Mastodawn

RE: https://mastodon.social/@adamsaidsomething/116297946376731077

The direction the EPP is going in is atrocious and sickening, but I'm done with this "if you scratch a centrist a #fascist bleeds" nonsense.

There are plenty of people in the EPP who are horrified by this behaviour (especially in the CDU). Painting an entire political family with the same brush is the same political "holier than thou" bullshit that stopped the communists from working with the social democrats in 20's/30's Germany.

When democratic forces fight each other, fascism wins. #EUpol

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Veza85UE 1h ago

@jmaris This bit didn't open fully for me, and I don't disagree with being sick of their bs slogans. But there's nothing that's untrue in the QT. If the CDU is as horrified with Manfred Weber's work as their EP leader as Weber & EPP were with Viktor Orbán wrecking Hungarian democracy back in 2018 (who remembers Weber's CEU red line? About as effective as Obama's on Syria...) we can kiss the EU as we know it goodbye. Genuine question: what are their horrified behind the scenes whispers worth?

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Veza85UE 1h ago

@jmaris Follow-up question, just as genuine and snark-free, which I realise I need to specify. Forget this random person on Mastodon. How exactly are "democratic forces" supposed to treat Manfred Weber over not just WhatsApping the nazis, but over everything in his history of trying to screw them over? What concrete response do you think they should have?

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Mason Loring Bliss 39m ago

@jmaris In the US, it's hard to distinguish between centrists and corporatists, and especially with corporatists, their goals are sometimes indistinguishable from those of fascists. The concern is that in either case, they miss some critical things.

There are other issues, but a huge one with the centrists in the US is a tolerance for the genocide in Gaza. Thoughts and prayers as we continue to send over bombs yield just as many dead kids as the Islamaphobic glee of the apocalyptic Pxians.

Centrists, when we distinguish them from corporatists, just want to go back to what we had, even though that system inevitably led to where we are now. And that's the origin of the "scratch a centrist" phrase. In the US it's more common to hear "vote blue no matter who" to express the same concept.

"Not all centrists" is certainly true. In the US, "not all Republicans" is certainly true, but conscious affiliation still says something.

If there are critical differences over the pond and I've missed them, I'd welcome your perspective.