All the people I know who like to think about issues deeply generally hate to be described as left or right and much prefer to reject labels.
Sometimes I'm not sure they actually can't be labelled, and sometimes the difficulty in labelling them comes from an overall lack of coherency rather than a truly uncategorisable position, but, I don't know anyone who calls themselves a centrist and could talk about politics in any depth. Centrism seems mostly, at least where I live, to be what people call themselves when they just support the status quo and wish politics would go away.
I’d argue that also a centrist has an ideology. Or a non voter. The division between left and right is tempting, but ultimately fails to remind us, that most people don’t really fit into that concept of two sides ideologically
I think you're more describing libertarian or apathetic than centrist.
I always think of centrists as just not towing the party line. Some ideas on some side, some on the other. At least, that's what I mean when I describe myself as a centrist.
Unfortunately, being a centrist gets you no friends. Both sides think you're an idiot for even entertaining the other side.
In my experience, most 'centrists' just turn out to be people on the center-right who don't want the public embarrassment in their nominally liberal social circles of admitting they're on the center-right.
You seem to misunderstand centrism to such an extent that you're essentially attacking a strawman. Centrism isn't an imaginary middle-point on a spectrum between opposing ideologies. It's essentially just a pragmatic selection of various political ideas, depending on the person and their situation.
Most of the self-described "radical centrists" I've met aren't attempting to perform any sort of ideological balancing act between left and right, it's just that they simultaneously hold a particular mix of ideas from both the liberal & conservative parties in such a way as to never be able to fully side with Republicans or Democrats. They find themselves split by a zig-zagging line across so many different issues that they must reject both major parties.
For example, someone who deeply supports abortion rights and LGBTQ marriage, but also feels strongly about the 2nd Amendment might describe themselves as a centrist. Those are all strongly held beliefs and none of them occupy any middle ground. It's not intellectually lazy or morally bankrupt to hold a mix of ideas that don't fit neatly into either major party.
It's hard to assume a centrist's opinions on these things. Anecdotally, the centrists I know and talk to regularly are entirely aligned with the left on those issues.
Centrists don't pick the middle of every issue, they pick issues from both sides they agree with.
For example, a centrist may be FOR universal healthcare and AGAINST gun control. Or FOR lower taxes all around and FOR $15 min wage.
Taking each issue as it's own instead of aligning with one party or another on all issues is what a centrist is, to me.
Edit: I'm a self admitted centrist. Feel free to ask questions on my views if you'd like more info.
You're both applying a wildly subjective label whose meaning nobody can agree on. I happen to think (as a relatively centrist American living on the West Coast) that those opinions are indeed "centrist". They might count as "very conservative" in the part of the country I live in, but in many other parts they would be distinctly "liberal" (another word whose meaning has been utterly scrambled).
In general I think there's a tendency for politically engaged people to put "views I disagree with" in the "other" bin, and everyone defines "extreme" and "center" to reflect their particular idea of what the sane, morally correct opinion is. There were plenty of people on the left who seemed to think Warren (for example) was a centrist neoliberal sellout.
I don't think centrism means believing the status quo is good. Good and bad are on a different axis from left to right. A centrist can believe in a great need for improvement that doesn't involve raising or lowering taxes, expanding or reducing government budget, etc. Corruption and regulatory capture and bad foreign policy and such aren't things solved by moving left or right, generally.
I think you define "centrist" differently than I do.
Your definition seems to be "split the left-and-right down the middle." That's not the one I've heard or used.
That's okay; words are used differently in different places, but I'm not sure we're actually disagreeing as much as initial posts suggested. Most people I know who consider themselves "centrists" hold a mixture of left-wing and right-wing views. They don't just find the median opinions.
I think what you call "centrist," where I live would be called a "moderate."
The 'left' doesn't really exist as a political entity in the US. There's a centrist party (even the furthest left of center in the 'left' is merely advocating what would be considered pure centrism in more advanced countries) and a right-wing party.
Sometimes I'm not sure they actually can't be labelled, and sometimes the difficulty in labelling them comes from an overall lack of coherency rather than a truly uncategorisable position, but, I don't know anyone who calls themselves a centrist and could talk about politics in any depth. Centrism seems mostly, at least where I live, to be what people call themselves when they just support the status quo and wish politics would go away.
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