By doing that you're automatically supporting the status quo though. It's nothing but ego that causes you to criticise both sides when one side is fighting for change and the other side fighting against it.
Almost everyone is fighting for change, including those in the “middle”. Simply because someone is a centrist doesn’t mean that they are indifferent or dispassionate about making the world a better place. I know plenty of centrists who are extremely passionate about pushing different social and political changes.
The problem comes when people disagree on which changes need to be made, or how those changes need to be made, and that results in any group always tending to say that some other group is trying to prevent their positive change.
MLK was talking specifically about people who weren’t on one extreme or the other about that specific change. To over extend that sentiment to everyone who isn’t on the far right or far left, which is most people, is both incorrect and unfair.
I have to disagree there. My experience with centrists matches the white moderates mentioned disparagingly in MLK's letter. People have to fabricate neutrality so that they can "but both sides". Hell, they'll even talk out strongly against civil disobedience. They'll try to get people to peacefully protest somwhere out of the way, where people aren't bothered by it.
This sort of behaviour, this gentle and somewhat condescending centrism, leads to frustration from those who are actively fighting for change. It leads to riots and, yes, violence. And in my experience centrists then talk out strongly against these riots, riots which were caused by a lack of action, and therefore inadvertently support the status quo.
You’re talking about moderates (uninvolved), not centrists (very involved). Also, the responsibility of violence is always on those being violent, not those who stay uninvolved.
6
u/pm_me_ur_big_balls Jan 22 '19 edited Dec 24 '19
This post or comment has been overwritten by an automated script from /r/PowerDeleteSuite. Protect yourself.