Being a moderate is an act of rebellion

Have you ever been pulled into the culture war at home or online? Some people right now may be experiencing the full force of the culture war at home in their town, or worse, at their children's schools. I'm lucky in a sense, it's only online for me. I live in a small coastal town in the UK, and anything culture related takes years to drip down to us. Half of the town think's we're still living in the 1800's, queue farmer jokes.

One of my greatest memories of a massive co-joining of people was around 2011 when the Occupy Wall Street movement started. I remember watching it from afar. It didn't matter if you were black or white, rich or poor, Asian or Hispanic, this movement was for YOU, and it included everyone. It was about the fast-growing economic imbalances between the mega-rich and the poor. I was a proud human around then, that we could almost settle our differences to achieve the greater good.

It failed though, and not because it was a failure; many people still remember this movement 12 years later today as if it were yesterday. It was when the populous stood up and drew a line underneath it all and said, no more. But like all movements that gather significant movement it came to abrupt end, and mainly because it had no direction, no goals or aims to achieve, no-one really knew what they wanted, neither did the corporations that were being attacked. It was a large expression of unhappy people that were just that -- unhappy.

Nothing was changed in the end. Not much policy, or control, and everything slowly etched back together like it used to be after the protesters were forcibly removed by police and we all went about our business as if it was a normal day.

Things have changed since then though. Fast forward twelve years and we live in a massively divided world. It is now join a cause and fight, be a resistance fighter, be a rebel! Speak truth to power, crush the opposition. We have gone from mostly joined in our beliefs, to separated in them.

Original animation from Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (October 2017).

A lot has happened since 2011 that we don't shine a light on. I remember my friend proudly showing me his iPhone in 2008, pushing his hands through the apps and all the cool things he can access through his internet connection via the phone. This was a man, that only 5 years earlier thought he could buy his wife a PC and then it would get old. Computers would never catch on. And yet here we are, gone from a hobby the guys with big foreheads and massive black fishbowl glasses partake in, to where all the cool kids are at.

2011 was also the time that Facebook worked out they could "manipulate" their audience, and it was only a year after that (or thereabouts) that the CIA and other shady three letter organisations dug their claws into the behemoth that social media was becoming.

If you were like me, and were using social media to profit then you would have realised that not long after this, strange things started happening with our audiences. No longer were you able to reach everyone on your business feed, and your personal feed was shortly cut thereafter. Suddenly the game changed from creating a loyal fanbase and getting them excited, to having to pay to connect to your audience. It was about then I zoned out from traditional social media because it was becoming too corporate and pricey just to reach several of your own fans.

Analysing the blanks through this I also realised an important issue. It wasn't that I was not able to reach my fanbase anymore for free, but there was now a massive gaping hole where content should be that they were not serving to anyone, anymore. They sure as hell weren't going to fill it with ads, that would just kill off their audience. So what were they going to do?

That's when it hit like a lightbulb, eureka I thought! They can now manipulate and control the discussion, they can allow you to see what they want you to see, and throttle content they no longer want you to see. At no point in human history was anyone able to control the general public's discussions but now they can, and it's quite frightening since most people still use social media -- hell, I will even share this via social media.

This is where the echo chambers truly began. I don't mean your in real life friend group where you all share the same thoughts, ideals and ideas, no, because there was always going to be someone in the group that disagreed, and we knew that was okay. Now though, social media has changed the game and ramped up the pace. We all exist in this weird sort of reflection bubble that anything slightly out of the perceived narrative floats in there then it irks us more than a bit.

That is when we will see the biggest differences. The Polarisation of culture. No longer are we moderately mixed with people with different mindsets but we actively seek out to avoid them, which is quite a different situation from 30 years ago. It has been put forth that social media is destroying families, relationships and communities - but the tech giants do not give a flying fuck what you think. There's money to be made and that's all there is to it.

Normally of course we'd happily wave off extremist views as the craziness that they are, but sadly as we get more and more into our bubbles and actively seek out to stay away from different people and opinions then the more appealing views that are similar in thought but tilting us slowly further towards the extreme side of the fence.

So to recap on what I've just said, social media is pulling us further and further away from being at one with each other and destroying our communities.

Now, don't get me wrong I'm not one of those peace loving hippies that walk around saying John Lennon's imagine was the greatest ever song to be written and we should all run around in the summery hills holding hands, no. I do understand that conflict is necessary to resolve issues and to create forward momentum with anything. But I do think we are better working together in some form than working apart.

It's become far easier to pick a side and be angry than just stay neutral. It's like I said in the title that to be a moderate is an act of rebellion in a world that tries to put you in a hole and have you fight the other team for whatever reasons.

People have always said to me that you have to fight for something, else you're fighting for nothing. My mother and I argue about this quite a bit. It's like the Internet doesn't understand being a moderate. It's not that I don't want to get involved, it's more so that I see valid points on both sides of the aisle. You can't fight with either side when you know both sides have legitimate gripes.

I understand the social safety net, treating everyone with respect, marginalised people, racism, prejudice and all the things the left fight for, but on the flipside I understand the right too, I get why they don't get identity politics, or unlimited spending, or having a well trained Police force, I absolutely get all this -- so it becomes harder to fight when you've spent the latter half of a decade trying to understand "people" and their needs.

Bottom line though we all want the same things. To be loved, respected, be in a loving family, and wider community, and to have our thoughts and ideas validated. That's it.

The powers that be know this though and that's why they create hairline narratives that seem small but actually split movements apart into wide chasms. Take a look at this College Humour YouTube video to see what I'm talking about from a seemingly powerful speech, to unite everyone in desperate times:

Which is the reason I remain moderate. I refuse to be sucked into this endless he said, she said narrative that we have going on in the mainstream right now.

Probably why you'll find me with the crypto-bros away from mainstream where it's peaceful and we seem tolerate each other!

posted on my blog here: https://learnisart.com/being-a-moderate-is-an-act-of-rebellion/