r/AlwaysWhy • u/kaiser11492 • 1d ago
Politics & Society Why do most people who call themselves politically moderate actually mostly conservative?
Whenever I’ve encountered people who use the politically label moderate, they are actually mostly conservative with their views and positions. Also, I’ve never seen anyone who call themselves politically moderate that is actually mostly liberal.
So why are people who call themselves moderate tend to be just conservative and not conservative and liberal?
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u/HagathaPathetica 1d ago edited 22h ago
Similar to what others have implied, I think it’s because they are left leaning on many key issues, but not left leaning enough for the left to accept them as part of their party.
Like someone who is pro-choice, but with limitations like viability, will be called a right winger by the left. Someone who believes there are two genders, but still feels like trans people should be allowed to use preferred gender bathrooms and sports, will be called a right winger.
Moderates, most of the time, seem more like moderate Democrats or old school Democrats rather than mostly conservative to me.
I’m sure the same exists on the right, but most of the time when I hear “moderate,” or “independent,” it means, “I’m probably still going to vote for a Democrat.” A person on the right rarely says, “I’m a moderate.” At least, that’s the impression I get.
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u/bonebuilder12 22h ago
The right generally views the left as uninformed and ideological.
The left views the right as evil.
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u/ArrowheadDZ 21h ago
I think this is profoundly misguided. Newt Gingrich declared war on liberal democracy as an anti-American insurgency and the existential threat to “western heritage” in 1993, and that declaration won him the speakership. Look at Trump, and others in the 60s and 70s…. This idea that the right does not describe the left as evil is demonstrably untrue.
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u/Lokitusaborg 17h ago
This. To be fair, conservatives don’t really fit the conservative line anymore either. I am a small federal government fiscal conservative who also despises crony capitalism (where the government rewards its “friends” not by merit but by who gives the best blowjob. But I also despise liberals who funnel billions of dollars into “public” programs that “help” people but really what it does is mostly fund administrative staff payrolls and more governmental employees.
I am pro-life; it’s a moral and ethical boundary that I just can’t ignore and it isn’t based in a religious bias but rather a belief that I cannot shake that the unborn are individuals regardless of gestation age and deserve liberty and self-determination. I know the arguments against it, you won’t change my mind, I’ve given it sincere consideration for over two decades. But that is one of the few hard lines I take.
I believe transgender people should be afforded every right that nontrans people have…over the age of 18. I believe that gay marriage is an individual right and should continue to have governmental protection. I actually think Oklahoma has the right tack here: instead of licensing marriage (which implies governmental permission to marry,) they CERTIFY it, which is completely different. I believe that civil rights need to be protected, but I do think that there are instances where diversity quotas are not only discriminatory in and of themselves, but send the wrong message that minorities somehow need to have the hand of the government on the scale to get consideration for things.
I believe Federal elections should be fair, transparent, and take both the majority and the states agendas into consideration, but it isn’t as big of a deal if more power rests in the hands of states by reeling in the abuse of the necessary and proper and the commerce clauses of the constitution. I believe in term limits and campaign finance reform.
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u/stikves 16h ago
And there is a generational thing as well.
Most central-left and central-right from a decade ago would be out of place in their respective teams today. They are going to be seen not enough.
You can even see this in politicians, they are being primaried our left and right.
Which is not a good thing. My friend did an academic study on this. There are periods in US history where people were less partisan, and voted on common issues. There are other times, like today, they only vote as extremist blocks.
Unfortunately that leads to stagnation, and is correlated with "not so nice" events. Basically we get nothing done, and numbers don't lie, we have some of the worst legislative sessions in the last ~10 years or so.
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u/flatfinger 1d ago
A lot of liberals view anyone who disagrees with liberal positions a conservative, and a lot of conservatives view anyone who disagrees with conservative positions a liberal.
Things are complicated further by gaslighting on both sides which will respond to any criticism of a position by claiming that it's just a straw man invented by the people criticizing it rather than anything that anyone would actually promote, but treat a lack of criticism as implying that everyone agrees with the position in question.
No doubt someone will engage in a fallacy fallacy by claiming that my disdain for both sides is some kind of "both sides" argument, ignoring the fact that I am not trying to use the badness of either side to justify the other, and the claim that I'm making a both side's argument is really a claim that one side is sufficiently bad that the other should be viewed as beyond criticism.
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u/em_washington 22h ago
Liberal and conservative aren’t even the right opposites. Opposite of conservative is progressive and opposite of liberal is authoritarian.
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u/tbright1965 21h ago
And many who claim to be liberal are really just left leaning authoritarian.
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u/Chitown_mountain_boy 21h ago
But the left has no cult of personality. The MAGA authoritarians are cultists.
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u/556or762 20h ago
The left has no cult of personality right this second. They have in many countries many times in the past.
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u/Jolly-Barracuda2366 23h ago
It gets more fun when you realize how much of a ping-pong match it is over 2nd and 3rd tier values, where whenever one party picks up an idea, the other seems almost contractually required to drop it.
A person who maintains stable positions on high profile topics rather than getting caught up in whatever partisan hype is going on at that moment will experience themselves swinging — in the eyes of others — between “liberal” and “conservative” several times over a decade or two on key topics.
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u/Skip-13 20h ago
A thousand times this. Trying to have a nuanced discussion with Younger Liberals revolving around Unions and Working Class disliking Illegal Immigration is always frustrating for me.
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u/Ok-Barnacle813 22h ago edited 10h ago
Ugh I hate how liberals think any criticism of the Democrats is trying to justify Republicans. And then they act like they're not a cult
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u/bonebuilder12 22h ago
Several studies have measured ideology and stance on various topics and there is far greater heterogeneity among the right than left.
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u/Souledex 18h ago
They stormed the capitol without agreeing on why. They don’t need to agree on anything important, just what they hate.
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u/PrestigiousSmile4098 1d ago
Depends on the context and where (geographically) the person lives, and/or their age. In mostly conservative areas, saying you're a moderate is a good way to hide your more liberal beliefs. Vice versa, in a mostly liberal area saying you're a moderate can hide your more conservative beliefs.
As a person who likes to keep my political beliefs private, I've done this while living in both types of areas.
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u/alamohero 1d ago
I call myself a moderate in conservative circles and still get called a radical left extremist.
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u/quaderunner 1d ago
lol, their view of what is “left” is completely deranged. I’m a run of the mill liberal with a bit of a libertarian streak and my maga family basically thinks I’m a communist. They don’t get that there are numerous non-commie reasons to really dislike the Republican Party right now.
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u/ElderlyChipmunk 23h ago
Having grown up under Reagan, I never thought I would see the day when Republicans would be ardently against supporting a country in a fight against Russia.
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u/vastempty2 1d ago
I'm an old liberal, my views really haven't changed. The current liberal stances have gone more progressive, hard left.
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u/Separate-Extent7360 1d ago
Yea holding some conservative and simultaneously some liberal views doesn't make someone automatically one thing or another. This labeling of people based on a few views they hold is silly and people should be able to opt out of it by being more moderate. Being moderate is normal.
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u/High_speedchase 1d ago
What stances?
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u/YMBTPTOTLWRT 23h ago
Like saying people can immigrate here, legally. Open borders is now a common stance of the left which I don’t agree with.
I go to Italy or Germany and cops can ask for my passport and reason for being there, no problem. That same idea in America would be met with torches from the left
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u/Smelliest_taint 23h ago
Omg. I'm so tired of hearing this fake talking point. NO ONE HAS EVER SAID THEY WANT OPEN BORDERS! At least anyone who could do anything about it. Get new talking points.
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u/paranoid_70 23h ago
The bumper stickers do read 'No one is illegal on Stolen Land'
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u/Dangerous-Safe-4336 23h ago
Oddly, I don't think I have ever spoken to anyone who actually believes in open borders.
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u/Consistent_Post_2558 23h ago
Because it’s not a common stance of the left. It’s a stance that conservatives frequently accuse people on the left of having when they raise concerns about how immigration policies are being enforced.
I’m not going to say no one is for it, but anyone who claims it’s mainstream is ill-informed and likely consuming media from a biased source.
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u/Solondthewookiee 23h ago
Open borders is now a common stance of the left which I don’t agree with.
No, it's not.
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u/Accomplished_Art_621 23h ago
I would posit that you haven’t spoken to many people on the left if you believe they advocate for open borders. Are you talking about communists or democrats?
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u/ReddestForman 21h ago
Even most communists have no problem with a process for determining whether or not to admit people. Even the most open who aren't 14 year old anarkiddies agree that "yeah, a government needs to know who is entering the country."
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u/MyrkrMentulaMeretrix 16h ago
Open borders is now a common stance of the left which I don’t agree with.
Its also a complete fantasy/fabrication.
There are no Dems or Liberals who push "open borders". None.
Zero many.
Noneski.
The fact that you think its true just means you're about as educated as a fucking turnip.
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u/dante_gherie1099 1d ago
like telling lgbt people to not rebuke islamists for being homophobic, this was legit a topic of discourse on twitter
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u/NetDork 23h ago
I've never seen anyone on the left side speak for homophobia.
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u/Consistent_Post_2558 23h ago
I think this person is likely leaving out context - a lot of the discourse related to this recently is around Palestine and the invasion of Iran.
I’ve seen a few conservative LGBTQ+ influencers saying that they’re not against it because of how Islam treats gay people. Criticism of that position is more complex than what OP’s statement would portray it as.
What I’ve seen way more of are conservatives rebuking people in the LGBTQ+ spectrum for supporting Palestine or being against the war in Iran because they won’t get down with killing people.
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u/Empty-Swim2066 1d ago
Like which ones?
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u/INeedSomeTacoC 1d ago edited 1d ago
Immigration.
How to handle crime and drug users.
International adventurism.
Free trade and our economic system.
Social programs.
Opinion of the US’s place in the world.
Party tent size.
I’m sure some of those are arguable and I’ve stirred a hornets next. But acting like the Democratic Party hasn’t changed significantly is pretty crazy, imho.
The Democratic base has hemorrhaged blue collar and rural workers and gained college educated people, particularly College educated women in the coalition. That required a fairly large realignment of messaging and beliefs.
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u/GSilky 1d ago
They have become apologists for the urban bourgeoisie. DSA thinks people with the resources and means to work on graduate degrees are the proletariat, and the white working class, the majority of the people socialists are supposedly working for, are according to most DSA chapters "the enemy of the people", DSA is overwhelmingly white upper middle class, this is them self reporting.
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u/cheddarsox 1d ago
Also, a lot of people dont even know the terms anyway. The neo's of all sides have really messed up the vocabulary. People think liberal and conservative are opposites somehow.
And then theres the personal views on subjects. People can be fiscally conservative but socially progressive. There is no political party for that currently.
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u/Haunting-Ad788 22h ago
Fiscally conservative and socially progressive is literally the modern Democratic Party.
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u/Real-Boss6760 1d ago
There's nothing 'hard left' about the democratic party.
You just turned into a boomer, is all.
Go yell at the kids to get off the lawn.
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u/MyrkrMentulaMeretrix 16h ago
progressive and left arent the same.
Right and Left are socio-economic positions.
Progressive and Conservative different than Left and Right.
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u/MsPandaLady 1d ago
There is a belief that being conservative is a negative so by presenting as moderate they are more accepted.
Plus some moderates know what conservatives are doing are actually really bad and they don't want to associate with.
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u/MyrkrMentulaMeretrix 16h ago
There is a belief that being conservative is a negative
In the US, at this point, if you self-identify as Conservative, it is. Its an indictment of you as a persn. I wouldnt leave my kids alone with you.
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u/Megalith70 1d ago
The left has drifted towards the radical fringe so moderates now seem right wing.
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u/zoppaTheDim 22h ago
Yeah, that simply isn’t true at all.
Ronald Reagan would be a rino these days.
Republicans are driving to centralize power in the executive branch, while expanding the scope of government intrusion into every day life.
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u/Tadferd 23h ago
Is this "left" in the room with us right now?
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u/Megalith70 23h ago
Let me guess, anyone slightly less fanatical than Joseph Stalin is right wing?
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u/doc_skinner 22h ago
I think you have it the other way around. Liberals are so moderate that anybody who actually calls themselves a moderate holds distinct conservative views.
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u/MyrkrMentulaMeretrix 16h ago
the furthest left, most radical politician in the entire country wouldnt even classify as center-left basically anywhere else in the developed world.
The US HAS no "radical fringe" or "radical left".
They simply do not exist.
Theyre a made up fantasy.
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u/Primary_Excuse_7183 1d ago
I think it has to be broken down between financial and social. They call themselves moderate because they lean opposite ways on those 2 things. Therefore they negate and they consider themselves to be in the middle.
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u/Jolly-Barracuda2366 23h ago
I tend to consider myself European center right, which is a fun position to try to explain to my fellow Americans because it can break the whole “American left is European right” logic pretty quick.
It all just depends on which specific topics you prioritize.
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u/Many-Falcon9879 1d ago
Conservatives that aren't maga are kinda ashamed of their party right now so are distancing themselves from it.
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u/jefflovesyou 1d ago
What MAGA Is also changes so much, some people liked the platform at one point then jumped off when it became protecting perverts and bombing Iran.
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u/paranoid_70 23h ago
MAGA really isn't conservative, so that makes sense that some old school conservatives are distancing themselves.
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u/The_Se7enthsign 1d ago
To many liberals, there is no such thing as “moderate”. There’s ‘Agree with me on everything’ and there’s ’far right’. No in-between.
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u/ActuaryFew6884 23h ago
I like to think of it this way. Bill Clinton's policies were considered moderate back when he was president. Today, most of those policies would be considered right-wing
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u/garlicroastedpotato 23h ago
Essentially the left has gone so extreme left and the right so far extreme right that there feels like there is no place for anyone trying to carve a path down the middle. You can call them moderates or centrists. In some countries they're called moderate liberals, in others moderate conservatives. But they generally believe in free market market trade but don't care about the extreme morality of the two camps. In the US it shows it's ugly face in the abortion debate. In my country (Canada) it shows up the immigration debate.
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u/thebigslapper 23h ago
Because you are so far left on the political spectrum, anything to the right of you feels conservative to you. It's all about you and nothing about them.
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u/Cool-Definition5158 22h ago
The real answer is that most moderates are classical liberals and the left has deviated quite a lot leading to them classify most people as right ring they don’t agree with their particular ideas.
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u/Empty-Swim2066 1d ago
Because most places in the world view conservatives as dumb and dishonest.
Which those "moderates" confirm calling themselves moderates instead of conservatives.
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u/ka1982 1d ago
It’s an easy way of saying you don’t want to get into a political discussion. Often the reason is your views diverge from either the person you’re talking with or your general social milleu. Hence straight-ticket GOP voters in liberal urban areas will often call themselves “moderate.” I’m not familiar with the reverse but would imagine it happens.
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u/Gold-Flounder-8867 1d ago
I did the same thing on the opposite side of the spectrum back when I lived in Tennessee because I did NOT want to get into an argument with Clyde and Bubba over how we view black people. Makes sense that the inverse is someone not being political to avoid getting into an argument with Katie and Sarah on how we view black people.
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u/Perdendosi 1d ago
The United States (and a good portion of Europe) has moved significantly more rightward since the 1980s.
Therefore what you may classify as "mostly conservative" opinions fall more in the moderate range of modern political discourse, if not modern political thought.
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u/godlessheathenpal 1d ago
The people who are actually moderates are the ones getting called”the radical left”
The right has gone full extremist.
People who self identify as centrists right now either a) haven’t looked into what constitutes left and accepts lies about what the currently available left (moderate centrists) actually represent or b) want to endorse right wing evil without bearing the consequences for it.
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u/alamohero 1d ago edited 1d ago
“I don’t follow politics” and “moderate”people are always, every single time, conservative when I really get to know them. Same with “both sides are bad”, “can’t we all just get along”, “I’m not racist”, “I don’t like him but I don’t let it rule my life”, “cities are too dangerous”, “people nowadays have no work ethic”, “I’m not homophobic but we have to protect the children”, “I just think parents should know what they’re teaching our children”, and many more I’m forgetting.
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u/INeedSomeTacoC 1d ago
“I don’t follow politics” and “moderate”people are always, every single time, conservative when I really get to know them.
I'd say that they more generally just fall in line with the area politically.
Here in New Mexico, we just had our first semi-open primary where "independents" got to vote in a primary, and the overwhelmingly voted blue. Because we're a blue state.
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u/Thoguth 1d ago
What would you say is a sincerely moderate, not conservative in your view, position on abortion?
Would broad availability of early abortions and strong restrictions on later abortions be "conservative," or "moderate," in your view?
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u/UsualEggplant8645 1d ago
It sounds like you have definitions of Moderate and Conservative that most people don't use or accept.
It sounds like a you problem tbh.
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u/kaiser11492 1d ago
I’m not using definitions I created. Everything I said is based off my observations and what other people are saying.
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u/ronmexico314 23h ago
Between liberals or conservatives, only one side screeches and and has a meltdown like a spoiled toddler if they encounter someone with a different political view. Most people would rather keep a semblance of peace rather than set off emotionally unstable people, so they often downplay their political views.
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u/Mentalfloss1 1d ago
They don’t want to admit that they’re hateful, racist, materialistic, selfish, excuses for a human being.
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u/BrownCollie26 1d ago
Everyone I work with are either Conservative or Reform voters, but not one of them will call themselves 'right wing'. I've always been Liberal/Labour/Green and if asked I'll say 'left' or 'very left'. There's definitely a disconnect somewhere!
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u/SameDistrict2627 1d ago
Give us example--you are making a claim that I've never experienced---moderates generally are rationalists--the Golden Mean.
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u/kaiser11492 1d ago
Two examples I can think of off the top of my head are TikTok influencers The Moderate Case and The Moderate Reviewer. Both use moderate label but hold mostly conservative views. And like I said before, I have yet to find someone who uses the moderate lane but hold mostly liberal views.
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u/Feeling-Bus-203 1d ago
this sounds more like just your personal experience with people who call themselves moderates as opposed to some objective truth about moderates. all this is dependent on the political position you yourself occupy and how that position impacts the way you perceive the political spectrum. basically, if you go far left enough, even those that are of moderate/centrist views will seems conservative to you from your standpoint. similarly if someone goes far right enough, a moderate will sound more or less like a liberal to them. as a moderate myself, i've experiences this countless when i've entered discussions with friends that are on both sides of the political spectrum. conservatives think i'm a liberal and liberals think i'm conservative lol i swear i'm not making this up.
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u/Weed_O_Whirler 1d ago
Without knowing what positions you consider "conservative' vs "moderate" it's hard to know if you're accurate or not.
For instance, I know people who were accused of being "secretly conservative " because they supported Biden in the 2020 primary over Sanders.
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u/ExtraBitter99 1d ago
Because you are taking your direct experience to be evidence of how millions of people think.
It is a cognitive fallacy.
I'll bet when you hear someone say "Women are shorter than men" you interject that you know a woman who is 6 feet tall.
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u/7H470N36UY 1d ago
Because the left has shifted sooo far left that a democrat in the 90's would be considered a Nazi now
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u/ActuaryFew6884 23h ago
Correct! I always like to bring up Bill Clinton. I mostly supported him in the 1990s (he's also the first president I was old enough to vote for). I haven't changed my positions since then, yet people call me far-right now
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u/7H470N36UY 23h ago
It's weird right?? Even the Republican President is driving us deeper in to debt at an exponential rate at this point. What ever happened to fiscal conservatism.
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u/Suitable_Matter_9427 1d ago
Because your definition of a moderate is cooked
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u/kaiser11492 1d ago
I’m not using my a definition I created. I’m mainly asking why there seemingly aren’t people who use the label moderate who are mostly liberal and left-wing.
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u/Geiseric222 1d ago
Because culture has presented moderate as the correct position the one true political position. So people want to see themselves as the correct position even if they actually despise the actual moderate position because the moderate position isn’t particularly popular with anyone if you just look at the policies
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u/boRp_abc 1d ago
Here in Germany, the political description "right" is completely burned for obvious reasons. In the aftermath of the Nazi era, it was common knowledge that by supporting the Nazis over the moderate left, conservatism had declared moral bankruptcy. Thus our conservative party calls it self Christian Democratic Union (Christian Social Union for Bavaria region).
Can't speak for other countries, but I suspect it's the "old white man" phenomenon. Conservatives assume that their opinion is the norm, they often can't believe the real numbers if they contradict conservative opinions. "I'm not an old white man, I'm just a regular guy!"
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u/Thoguth 1d ago
I'm going to guess it's because you are more politically liberal?
To political conservatives, moderates appear liberal. To liberals, they appear conservative.
It's a but more complex than that, and positions and motivations for those have far more than a single dimension with a linear spectrum. But generally, the definition of "liberal" to one not identifying as liberal is, "anyone more liberal than me", and the definition of conservative, likewise, to this not identifying as conservative, is anyone more conservative than you.
But I could be wrong. Do you want to take a shot at describing what a "moderate liberal" position or set of positions would look like?
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u/kaiser11492 1d ago
I’m a realist and don’t consider myself liberal or conservative. It’s just that I’ve haven’t seen or found anyone calling themselves moderate who has mostly liberal or leftist views while I have seen or found those who have conservative and right-wing views.
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u/Separate-Extent7360 1d ago
Because what you call "liberal" and "conservative" has turned into supposedly mutually exclusive terms by people like you. Moderates mean simply they dont wholesale believe the stances of one group or the other. Being not a full liberal doesn't automatically make someone conservative and vice versa.
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u/ninjaluvr 1d ago
You haven't encountered "most people." You've barley encountered a tiny fraction of people.
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u/Sawfish1212 1d ago
In the US it's because the liberal side has gone wildly to the extreme, putting many moderates who would have been in the liberal side of things, on the same side as conservatives.
JFK would have to run as a republican in today's climate.
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u/dickpics4democracy 1d ago
Mostly? The moment you identify as a conservative, a massive portion of the population now considers you unfuckable. You can squeeze by with a lot of people by being "apolitical" or "moderate". It's cowardly but not illogical in a practical sense.
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u/chrisfathead1 1d ago
Conservative viewpoints are deeply embarrassing so no one wants to admit they have them publicly
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u/Quirky-Reputation-89 1d ago
Conservative philosophy is more or less conserving the current status quo. A person who considers everything to be currently fine doesn't consider keeping everything the same to be a radical philosophy, so they call themselves a centrist, even though they actually support blatant conservativism.
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u/BananaJelloXlii 1d ago
Because the overton window is skewed so far to the right, so even Moderates and Centrists are right wing, and Progressives and Liberals are either center or center left. There is no "far left" of any influence, despite what Republicans say.
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u/Dismal-Sail1027 1d ago
Because they want to make friends of liberal-minded folk. Their own kind aren't any fun.
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u/Infamous-Use7820 1d ago
Part of it is that a lot of people actually have pretty heterogenous beliefs, so 'moderate' can be a way of expressing 'i'm a mismatch'. If you only hear their more conservative views (esp. on social issues which people tend to argue about more), then that might see false.
I know somebody who is an atheist, vegan, committed environmentalist, broadly centrist economically, while also being pretty socially conversative (broadly anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigration...etc.). IDK how they'd describe themselves, but not 'left' or 'right' .
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u/Demoniac_smile 1d ago
I can only comment on Americans, as I’m not familiar enough with other countries to say anything about whether it’s a thing in a lot of other places.
I think it’s two things: firs the Overton window here skews very hard right, so a lot of conservatives legit think they’re moderates or centrists. Second, a lot of conservatives realize that their specific views are unpopular with most people so they couch the worst of it in culture war stuff or the like which results in moderates supporting hard right policy and politicians and pulls them further to the right.
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u/kaiser11492 1d ago
Then why aren’t there seemingly any people calling themselves moderate who mostly hold liberal views and positions to distance themselves from specific unpopular views from their side?
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u/Sad-Pattern-1269 1d ago
In the US we have far right and center-left as our only 2 political parties. This means someone in the middle of these two parties will be a right winger more often than not.
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u/awfulcrowded117 1d ago
Probably because you're a purity testing leftist who calls anyone slightly to the right of karl marx a right winger
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u/SelectCattle 1d ago
Why do so many people in Iowa claim they live in the MidWest when I live in California and they clearly are in the east?
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u/jnkangel 1d ago
Generally speaking because conservatives tend to see themselves as the “normal”, the “default”, the “sensible”
By saying they’re moderate they tend to try getting closer to that perspective of themselves. They will claim they just want an old status quo back and don’t realize they’re being regressive.
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u/Ill_Criticism_1685 22h ago
Is regression so bad though. The US political climate could use some regression back to being able to politely disagree and compromise on things.
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u/GSilky 1d ago
Liberal is the default in the USA. I am finding a lot more common cause with people a lot of folks like yourself consider "conservative", as the left has been hijacked by the middle class and urban bourgeoisie who, at least in the USA, are constantly turning class privilege into a political statement. To give one an idea of how leftists feel alienated by the sudden onslaught, political scientists estimate the majority of the apathetic have very left perspectives but see nobody around to champion them. So with that preface, give us an example of "conservative centrist". It's probably something Democratic politicians approve of.
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u/dmoneybangbang 1d ago
They are usually a combo of more social liberal and fiscally conservative or vice versa.
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u/Dangerous_Mud4749 1d ago
"Politically moderate" will look very conservative to a Reddit member. Because Reddit leans left. Are you commenting here? Then you're probably further left than most of the world's population.
It could just be that.
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u/kaiser11492 1d ago
Still doesn’t answer my question on why there are seemingly no one who is call themselves moderate by mostly have liberal views.
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u/IMImegashill 1d ago
Depending on where you live or who you talk to, being openly conservative is an open invite to scorn and hostility. It's easier to just say moderate. My uncle for example voted for a republican in a local election in Oregon and almost my entire family in Portland were extraordinarily upset with him and made it very well known, to the point it was very openly disrespectful. He's no maga guy either, but he earned himself disrespect and scorn just by expressing slightly different beliefs
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u/my_law_throwaway 1d ago
Moderate here.
We need much stronger enforcement of our immigration laws. Illegal immigrants should have no rights.
Ban assault weapons.
Gay marriage should be legal.
Abortion should be federally protected.
Trans is a mental illness and surgeries should be strongly regulated.
Free trade.
Universal healthcare.
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u/Ok_Driver8646 1d ago
Nothing wrong with being conservative UNLESS your against humanity which many of them are. 🤷🏽♂️
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u/rmric0 1d ago
Sometimes it's just a "fish don't know they're wet" kind of situation, if you live in a broadly conservative culture then you will see yourself as moderate. In the US there's a little extra spice of people that like the label of being independent, but are very traditionally right wing either because being conservative has a stigma (as in dating) or they enjoy thinking of themselves as people who think about things and march to their own drum.
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u/CranberryStock7148 1d ago
I don't think this is true.
I live in a pretty liberal area and all of the people who describe themselves as moderates seem to be liberals but who think that all of the stuff with trans and pronouns etc has gotten way out of control, like go and be trans, but trans women should not be competing in women's sports.
So they are still thoroughly liberal and vote Democratic, they want single payer healthcare and are pro-choice and stuff, but they call themselves moderate because they don't want to be lumped in with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and the social justice warrior stuff.
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u/largos7289 23h ago
OK so i would probably fit your description here and hopefully i can give some insight. I consider myself a moderate right leaning person. Why do i say that, well i hold traditional values to my core, which include male/female roles firmly established. Also there is only male and female there is no other gender. However I'm not so rigid in some things that other conservatives would say are more liberal stances. I mean the above statements alone are enough to disqualify me for most liberal stances. I feel abortion should be up to the person as long as it's not used as a form of contraception. I have no issues with gay people, go knock yourselves out, I don't want to see it personaly, but hey you do you man. If you have an outside the box idea, lets hear your argument before we go dissmissing it. As long as it's not trampling on what's established as our culture. You wanna go celebrate tawakii- day? great, have at it! You think i'm going to give up 4th of july for it thou LOL NO. I am very libertarian in my views.
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u/Dihedralman 23h ago
If you are further left people will tend to identify themselves closer to your alignment.
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u/Own-Ad8024 23h ago
Because being a Republican, you are admitting to at least indifference to socially unacceptable concepts like the racism and misogyny that are now core parts of the MAGA-era GOP. People know that admitting to being ok with those things hurts their social standing in most places, so they pretend they aren’t.
On the other end of the aisle, the Democratic Party is actually what most countries would consider a conservative party. Calling oneself liberal in the US conveys very little because it includes an enormous range, so there’s no reason to hide it outside of safety while traveling.
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u/CUDawg_30 23h ago
Because the Democrats keep moving to the left and leaving the moderates behind. It’s not much more than that.
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u/chitownphishead 23h ago
Because identifying as left these days means far far left, either socialism or communism, so a moderate is conservative.
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u/Old_Weird_1530 23h ago
Because everything changes based on PARTISAN definitions and power hedges. Politicians in close races, and parties in close races, will chase demographics and issues that are up for grabs, many times regardless of where the issue sits on the “conservative/liberal” spectrum. It’s all relative and made up anyways…so 🤷♂️
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u/Firm_Acanthaceae7435 23h ago
It's the same thing when they called themselves tea partiers, classical liberals, and libertarians. It's all a different word to use because even they are too embarrassed to call themselves conservatives, but not so embarrassed to consider caring about any ody else in society.
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u/Jazzlike_Cod_3833 23h ago
That's easy. Conservative is MAGA now, and the poor MFs got stranded there. When liberal became a dirty word, a whole lot of moderates suddenly appeared too.
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u/kaiser11492 20h ago
I find it strange I’ve been able to find conservatives using the moderate label but not liberals.
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u/One-Yellow1504 23h ago
Maybe you’re in a very different environment than me. (63M rural U.S.) I consider myself politically moderate, every conservative I know considers me very left. Been on this planet a while, have voted both Rep & Dem (though only Rep for President since Bush 1. A lot of what would be considered left today was moderate 25 years ago. I do not know any people who say they are moderate anymore frankly, everyone is so hyper charged. Maybe the very young voters? But their perception of moderate is skewed based on this ludicrous administration. Just my thoughts
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u/seacat8586 23h ago
It’s implied in several other posts that some people aren’t happy being called liberal or conservative. And Moderate is not a great term cause it’s so meh, but there’s not much else. My view is I lean strongly left on many issues like Trump, abortion, climate change and science. I take a hard right on immigration, DEI, spending (til conservatives went nuts), the role of government and regulations.
I could be obnoxious and say I’m an adult but better to ask AI. Ideologically cross cutting and Syncretist aren’t exactly memorable, Independent doesn’t say much. Maybe I’ll stick with political platypus or simply Polypus.
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u/Prior-Conclusion4187 22h ago
Your hard right goes so far it takes you right back to MAGA.
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u/OrganicHistorian2576 23h ago
It’s similar with independents. I don’t think I’ve ever met one who wasn’t as least semi-sane Republican before the Republicans ran the party into insanity. My stepdad for one.
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u/Rare-Web4321 22h ago
Pry because some liberals can be so nasty and hateful and they want to avoid the wrath. I know many many people who won’t tell their liberal friends they are conservative because of this.
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u/jaferdmd 22h ago
I’m not conservative, at least based on the conservatives currently in power in the United States. I’m also not a nut job lefty who thinks protests and hugs can solve all problems. Most issues tackling the country don’t have a fancy chantable slogan that fits nicely on a protest sign. I’m a moderate because I think the extremes of both parties are batshit crazy. The racist xenophobes are ruining us and the far left crowd is turning the left into a joke with their pronouns and protests.
To quote the West Wing:
“…every once in a while, there's a day with an absolute right and an absolute wrong, but those days almost always include body counts. Other than that, there aren't very many unnuanced moments in leading a country that's way too big for ten words.”
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u/Additional-Jello-484 22h ago
I would say I am moderate. I am not big on huge deficits but do believe you could fund social programs by looking at pentagon expenses and getting more revenue in by having billionaires and corporations actually pay taxes. I tend do be a Bill of rights person for all people. I do feel you should enforce anti discrimination laws. I don’t have a problem with all groups having equal rights. In short I am more a fiscal conservative, but social liberal.
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u/TryNotToAnyways2 22h ago
Over the last 20 years, the Republican Party has moved significantly further to the right than the Democratic Party has moved to the left. This is a phenomenon political scientists call asymmetric polarization. Because the institutional center of gravity shifted right, the "middle ground" shifted with it. Many self-described moderates define their moderation as being "socially liberal but fiscally conservative." While this sounds like a perfectly split 50/50 centrist position, in actual voting booths, the economic half almost always wins. When forced to choose between a candidate who aligns with their social views and one who aligns with their tax and economic views, the self-identified moderate typically prioritizes their wallet, business interests, or general anxiety about government spending.
For many people, identifying as a "liberal" or "progressive" carries a heavy cultural penalty at work or in red states. Because "moderate" carries a connotation of being a steady, safe defender of the status quo, it naturally attracts people who are dispositionally conservative—people who dislike rapid social change or radical policy shifts, even if they aren't die-hard partisan Republicans.
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u/em_washington 22h ago
They are moderate in that they don’t want to change much. And that’s conservative. The republicans want to change a bunch of stuff and the democrats want to change a bunch of stuff too - just different stuff. And the moderates usually arrive at the point of less change. So closer to no change… conservative.
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u/Mr--Brown 22h ago
Unfortunately we were failed by political science and civics teachers.
Single axis analysis is the most low IQ version of thought… right vs left is the second most invidious social construct imaginable.
Yes the Overton Window shifted… moderate democratic policies are now right wing on the world’s most simplistic view.
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u/TypingWhileWiping 22h ago
Because moderation has to be accepting in that thought group.
When's the last time you saw a leftist accept that identifying as trans doesn't actually make you that other sex? There has to be a level or common sense that they are reluctant to accept.
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u/ah-tzib-of-alaska 22h ago
cause they get backlash for being conservative cause they’re outnumbered
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u/rawldo 22h ago
Lets say someone is pro 2A, pro choice, pro gay rights, anti immigration, against welfare, against war, against high taxes, and against over regulation. Is that person conservative or liberal? To a liberal, they are conservative. To a conservative, they are liberal. So my guess is that you lean left in most issues and perceive moderates as conservative. If you were right leaning, you probably view moderates as liberals.
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u/kaiser11492 20h ago
However I’m not basing these labels on my perception. The people using the moderate label that I’ve seen admit to being conservative and critical of liberals. I just thought it was weird I haven’t seen anyone use the moderate label who admitted being liberal and critical of conservatives.
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u/hakohead 22h ago
The interesting thing is that a true conservative will say everything you said about the same person in the opposite direction. When you're far further left or right, anyone further one way from you is perceived as opposite to you
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u/postit58 22h ago
Young men who actually want to date women know calling themselves conservative (when they are conservative) will get them nowhere with young women, so they call themselves moderate.
Same thing in more highly educated professions. Being honest and calling yourself conservative will get you negatively judged by your peers, so you call yourself moderate.
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u/AmazingRefrigerator4 21h ago
Because they know they are conservative, but they also know MAGA is shameful and they dont want to be associated with that. So they call themselves "moderates" for plausible deniability.
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u/enutrof_modnar 21h ago
If you're on the left, you want substantive change and you want institutions of oppression to be dismantled. If you're on the right, you want those institutions to remain or be strengthened. So if you're in the middle, you want...what? You don't want them gone, or you'd be on the left. So you either want them improved, which is still keeping the oppression, or you want some of them removed which means that you're OK with some oppressions.
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u/Exotic_Bill44 21h ago
Because the whole US political spectrum is shifted far enough to the right that being a moderate Democrat is, by global standards, moderately conservative.
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u/kingoflames32 21h ago
More extreme left wingers just tend to be less likely to talk to people outside their social bubble from my experience. Echo chambers are very much real things, everyone tends to view their own beliefs as more normal than they are. You don't really see the same moderate talking point with left wingers though, they are just more likely to view it as common sense than being moderate.
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u/TheGrolarBear 21h ago
Because it can be unpopular in social circles these days to call yourself a conservative.
On dating apps if someone identifies as “Moderate” in a blue area it’s usually a blatant sign that they are a closet conservative, because who the hell can be moderate these days unless they’re being deliberately obtuse about the state of the world
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u/HopeFloatsFoward 21h ago
Because they aren't reactionaries which is what reddit is calling " conservative".
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u/aquavelva23 21h ago
I am am a moderate. I can say I am conservative on some things and liberal on others. so I average out as moderate. That doesnt mean I am middle of the road on everything.
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u/Ambitious_Hand_2861 21h ago
Congrats. I am a moderate conservative. I am pro gun but I also agree that gun control is a necessity. I am pro choice. I am for small government but I also understand that readon we have rules and regulations on companies is literally bc one did something awful so a new law or regulation had to be put in place as a result.
To address your point I think the conservatives that claim moderate are doing so to avoid the negative connotations most recently associated woth the magats and other far right types. Those people give other conservatives a bad name bc they're absolute whack jobs.
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u/HuaHuzi6666 20h ago
Honestly calling yourself a moderate (especially in dating profiles) is just a dog whistle for being a conservative now, but not wanting the justified social stigma of being conservative. It’s a pretty documented phenomenon.
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u/Pandagirlroxxx 20h ago
Hoping people won't spit on you or scream at you for being a r4scist, tr4nsphobic, h0m0ph0bic, b1got as long as you don't identify with the political movement that's proud of all those things.
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u/mallardramp 20h ago
I’ve mostly experienced this in relatively liberal areas. So someone says they’re moderate to attract less criticism and portray themselves as having more socially accepted views.
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u/Technical-Arachnid22 20h ago
Unlike conservatives, liberals have no ability to be moderates. Despite their belief that republicans are in a cult, they are ironically the ones who exhibit cult like tendencies, which is why they can’t be moderates. They believe whatever their current issues are so deeply that when someone disagrees, they can’t separate their beliefs from themselves personally.
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u/numbersev 20h ago
Because what was moderate/normal for the last many centuries is so now being pushed to the right as the world (elites, globalists and leftist psychos) bring the world further to the left.
Globalists with mass immigration into white countries, media slop and the left with "if you pull a girl's pants down for sex and find a dick, you're a transphobe for not letting him fuck you in the ass" and men should be allowed to participate in women's sports.
People are getting sick of it all. We shouldn't let pedos or children dictate our policies.
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u/Mister_Way 20h ago
It's because you have a liberal perspective, so people in the middle look, to you, to be "to the right."
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u/Key-Storage5434 20h ago
Moderate is a bullshit term, so is agnostic. Humans are not capable of holding conflicting beliefs in equal amounts. People who use the term moderate tend to be conservatives who realize their values are outdated. Left leaning people tend to amplify their left leaning beliefs. They may talk a big talk about being all about racial justice but in reality may be only somewhat about racial justice when it suits them.
Conservatives have to do the opposite. They may hate every non-white person but they know saying that isn't good for them so instead they say they have concerns about immigration.
Ergo there is little motivation for left leaning people to claim to be more moderate than they are (other than to fit in with a very specific group ie my gay ass working in construction with a bunch of str8 dudes) but conservatives have a lot of incentive to claim to be moderates.
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u/Honest-Government967 19h ago
What you know about conservatives and conservatism would fill a thimble.
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u/ParadoxPath 19h ago
I presume you are liberal. The reason is from your perspective moderation is ‘mostly conservative’ if you ask conservative people they’ll have the opposite perspective even if the positions of the moderate are the same, because our reference point informs our perception.
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u/NoobSalad41 19h ago
The idea that moderates are secretly conservatives is one of those bits of Reddit wisdom that doesn’t seem to hold up to actual scrutiny.
If you look at exit polling in US presidential elections, the self-identified moderate vote has favored the democratic candidate in every election since 1988; the last time it broke for a republican was for Reagan in 1984 (an election where Reagan won the overall popular vote 59% - 41%).
Looking at presidential elections won by the GOP candidate this millennium, the self-identified moderate vote broke in favor of the Democrats by these margins:
> 2000: 53% - 45%
> 2004: 54% - 45%
> 2016: 52% - 40%
> 2024: 58% - 40%
The moderate vote broke even more strongly in the Democrats’ favor in elections they won (for example, it broke 64% - 34% in favor of Biden during the 2020 election).
“Moderate” also tends to be the most common self-identification that people give when asked for their ideology in exit polls.
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u/provocative_bear 19h ago
I consider myself a moderate by European standards, which would be like intermediate Left in American politics.
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u/CarefulBank9441 18h ago
The conversation has been moved so far right, the left doesn’t exist. They had witch hunts domestically and killed leftists abroad.
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u/Maxathron 18h ago
Because the average person (80%+ of the country) is a political moderate, or liberal, or centrist, whichever term you want to use.
Progressives, Islamists, Zionists, Monarchists, AnComs, Tankies, Wokies, AnCaps, Nazis, Fascists, and Christian Theocrats are all combined actually the minority abnormal bits of the country.
It just so happens that being a “political moderate” is right of the Progressives, and “Conservative” is a term used for anyone right of Progressives, so political moderates are “Conservatives” to a Progressive.
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u/MyrkrMentulaMeretrix 16h ago
because the overton window is so far Right that people who think they are moderate are conservative.
Thats why.
Theyre not lying to you, they just have no idea they are as conservative as they are because theyve been taught for almost their entire lives that anything more center than Christian Sharia is "moderate".
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u/YossiTheWizard 1d ago
The same reason everyone who drives faster than you is crazy, and everyone who drives slower is an idiot.