What is Nuanced and what is Absolute?

Friends, This is a REALLY long message. I kind of apologize for that, and kind of not. (You'll see why.)

I'm super protective of Majority in the Middle's objectivity, so if there's a chance that something I say will negatively affect the brand, I usually don't say it. Today I'm taking the chance.

I'm taking the chance because I'm hearing from leaders, individuals and associations who don't know what to say. Comm's professionals aren't putting together statements for their brands because they don't know how to distill down a whole lot of nuance into something that meets a brand standard. Their risk tolerance for being misunderstood is too low. So they're being quiet. (I get it. I will likely get both "yes!" and hate mail in response to this message.)

We promote "Two Things Can Be True at the Same Time." We pass out "I heart nuance" buttons at events. We elevate there being 14 sides to every story. We don't just look for 10 words -- we want the next 10, and the next 10 after that. We think complexity is important, and social media simplification does our democracy more harm than good.

Nuance is why it's hard to craft a message meeting this moment.

My Dad was in law enforcement for the vast majority of his career. I support law enforcement. And when I really examine why, it's because of my love for the Rule of Law.

The Rule of Law is one of the core ideas that makes America America. It’s the promise that no one — not a citizen, a company, or an elected official — gets to operate contrary to the standards we’ve collectively agreed to. That consistency allows us to function: people can participate because we trust those common agreements. The rule of law doesn’t guarantee perfect outcomes, but it creates stability. Without it, we don't trust our institutions or each other.

Part of having a Rule of Law, is having law enforcers. There are people among us who break the rules. (We all do -- check out We Are All Criminals.) Some more egregiously than others. So having people who enforce the law is part of the deal.

But, like my Dad says, nobody hates a bad cop more than a good cop.

That's probably true for a lot of professions, right? Bad teachers, bad clergy, bad lawyers, etc. -- the good teachers and clergy and lawyers struggle with having to differentiate. 'I'm not one of THOSE."

But law enforcement done badly is a special kind of threat to our system.

Law enforcement done badly blurs the line between legitimate authority and unchecked power. When done well, officers aren’t just enforcing laws -- they’re modeling what it looks like to follow them. It’s what allows communities to trust that actions taken are fair, accountable, and rooted in shared standards rather than individual whims. Without this, enforcement becomes unpredictable — and trust becomes impossible.

(You could also say the same thing for Journalism. Actual journalism -- independent, accurate, ethical, editorially controlled -- done well gives us the information we need, in a format that can be trusted. But when people pretend to be journalists without the safeguards, we get careless, partisan, and manipulative messages that prioritize shaping outcomes and driving clicks. Journalism done badly also erodes trust instead of expanding it.)

Right now, federal agents are not demonstrating law enforcement done well. Some are acting outside of their authority and jurisdiction. They are using heavy-handed tactics. Their uniforms and masks means they're sometimes hard to identify as legitimate law enforcement -- and even when their body armor says POLICE their norms of behavior are not aligned with what we're used to from local law enforcement officers. And on Wednesday, one of them killed a woman.

At the very top of our Rules of Law are our Constitutional Rights. When constitutional rights and due process are violated, Americans rightfully get very upset. Its difficult to credibly argue that an operation where Life and Liberty are being denied is sticking to the standards we’ve collectively agreed to. When US citizens can't be sure that our rights aren't going to be violated by our own government, that's a problem.

Law enforcement done badly also puts good law enforcement at risk. I give a lot of credit to members of our local police departments who are trying to keep people safe (in some cases safe from federal agents) and to make sure that our first amendment rights are able to be expressed in a way that doesn't run afoul of the law. Messages like "this is what you can do in protest, and this is what you can't do" are helpful to clarify boundaries.

So when I say, "I support law enforcement" that support - obviously - doesn't extend to violation of constitutional rights. But to avoid being misunderstood I avoided posting anything about National Law Enforcement Appreciation day. Every other year I do, and I take for granted that people understand I support GOOD law enforcement, not bad law enforcement. But on Friday I didn't post anything. And I struggled with that.

And now you can see why I kind of apologize for the long message and kind of don't: Because nuance takes a lot of words to communicate.

So the situation is complicated. And I haven't even mentioned inflammatory rhetoric from elected officials; leaders who rushed to pre-judge the innocence of the ICE officer and the guilt of the woman who was killed before a full independent investigation is conducted; and social media and AI that's making it harder and harder to believe what we see on the internet. (The dinosaur, for the record, is not AI.) So obviously, we have work to do.

I write all of this to say... there are some things that our country is struggling with are absolutes, and others are nuanced. I think that's why some of us are feeling so frustrated. Absolutes being willingly and obviously violated makes us angry. And we also know that not everything is an absolute, so that makes us confused. And confused and frustrated and angry sometimes lead to feelings of helplessness.

So if you're feeling frustrated and helpless, know that you're not alone. However you're dealing with those feelings is up to you. If you're participating in protests, or writing to elected officials, or scared and keeping your head down, or just focusing on the other people in your life, I'm not going to judge. We all have to make the best decisions for our own situation.

I don't have the answers (yet) but I'm not giving up. I can tell you this: I'm not letting go of hope. I'm not letting go of community. I'm trying to show up in the way that feels authentic for my situation and my job. And I still don't entirely feel like I'm doing enough.

Majority in the Middle is going to continue to lead the way we know how: giving those in the middle a place to gather (more on that below), elevating voices of people who are modeling behavior we want to see, and working on ways to bring a little more civility and a little less partisanship to our politics.

To the leaders reading this: now is your time to exhibit the behavior we want to see. To say the things that need to be said. To spend your political capital. Don't be so busy trying to keep your job that you forget to do your job. Voters - pay attention. It'll be up to you next, to reward that bravery or give responsibility of leadership to someone else.

Do brave things,

Shannon

Shannon Watson

Founder & Executive Director

p.s. If you think I'm wrong, do me a favor. Don't just delete the email. Tell me why. Let's have a conversation. I'm open to it and I hope you are too.

This was originally published in the Majority in the Middle newsletter. To subscribe and get the content sent to you, sign up here.