Painful Truth Medicine: I Helped Create the Political Mess I Hated

I’m going to say something that’s hard to admit, and I think more of us need to say it out loud.

I’m on the left. I used to be very strongly left. And around 2015, I went off the rails. I treated politics like war. I talked like the other side was made of bullies, or ignoramuses, or people who “must be bad” to vote the way they voted.

And here’s the part that still makes me wince:

I didn’t convert anyone. Not one person.
What I did do was harden people.

I know, for a fact, that some people in my life who were more independent, people who didn’t always vote, people who didn’t live and breathe politics, got pushed by my tone. They didn’t become more curious. They didn’t become more open. They became more defensive, more hostile, more committed to “their side” out of sheer reaction.

I created more of what I hated.

That realization was disheartening in a way I can’t fully describe. Because the whole point, at least the point I told myself, was to “help.” But the real-world output wasn’t “help.” It was more division.

So I tried something different.

I started watching the “other side’s” news in equal amounts. If I watched an hour of left-leaning coverage, I watched an hour of right-leaning coverage. It didn’t make me agree with the right. But it did something more important:

It made the pattern impossible to unsee.

Both sides use the same hooks. The same fear triggers. The same “don’t turn the channel” adrenaline script:

• “You won’t believe what they’re doing…”
• “They’re coming for your way of life…”
• “If you don’t stay angry, you’ll lose everything…”

Different villains. Same machinery.

And when I realized that both sides were constantly training me to see my neighbors as “bad people,” something clicked, because before I got political, I already knew the truth:

Most of these people are not bad.

I have chosen family and in-laws who are conservative. I love them. I’ve watched them show up for people. I’ve watched them be generous. I’ve watched them work hard, struggle, sacrifice, and try to raise good kids. They’re not cartoon villains. They’re Americans with values, often the same values I claim to have.

So if we’re not actually dealing with a country full of monsters… what are we dealing with?

Follow the incentives.

Who benefits from a nation that’s constantly furious at itself?

It’s not the single mom trying to keep the lights on.
It’s not the guy working a trade job whose rent jumped 30%.
It’s not the small business owner drowning in costs.

The people who benefit are the ones who get richer while we’re distracted.

The donor class donates to both sides. The networks make money on outrage because outrage can be a powerful attention engine in an era where people skip ads. Political consultants make money when we’re terrified. Fundraising explodes when the other side is framed as an existential threat.

The most powerful people? The people with nine figures? The people with private jets and access? A lot of them don’t actually “care” who’s president the way the rest of us do. They care about keeping their share of the pie, and keeping us too divided to ever demand structural changes that threaten it.

And we keep doing their work for them.

That’s the part that makes me feel sick: realizing how often I’ve been the unpaid intern of someone else’s power game.

Sun Tzu didn’t need social media to understand the value of dividing an opponent. Today, algorithms can reward inflammatory content, although their effects on political attitudes vary by platform and context. That gives us another reason to question what keeps landing in our feeds.

So here’s my message to my community, especially in small towns like ours:

Your neighbors are mostly good people.

Yes, there are bad actors. On the left. On the right. In every group. That’s reality. But if we start treating the entire other half of the country like they’re morally diseased, we’ve already lost.

And this is where nuance matters:

Most Americans want criminals dealt with. Most Americans want borders enforced. Most Americans don’t want chaos.

So why are we constantly at each other’s throats?

Because we’re fighting over methods and accountability, and instead of demanding evidence and fair process, we get shoved into tribal scripts.

That’s why I’m building EDW and writing the way I do now. Yes, I lean left on many issues. But I’m done dehumanizing people. I’m done being the guy who makes the room hotter and then acts surprised when it burns down.

And I’m going to say something else clearly:

We have to reward courage across the aisle.

If a Republican leader calls for accountability or an investigation into misconduct, and it’s legitimate, I’m going to thank them publicly. Not because I suddenly became conservative, but because that’s what integrity looks like: being willing to challenge your own side when it’s necessary.

That’s the moral center we all claim to want. So we should reinforce it when we see it.

If you’re exhausted by politics, I get it. If you’ve stopped watching the news because it feels like a screaming contest, I get it.

But please don’t check out of your responsibilities to each other. This country doesn’t survive because “my side wins.” It survives because we still have enough shared reality and enough restraint to live together.

If you’ve ever felt trapped between tribes, if you want evidence over outrage, and if you want a country where disagreement doesn’t destroy relationships, stick around. We’re trying to build that corner of the internet on purpose.