From a public religion/politics/philosophy/culture discussion forum run by “Ma.”; the following chat posts are excerpted:

(@joe) in Ma.’s defense, George Orwell spoke against “socialism” – in his political writings & in 1984. historical fascisms we’ve dealt with HAVE BEEN too far left; the thing to glean from this is its not the right-wing OR the left-wing we are to hate; its FASCISM we hate

(@joe) its the excess of either. when it becomes too authoritarian

(@joe) you can – & we’ve had plenty – of authoritarian left as well as rightist governments

(@Ma.) yes – orwell KNEW ‘socialism’ AND communism AND fascism
(@Ma.) he could distinguish and still condemn the heart of them all
(@Ma.) the wrong heart

(@joe) its the authoritarianism we detest

(@joe) it’s*

(@joe) does that make centrism the ultimate political position? i don’t think so – as societies change, both culturally & technologically, we need different progressive, libertarian etc policies case-by-case. sometimes we need smaller government, sometimes we need less greedy ecoomics

(@joe) economics.*

(@joe) we actually need a ‘configuration’ of conservative & liberal policies, which fit the situation on a case-by-case basis. just “nothing in excess.”

(@joe) bbl