Why Everything Feels So Extreme

By the Editors of Can’t Be Censored TORONTO – June 26, 2025 Scroll through your feed. Flip on the news. Try talking politics at a dinner party. It doesn’t take long to notice something: everything feels polarized. Left or right. Good or evil. You’re either on the “right side of history” — or you’re a threat to it. The centre, once the place where ideas met and compromises were made, seems to have vanished. This isn’t just a feeling. Political research confirms the trend. Across North America and Europe, voters are clustering on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. Consensus is out. Containment is in. The language of negotiation has been replaced by the language of war — literal and cultural.

So how did we get here?

One explanation lies in technology. Social platforms reward outrage. Algorithms are built to amplify engagement, and nothing engages like conflict. Moderation rarely goes viral. But a takedown, a meltdown, or a cancellation? That’s instant reach. Another factor is institutional distrust. From public health to media, the pandemic deepened existing cracks. People who once leaned on the system began questioning it. Some drifted right. Others veered left. Few returned to the middle. Then there’s the death of shared facts. In an age where each political tribe has its own news sources, experts, and narratives, the possibility of agreement narrows. If you can’t agree on the problem, how can you possibly agree on a solution? Politicians, for their part, are leaning into the divide. Identity-based appeals, wedge issues, and manufactured outrage now dominate campaign strategy. Parties no longer try to win over the middle — they rally their base and demonize the rest. But this shift doesn’t reflect where most people actually are. Poll after poll shows a silent majority stuck in between. They want real solutions, not slogans. They’re tired of purity tests and ideological litmus strips. And they’re looking for voices — and platforms — that leave room for nuance. The extremes get the airtime, but they don’t own the future. The centre isn’t gone. It’s been shouted over. Written off. Even mocked. But beneath the noise, there’s a growing appetite for balance — not blandness. For reason — not retreat. For spaces where tough conversations can happen without requiring total allegiance to a side. That’s what Can’t Be Censored was built for. In an era of extremes, we’re here to ask: What happened to the middle? And more importantly — how do we get it back?