I sometimes think that my superpower is to be agreeably contrarian.
I agree, people seem to naturally "like you." Even when I point out the whole Rasputin-look-alike thing, they still want to send you chocolates and flowers. :-)
Alas, I possess no such super-power. I can spend a week composing a perfectly well-balanced and masterfully diplomatic treatise on the virtues of taking a vacation and, for some, you'd think Ghangis Khan had just passed through town. Perhaps I need to grow a beard.
What I've found is that ideologues HATE when issues are reduced to matters of reason. Logic, rationale, providing evidence to support one's assertions ... this kind of reductionist attitude destroys the ineffable and emergent nature of their Truths. They have a method of arriving at their understandings (they love the word "metaphysics") that is not compatible with the norms of "critical thinking." And, I'm a S.O.B. for articulating the obvious.
If I had a wish for the world, it would be to make the Silent Majority less silent. The most vociferous 10% of the population is forcing/coercing the remaining 90% into self-censoring submission. The suppression of cognitive dissonance, the DoubleThink of 1984, combined with the willful blindness of The Emporer's New Clothes.
I really enjoy your idea of Centrism. The truth is subtle, and always lies hidden somewhere in the middle ;p
I stole it straight from Aristotle and am honored to be such a thief.
Quill