I'm a right winger, not a centrist, but I see myself as a classic or traditional Americanist. The online right is still on social media, which rewards swinging for the fences and disincentivizes contemplation. As always, the best example is Hitler. There is no attempt to make a serious argument that Hitler was a good guy, just endless posts by implication that Hitler was a good guy because he was a backlash to the Weimar and Jews. Similarly, six gorillion memes take the place of Holocaust discussion.

I have been guilty of this as much as the next guy here, but I try to follow up by reasoning out my position.

At some level, I think this happens because it's actually safer to use extreme rhetoric, which comes with a level of plausible deniability, than to construct a serious post. Also, this is a weightless discussion space where no proposal directly affects reality.

I'm a right winger, not a centrist, but I see myself as a classic or traditional Americanist. The online right is still on social media, which rewards swinging for the fences and disincentivizes contemplation. As always, the best example is Hitler. There is no attempt to make a serious argument that Hitler was a good guy, just endless posts by implication that Hitler was a good guy because he was a backlash to the Weimar and Jews. Similarly, six gorillion memes take the place of Holocaust discussion.

At some level, I think this happens because it's actually safer to use extreme rhetoric, which comes with a level of plausible deniability, than to construct a serious post. Also, this is a weightless discussion space where no proposal directly affects reality.