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 91:
February 28, 2024
Hello,
Found you through the app formerly known as Twitter.
Backstory (I’ll keep it brief):
I’m a 34 year old professional musician in Los Angeles. I was born and raised in Northern California, about an hour away from San Francisco. I would describe my families politics as liberal, but the 80-90’s liberal.
Being surrounded by leftists my whole life, I didn’t really understand the bubble I was born into. There were conservatives, but most of them didn’t talk about it too much, especially when the ol’ Dubs and Chain invaded Iraq in 2003. I went to films such as Fahrenheit 9/11, An Inconvenient Truth, and knew that I was on the right side of history.
This all changed in, no surprise here, 2020. By this time I had been in LA for 10 years, working with and being friends with, mostly liberals. It’s no surprise that the LA music scene is mostly liberal, with the only conservative musicians usually coming from the church. But when the pandemic hit, me and the whole world had a lot more time to muse (at best) online.
Now I had slowly been changing my tune on politics since the 2015 election, and noticing that everyone I knew was 100% positive that fascism had taken over, and the world was nearing its end. I’m a bit used to hyperbole in the 24 hour news fueled U.S. of A, but in LA, it’s a bit over the top. But when George Floyd died, everything changed.
I had long conversations with good, extremely intelligent friends, about the response to Floyd’s death, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Who’s to say that rioting is bad?” I had friends participate in LA protests and they knew its was ok to gather because “Racism kills more people than Covid.” These were the common rationalizations I would hear… and any disagreement turned into the common ad hominem attack against me, the straight, white male that I am. I realized that “my side” had just as much hypocrisy as the “other side”.
Through political/cultural commentators and philosophers such as Sam Harris, Coleman Hughes, The Fifth Column, Steven Pinker, Bill Maher, etc. I realized I wasn’t alone in realizing, and commenting, about what was going on. The “left” had lost its goddamn mind, it was gone, poof! Like Thanos turned everyone’s rational minds into dust.
Anyway, the next realization I had, was I couldn’t identify with any sort of political party anymore. While the extremism of the left had turned some of my friends conservative, I could only glance at right wing culture warriors such as Trump, Giuliani, Rubin, Owen’s, MTG, etc and feel nothing but disgust. I was without a tribe, and finally free from having to hold onto the cognitive dissonance of pretending that being “liberal” means you fight for liberalism. You’re just another sports team, pretending that your shit doesn’t stink, and that if your enemies say something, it has to be wrong.
The last time I checked the things that make you better take time, hard work, and an understanding of your weaknesses. American politics pretends that this is actually taboo, that holding your “side” accountable for its own bullshit actually is good for your enemies. I’m not joining democrats, but I’m sure as hell not joining republicans. Hopefully we can move on towards a better idea of how to improve our political discourse, because I view parties as cynically as most Americans view the country itself.
Oh, and that’s the last thing I can’t get with, we’ve become the United States of Cynicism. Both sides think the country is going down the dump, and yet, they can’t be more wrong. This is, arguably, the most multi cultural nation to have ever existed in human history. Somehow, we generally keep the 3rd most populous country in the world together, even when the news is always dark. I might be nihilistic about things in my own life, but America, and humanity… can be great, and I have hope.
Thanks,
I can’t wait to enjoy some laughs with you!
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.
Check your media bias. Read the news from multiple perspectives. See through media bias with reliable news from local and international sources with Ground News
I Have Hope - Politically Homeless