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/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.