Politically Homeless - The Middle Does, In Fact, Not Exist

Real people, real letters, real problems, no solutions.

Politics these days have become so divided and divisive that it’s become the norm to view the other side of the aisle as “the enemy”. People are being told to “pick a side” and that there’s no room for middle ground. We here at Phetasy believe that there are a lot more people in the middle than politicians and the media would have us believe.

We’re collecting stories from the ever growing number of people who are finding themselves Politically Homeless and posting them here on Substack. If you have moved from conservative to liberal, or liberal to conservative, if you feel you’ve stayed in the same place and your party has swerved drastically away from you, if you had a moment that awakened you to the insanity and hypocrisy on both sides, if you keep your mouth shut anytime a political topic comes up because you’re afraid your opinion will cause you to lose friends or your job, you’re not as alone as you might think.

Our goal is to shine a light on people’s earnest, individual experiences and show them they’re not alone.

Some letters have been edited for clarity and brevity. If you’re politically homeless and would like to share your story, please email us at iampoliticallyhomeless@gmail.com. All submissions will remain anonymous.

Letter 32:

12/21/22

In 1938 total aircraft production in the US was maybe 3000. By 1945 the US, with Rosie the Riveter, built 300,000 airplanes. 7 years, 300 000 airplanes, in a Democratic Republic of all places—clearly the unrivaled force on the planet. One of those planes flew my Dad’s family from isolated West Berlin to safety in West Germany when Russia locked everything down.

I learned English from Democracy now, NPR and the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour after arriving in the US some 30 years ago. 

The first cracks in the veneer appeared for me with the OJ trial. On a day off from work I watched deliberations for that whole day. The subsequent evening news announced: ”Another emotional day in court….” That seemed strange. I  had seen a lot of dry information about genetic evidence and a (questionable) chain of custody. I thought: ”Miss-aligned incentives? incompetence? sensationalism?” 

In 2001 I noticed the lies of war. With very few exceptions, all news outlets lock-step used the exact same words. That had to be propaganda. I was on the fence for a little: There are rough characters in the world, maybe sometimes…..means justify the ends? 

Then it turned out the war was started under false pretenses and defense contractors who failed to feed troops or provide proper armor were nevertheless getting rich without consequence. The news coverage at the time was no longer the result of incompetence. It seemed that all sources of stories in the world had become propaganda instruments. 

Blue team picks a certain lineup of stories and red team picks a very different lineup of stories. They don’t lie as much as ignore, shadow ban. The middle does, in fact, not exist: if you are blue team then you think red team is trying to boil the planet with bonfires consisting of marginalized communities and oil, if you are red team you are convinced blue team is preparing the ground for fascist mass murder and mass starvation by poisoning all kids with ideology, destroying all economic prospects and outright killing babies. Middle ground just is cyanide in moderation—still poison. So the “assumed middle” tolerates the respective extremists because it has no ideological ground.

My neighbors perfectly represent this development: on one side is the retired educator hovering over his elk on the other side the retired pipeline engineer practicing with his AR. When one says: “my body my choice” he means a pregnant woman’s choice.  When the other says it, he means don’t experiment on me with jabs. Though both are excellent citizens with plenty of service to country and community during their lifetime, they don’t speak the same language. Their language map has been altered to the point that they live in radically different, incompatible worlds, serve radically different Gods and are nearly incapable of communicating. They both technically speak and were raised in American English. 

At this point, I have to conclude that propaganda with malicious intent is at work. A current example are the latest “Twitter papers” It’s a Tower of Babel scenario. It will weaken and displace the most powerful empire the world has ever seen or may be a symptom of decline.

Does great power carry within itself the seed of its own destruction? Can we blame natural law, or human nature or fate or Gods or History for this? In the end, on this side of the planet, we are the ones doing and tolerating this with willful ignorance. 

Sincerely,

Politically Homeless

Some letters have been edited for clarity and brevity. If you'd like to share your story, email us at iampoliticallyhomeless@gmail.com. All submissions will remain anonymous.