# From vitriol to violence .... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 22, 2011, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-vitriol-to-violence/568550 "2011-01-22T09:16:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2011, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-vitriol-to-violence/568550/21 "2011-01-23T16:00:41Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Cite? > > Regards, > Shodan [My thread is my cite.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=594014) ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-vitriol-to-violence/568550/22 "2011-01-23T16:26:59Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > It’s pretty well “understood” around here that the right are the evil doers and the left either don’t do it or not as much. There’s a big misconception right here. You seem to accept the right-wing dogma that America’s present division is between a “right” and a “left”. Instead (to the extent that right- and left- labels are meaningful) you have a far-right Republican norm, and a centrist (or even right-of-center) Democrat norm. “Centrist” is more or less a synonym of “moderate.” You seem to be asking why these moderates are moderate; the answer is … it’s because they’re … _moderate_. True left-wingers are easy to recognize in the American debate: they tend to regard Republicans and Democrats as equivalent. This all should be very obvious, yet even the otherwise-intelligent SDMB insists on following the FoxNews/Limbaugh lead and labeling moderates as leftists. When this is pointed out, Dopers reply, “left-wing by _American standards!_” but calling a goat a pig doesn’t make it a pig. Calling a moderate a leftist doesn’t make him one. Hope this helps, though am doubtful. 🆒 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-vitriol-to-violence/568550.md?page=1)