Politically Centrist? What BS!
Dear Reader,
Politically Centrist.
In my opinion, an uglier pair of words doesn’t exist.
And I’ll tell you why, just in a minute…
You see,
I was watching an episode of “The Ranveer Show”, you know, as Indians do, and in it Ranveer claimed that he was politically centrist, as according to him, he as a media person ought to be.
And I wanted to dissect this argument, to get to know it’s substance.
Because just like everything that glitters is not gold, everything that sounds right is not so.
Now, why does he think he ought to be a centrist? What reason does he give for this alignment?
The reason he gives is — He does not want to be seen as a biased person.
Because if he, as a media person who is not the source but a conduit of information, is biased?
He won’t be very good at extracting information from the politically opposite side.
Meaning — for example, if he’s a leftist, or is seen as a leftist? (Ranveer seems to make no distinction between identifying with something, and being seen as identifying with something. Is there? What do you think?)
He will be seen as an unreliable source of information for the right wingers. For they won’t a trust a leftist to be an unbiased source.
Understandable. For two reasons.
- He wants to establish his authority as an unbiased, credible source.
- He doesn’t want to alienate half of his audience by openly leaning towards a political ideology.
Both valid reasons, I think.
But a question arises here — What does being “Politically Centrist” mean?
To me?
It can mean one of two things —
- A reactive ideology: As opposed to a proactive one.
Let me explain.
Who decides what is politically centrist?
It’s the opinion of other people.
And not that of other educated people, qualified to speak on the relevant subjects.
Rather, that of the masses.
So…
Instead of basing your ideology (which basically means set of opinions on a subject) on legitimate sources of information such as books or the opinions of knowledgeable people?
You are basing it on the opinions of masses, who know next to nothing about the subjects, let alone be able to defend their beliefs.
Your ideology is a reaction to mass opinion, rather than quality information.
In what world does this seem like a good idea?
So, say the state or some other power runs a successful propaganda that sways mass opinion to one side or the other…
The centrist position sways with it — to maintain the “unbiasedness”.
Thus, the centrist position is hardly a position.
It’s a lack of it.
2. In an ingenuine, and dare I say, deceitful way of making people believe that you are unbiased.
Because any one with half a decent mind is bound to have some sort of a set of opinions after exposing themselves to so much information over such a large period of time (“The Ranveer Show” has been going on for years now).
And while I won’t put Ranveer up there with high intellectuals, he is not a complete idiot by any means.
You see, dear reader…
The core problem is that Ranveer thinks a media person should have a centrist position, because he equates a centrist position with unbiasedness.
Which isn’t necessarily true.
You could be an extremely conservative, or an extremely liberal journalist, but still consume information and interact with people with an open mind.
That should indeed be the default manner of journalism. Or of any profession.
What’s the alternative?
“This person does not share my ideology so anything he says is disqualified by default”?
What a terribly stupid take to have.
And that’s why I think Ranveer’s claim that he is a centrist, AND his opinion that all journalists should be centrists to be trustworthy sources of info is without merit.
“But what if you actually don’t entirely agree with either the left or the right?”
No one agrees entirely with either the left or the right. Firstly, because there is no absolute left or right, there isn’t a central authority which dictates the left or the right doctrine. It’s more of a mindset.
Secondly, you probably lean more towards one than the other, which you will find after careful analysis of your thoughts on politics.
And if you have no opinions on politics? (It’s fine to not have any opinions, one can’t reasonably beexpected to have educated opinions on every subject)
Then still you’re not a centrist. You’re just uneducated on the matter.
I’ve gone on for long enough about a topic you didn’t ask.
So I’ll stop now.
Peace.
