By Garett Loner
I would describe myself as a radical, not a radical from a left or right perspective, but a radical nonetheless.
I have very atypical stances on topics such as race, religion, and one that I think serves as the best example of why centrism is a thing of the past in American politics: abortion.
I was raised Catholic, and I’m still practicing today. One of the largest tenets I have taken from my Catholic upbringing is the sanctity of life.
I despise the death penalty, and I think abortion is a medieval solution to a very personal issue. On the flip side though, I am pro-choice.
Now this seems like an oxymoron, no? I don’t think so: it’s perfectly reasonable to say on one hand, “Hey guys, maybe killing unborn babies isn’t the best option.”
Let’s not kid ourselves. That’s exactly what abortion is: it’s the killing of an unborn child. There is an argument to be made that it’s a justified killing.
In examples such as rape, to say we should force people who go through such unspeakable acts to carry what they would understandably see as an unfortunate pregnancy from an even more tragic event to term is at best fanatical, and at worst sadistic.
So I fall somewhere in the middle on the issue of abortion; you could say I’m in the center. This issue, however, is a binary topic within modern political discourse. You are either pro-life and hate when people have autonomy over their own body, or you are pro-choice and you think that we should kill babies.
Of course, people who think so dogmatically exist–hopefully very few. These people are completely outrageous, and they don’t represent how most people feel. However, that’s exactly why they are at the forefront of the discussion surrounding abortion.
Nobody wants to listen to the boring people who have reasonable and understandable opinions, they want to listen to the nut jobs, the wackos, the loons.
Hell, look at reality TV. This has put centrism in a weird spot because everything has been turned into a binary issue. Israel or Palestine, Blue Lives Matter or defund the police, Republican or Democrat.
In this new age of inescapable mass media, we have seen the death of reasonable centrism, and the rise of an irrational two-answer system.
Centrism is now the nuanced perspective.
Centrism is the New Radical.
