Viewing politics as a spectrum with a ‘middle’ and ‘extremes’ is a really powerful and dangerous ideological concept. The prevailing ideology decides what constitutes the middle, its arbitrary, it doesn’t represent any sort of ‘balance’ or any other properties outside of its material content. If your ideology occupies the ‘middle’ space, it’s because the ideas constituting it are normalized in the prevailing mainstream, which speaks to the position of power it occupies, not to its inherent truth, practicality, or morality. There is no such thing as neutral, inaction and abstention are passive support of the underlying power structures of our society.
To be moderate means: to not want the current situation to change very much or very fast. Which, given the incredible amount of injustice there is right now, is a very extreme position in favour of injustice.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
— Desmond Tutu
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