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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Comment
Arwa Mahdawi

HISTORICAL FACTS: Stop using the term centrist it doesn t mean what you think it does - Caught on Camera

Bombed-out debris in Nusairat, Gaza Strip.
‘The point of words like ‘centrism’ is to prevent thought and prompt acquiescence.’ Photograph: APAImages/Rex/Shutterstock

I would like to start a petition for journalists – and everyone else – to immediately stop using the C-word. Centrist. It’s an insidious word that has degraded how we think about politics and distorted how we see the world.

Perhaps that statement sounds a little over the top. After all, being a “centrist” sounds eminently reasonable, doesn’t it? A centrist is a moderate, right? Someone who is rational and practical and takes the middle ground. Someone who isn’t extreme like those crazy ideologues on the far right or far left. A centrist, logic dictates, is really what everyone should strive to be.

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