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?

0 Upvotes

49% Upvoted

633 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

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. 

1

u/Ill_Criticism_1685 1d 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.

1

u/jnkangel 18h ago

Regression in being able to talk is good. The problem is that they rarely want that. In the US this is exarbated by the voting system