If you're a centrist like me, you want to walk in both worlds.

People imagine a centrist as someone that is fence-sitting and avoiding taking a stance, but it's more often that we have nuanced views. We can't always take one side or the other because they're both wrong. Sometimes the left is right about something; sometimes the right is. But usually neither. It's complicated.

So as a centrist you can't have all your needs met in one world. And the dream is to be the bridge that makes people from really extreme ideologies realize that they don't need to be so averse to the other way of thinking.

Practically though, you're always punished for this in a left-wing space. At any time someone can take your center stance as evidence that you're a bogeyman. They will overreact. When other people get the whiff of "not on board with the progress," the sort of struggle session will begin. And there is no making them see, "Oh, he's actually not like that." They don't want to find that. They want blood.

Conservatives are very used to different people in their movement having different reasons for being there. The free market guy is used to having to listen to the religious guy. There are tons of examples like this. And if you say something they don't agree with, like not really having a problem with abortion, they might make fun of you briefly and call you godless or something, but it will be dropped and you'll find common ground about some other issue. They're used to that.

Maybe it's not really a difference in left or right and more about extremity. For example, I imagine the more far-right a group is, the less flexible they are. But extreme leftism is way more normalized and socially acceptable for some reason, even though it's quite destructive, so you see it take over more communities.

I'm just done with being accused of things I'm not guilty of and then becoming prey between a pod of cruel dolphins. I don't want to give people chances to ostracize me anymore because I give them the benefit of the doubt that they would never give to me.

A small company of left leaning people will be more open minded to the centrist, so you can have your needs met from that world in a more one-on-one way. But the large group is extremely dangerous and to be avoided at all costs.

If I detect leftism in a community, I am out.

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