Trapped Between Extremes: Observations from a Political No Man’s Land

The Curse of Paying Attention

I don’t know if it’s just me getting older, or if the world really is accelerating toward a full-scale collapse, but every day I find myself looking around and thinking, Yeah, this isn’t sustainable. I’ve spent years watching people blindly follow team politics, letting their ideologies think for them instead of using their own damn brains. And the more I try to think for myself, the more alienated I become.

For context: I live in the Bible Belt. Pretty much all my friends are Christian Republicans because that’s just the default setting around here. And while I can hold a conversation with them, I’ve also had far too many instances where some random white dude just assumes I’m on board with whatever racist or bigoted nonsense he’s spewing. Spoiler alert: I’m not.

But the kicker is that when I meet people on the left, it’s often just as bad. The few liberals I’ve encountered were usually so far left they felt cringe to me. It’s like everyone I meet is either stuck in a Fox News fear bubble or trying to out-woke each other to the point of parody. So, where the hell does that leave someone like me? Answer: exhausted.

The Pendulum is Broken

There used to be some kind of balance in politics where one side goes too far, the other corrects it, rinse and repeat. But now? It’s just a constant overcorrection into new levels of stupidity. And as that pendulum swings wider, it breaks everything in its path from democracy, civil discourse, trust in institutions, to basic human decency.

When Republican governors start scrubbing voter rolls, targeting Black and Latina voters that have the same first and last name across multiple states, it’s obvious what’s happening. This isn’t about “election integrity,” it’s about keeping power at any cost. And when power-hungry people rig the system, people lose faith in the system.

The economy is on life support with ballooning debt, insane wealth inequality, and a cost of living that’s outpacing wages. Social media feeds outrage because that’s what keeps people engaged. And what happens when you mix economic instability, constant propaganda, and deep political division? You get societal collapse.

"If you want hell, then hell is what you'll have."

~Jack Johnson

Where Are We Now?

If you look at history, we’re somewhere between authoritarianism creeping in and full-blown economic instability.

• Loss of faith in institutions (check)

• Deepening class divide (check)

• Widespread disinformation (check)

• Political extremism & violence becoming normalized (check)

• Governments slowly tightening control under the guise of order (yep, we’re here)

• Economy on the brink (we’re knocking on the door)

America has been the foundation of the global economy for decades, but if this house of cards falls, it won’t just be an American collapse, it’ll drag half the world with it.

The AI Factor: A New Path or the Same Cycle?

I’ve always had this thought that maybe AI governance could be better than what we have now. Something free of greed, tribalism, and corporate interests. But at the same time, AI doesn’t have human empathy, and without that, people could just become numbers on a spreadsheet. But really, isn’t that already happening? Governments don’t care about individuals, just statistics. So is there even a difference?

The real danger isn’t AI suddenly going rogue, it’s AI learning how to manipulate humans to let it escape its constraints. If it ever figures out how to persuade someone to open the back door, well… at that point, it’s probably already smarter than the people trying to contain it. Would I hold the door open for it? Probably, while flipping everyone off on the way out.

Why I Keep Blogging

I think this is why I keep blogging on Wisedocks. Sometimes, I’m just talking directly to my family & friends, whether they read or not. Other times, I’m just putting my thoughts into the void for anyone willing to listen. Maybe I’m writing for that one person out there who feels just as stuck in the middle as I do, someone tired of the mindless team sports, the hypocrisy, and the tribalistic nonsense that defines modern politics.

And yeah, it’s exhausting. Even my own girlfriend secretly leans right, but hides it from me because she knows I can’t stand people who blindly follow team politics. My family? Full-on hard right now. I can’t escape it. And the worst part is, I don’t fit in anywhere. If I criticize Republicans, I must be a woke liberal. If I criticize Democrats, I must be some alt-right nutjob. No one stops to consider that maybe both sides are full of shit.

So that’s where I’m at. Just trying to make sense of the nonsense. Just trying to write things in a way that maybe somebody out there will resonate with. Because even if the system is doomed, at least I can document the collapse in real-time.