What Happened to the Middle?
We’re too busy hating to realize how much we have in common
Thoughts from comedian/writer Matt Ruby. Want more? Sign up here to get my newsletter.
Every morning I wake up and meditate for 20 mins and then I check Twitter. Lately, it feels like these two things are battling each other. Twitter is filled with rage, anger, and disgust. Meanwhile, my guided meditation dude keeps telling me to feel compassion, empathy, and to notice whenever my own instinct to blame others pops up and to try to look in the mirror instead.
I guess that’s why I liked seeing this Patton Oswalt quote recently: “Take someone like Ann Coulter, who is so hateful. If you just take three steps back, you can see trauma, loss, frustration. It’s not that she’s mean; it’s that she’s hurt. If you look at how Trump and his siblings were raised, what we’re seeing is the tail end of his having been hurt his whole life. His whole life since his childhood has been about vengeance and lashing out.”
I just see a bunch of hurt people on both sides. Even these alt-right flakes. Imagine how awful their lives must be to think their tiki torch nonsense is the answer.
But it feels like compassion is dead. Look, I know hate feels good. Lashing out. Yelling at Tina Fey. Punching Nazis. Saying you’re sick and tired of the “understand Trump voters” articles. Hoping 45 goes blind by staring at the sun. But it’s all just creating a feedback loop of anger and tribalism.
There’s no space in the middle anymore. There’s no more nuance. The media shows us a choice of alt-right or antifa. And I see that and think, “What’s the name for people who are both anti-fascist and anti-violence?” Because I gotta think that’s the majority. But there’s no alt-middle. We pay lip service to the ideals of MLK and Gandhi and yet when push comes to shove…
If we stopped all the enemy-bashing for a minute, all these factions might realize how much they have in common: They feel left behind. They feel the game is rigged. They feel like no one’s on their side. They feel the government is broken and only serves the wealthy. They feel like their victimhood isn’t noticed enough. Everyone’s crying out in pain because our system is broken.
Pick the right fight. You really wanna fight racism? Screw these militia mooks looking for their 15 minutes in a Vice doc and start fighting voter suppression laws and mass incarceration. That’s where the real damage is happening.
Follow the money too. The media monetizes all this rage so it’s great for them. And the stock market’s been a straight line going up for years now. Hedge fund managers are doing just fine. As long as we keep fighting each other, the 1% and multinational corporations keep laughing all the way to the bank.
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