, but certainly not as left as your average person on Lemmy.

Why I hate being left sometimes

Centrists are just closeted right wingers that don’t want to be criticized for their right wing views.

IMO ideally the center should be fine with government provided socialized services and regulation to fully support society, offer everyone the same advantages to change their economic status to middle-class, and prevent wild disparity and capture of the system by wealth yet still allow for people to achieve wealth that, does indeed, allow for some excess but not at the expense of society.

Wouldn't most just call that Left?

What's missing that would then move that to be Left?

or outright cowards too afraid to have a stance on anything for fear of being wrong or unliked

feels like those "free speech" spaces and it ends up being mostly Racism

Don’t forget idiocy.

"Horseshoe theory" is the idea that I don't really care if I'm being killed by Hitler or Mao if I'm being killed.

I believe the left vs right terminology is only useful at getting the working class to attack each other. We should be using phrasing like "rich vs poor".

Yes I know that ends up meaning right vs left, but my god the right are so much better at branding and propaganda and manipulating people's minds, it's time we learned from that.

Wasn't fascism originally about being neither right nor left, but then it got sort of absorbed (or bought out) by the right to combat the left? Thats atleast how I've understood it, and of course there is so much more to fascism than that but thats just how i'd summarize it

Maybe not rich vs poor.

But Working Class vs Oligarchs

Lemmites when asked for their political position

Damn, I didn't even know Ed Sheeran was Dutch...

/s

Yes. The center should be what people in the US would call left.

Liberals creating their own political spectrum so they can pretend they arent conservatives.

I’m solidly left, but certainly not as left as your average person on Lemmy

So you feel the workers should own and operate the companies they work for? Because thats left.

I think far left is dissolving nation states and living in anarchist communes that best reflects the member's values.

The .1% vs the 99.9%

Left is the workers owning the means of production.

I only know that the Nazis presented themselves as the "third way" between communism and capitalism.

Fascists often hate being called right wing. It comes from a lack of self-awareness and general lack of emotional intelligence. If you can't understand other people and their views, you are inclined to see your own position as the reasonable center. There are also, of course, some fascists who cynically portray themselves as the center, knowing full well what they really are. The leaders of AfD and the Reform UK are examples.

Analogously, people on the right often use the word "political" as a derogation. They hate the idea of their beliefs being political, preferring to call them "common sense".

In a nutshell, there is a commonality across many people on the right of being unable to empathize and understand perspectives outside their own. This is why they always view their own use of government benefits as justified while others are thieves or criminals, and why anyone different from them is a threat.

The only part of horseshoe theory that tracks is that if you go far enough left you get your guns back.

See also: “Silent Majority”

The part that tracks is that authoritarians exist orthogonal to left/right.

Ok but what is the difference between what you just said, and the actual left?

IDK what exactly that would entail, but I at the very least feel the government should pay for healthcare, education, housing all "basic" needs and more.

Also cap wealth at ~100mil sounds like a good idea if possible

Hi. Liberal here. Um... What does this have to do with Liberals?

There are LOTS of very poor people who want to kill people like me and my partner. They want to limit our access to healthcare, education, etc.

I want those same people to have a very good way of life, get a livable wage at their job, and have unfettered access to healthcare, education, transit, etc.

You can "rich vs poor" all you want, there are plenty of poor people on the right wing side of the spectrum who want nothing more than for everyone to be as fucking miserable as they are.

The actual left where? In the US? What the popular view of the left is or what people think is far left? We don’t have a “left” in the US, just some mildly socially liberal politicians that barely try to control gov budgets and protect rights, and a few people that are on the fringe with little power that might brush up against leftist policy once in a while. The “actual left” is something we don’t have.

Just like the AfD in Germany today.

In america*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Röhm

That didn't last long.

So in other words, narcissists with psychopathic tendencies

Huh. Now moderates are literally Nazis.

It's best to be an Epicurean and stay away from politics. It's just miserable. People say, "But the ship is going to crash! You don't care?" Sure, but when there's a mob fisting fighting over the controls, the best thing to do is just vibe.

They aren't extremists calling for the end of all people, only minorities they don't like, duuuh, so they are center.

They had a falling out and their most well known member (Hans Janmaat) then founded the Centre Democrats. I remember Janmaat being the butt of many jokes, and for the rest he was widely ignored.

This article is about The Netherlands.

What a pathetic way to look at the world.

"Boy that looks hard, best just let those people die. Doesn't affect me, I guess."

And that those unwilling to compromise on anything with anyone tend to get authoritarians

It gets better they went bankrupt in 1986 then a second party Centre Party '86 was created went down the same path and was banned in 1998. Then there was New National Party (Netherlands) which went down the same path again and dissolved in 2005. Ive pulled this info off the Wikipedia pages so I am in no way a expert on this topic I just found the series of events funny