Post by @GeofCox@climatejustice.social

2026-09-03 06:56 UTC

The political centre in the western world is confronted by its own trolley problem. It must choose between letting democracy hurtle down the extreme right route, harming most people, or throwing the switch to the left, damaging the interests of the wealthy and privileged. It is refusing to choose - dreaming instead of a third way that cannot, in principle, exist. 'With France seeking profound change, momentum lies only with candidates who promise to upend the status quo' - Lemonde article on French politics, but describing the whole dilemma of western centrists. It even enumerates, accurately, why voters are seeking profound change - stagnation or decline in living standards declining social mobility declining quality of public services failure to respond adequately to either the causes or effects of climate-ecological breakdown - but bizarrely still focuses - as do mainstream political commentators everywhere - on the shortcomings of centrist political parties and personalities, rather than the simple, obvious fact that there are no non-radical solutions to this polycrisis - that no centrist candidate, however charismatic, has anything to offer. https://archive.is/20260902082456/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2026/09/02/with-france-seeking-profound-change-momentum-lies-only-with-candidates-who-promise-to-upend-the-status-quo_6757068_23.html#selection-3553.430-3553.611

Replies (3)

@NicelyManifest@mastodon.social 2026-09-03 09:39

@GeofCox@climatejustice.social Profoundly chilling and seismic times. Kind of damned if we do and damned if we do not. But the most salient learning from the last 100 years or so is that the concept that power corrupts, aboslute power absolutely. An old saying but it is the root of much that is wrong. Too much investment in powerful people and corporations. It guarantees too much perversion of life for the rest of us.

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@ReggieHere@mastodon.social 2026-09-03 09:52

@GeofCox@climatejustice.social Well said. The 'third way' and particularly the centrist takeover of the European left were both essential precursors for the establishment of neoliberalism in Europe, and without centrism, neoliberalism would have been killed in the crib before the Millennium. Without the quibbling centrists and their puerile arguments, the problems of neoliberalism are exposed as the age old problems of greed, inequality and exploitation; for which we have a tried and tested solution....

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@Di4na@hachyderm.io 2026-09-03 10:49

@GeofCox@climatejustice.social the fundamental problem is that Boomers are still numerous enough to support a centrist take. Taking a position as the centrist is also a political deathwish, as long as the Boomers demographics keep voting the same way

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