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that's certainly a claim, but I think it's how far political polarization hysteria moved the range of public discourse.

there's a very big center. (dare I say it's the plurality?)

despite the news most folks are solidly boring when it comes to politics, and the loud minorities are ... loud minorities.

redefining (the already barely useful) left/right because of them is an unforced error IMHO



To throwawayallday's point though, I do think there's two large trends that tend to lead to this sort of labelling, one in America, and one in the context of the Anglosphere and much of Europe.

In America the Democrats, as the left-er of the two major parties, tend to bend heavily to the will of any adjacent loud minority and eagerly adopt their rhetoric, even if they don't adopt their policies. This gets amplified in both directions by social media, especially Twitter, where advocates press politicians for vocal sup[port, that when given increases the demand and visibility of these requests, ad infinitum.

In the Anglosphere and much of Europe, there is a common pattern of some subset of (usually young) people viewing all issues, even local ones, through an American lens. I have no idea how America established such an overwhelming level of political-cultural imperialism in the last decade or so, but at this point it seems ubiquitous. A discussion on America's policies causes everyone else to examine and start dialogue on their own policies, almost without fail. This leads to any American hot button issues becoming the issue of the week for dozens of countries, and it's all framed through American battle lines.


Yeah. I feel weird that BLM movement is treated as a global problem, like OSS project or GCP API page have static banner for that. I completely agree for BLM and racial crimination is a worldwide problem, but BLM (specifically blacks are killed by police) is a specific problem in the US.


Wow, man, that must be insanely frustrating

I've only had much experience with US culture in the USA, and living in Japan. I guess the language/cultural barrier between the US and Japan is still substantial enough that US politics don't really make their way into the Japanese zeitgeist, since I never heard anything about US politics from anyone I know living there other than Americans.




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