I get it. You’re waiting for the clear moment when you should choose a side. But that moment will never come. You’re going to see conflicting information on both sides, forever. Over the long course of WW2, plenty of folks never explicitly chose a side. Many in the occupied countries didn’t even think they were choosing a side, even as the atrocities happened in their own backyard. As long as it didn’t affect them, they were content to watch and hope it never would.

In the face of all that evil, folks didn’t want to believe it. Humans can convince themselves of anything, especially if it’s so they can keep living their lives without worries. Conflicting information and propaganda is no excuse for apathy, it will always exist.

So what’s going to get you off the sidelines?

Because if not now, when?

Because if not this, what?

A while back I happened upon a Noam Chomsky interview about the world we’re living in today, and ever since then a particular section of his words have stuck with me. They come back to me, day in, day out. Let me share them with you:

“You have to ask yourself, in each circumstance, what are the consequences of your decisions? If you don’t do that, you’re not a moral human being. Now you’re perfectly right that every monster you can think of in history has declared that whatever acts they’re going to carry out are for humanitarian reasons. Now, if you have a brain functioning, what you do is ask is this correct? Or isn’t it correct?” - Noam Chomsky

So ask yourself, regardless of the words that are spilling out on each side, which actions actually match up with the words? Because words are empty, they’re signals of things, not the actual thing. Regardless of who’s saying them, me included, you have to think about what the reality is.

There is no definite sign, no sudden realization, no messenger from above. You are the messenger. If you think someone’s going to hand you a “this is what you should support and believe” card that you can follow, I’m sorry, life doesn’t work that way. You’re going to make mistakes in what you support in your life, but that’s okay, mistakes can be corrected. The point is, look at the information, think about it, really think about it, and choose your side. Because being on the sidelines is in fact choosing a side.

No clear moment will ever come. So ask yourself, what’s wrong with this one?