“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”

— Obi-Wan Kenobi, Revenge of the Sith

It’s meant to be a warning. A line meant to divide the wise from the fanatical.

But in today’s world, that line might as well be directed at half our political culture. The tragedy? It's aimed in the wrong direction.

Because it’s not conservatives who live in absolutes; it’s the modern Left.

And in an ironic twist no Hollywood screenwriter saw coming, it’s conservatives, the very group once accused of clinging to tradition, who are now most likely to say: “Hold on. Let’s think this through.”

Let’s start with an analogy:

Imagine your neighbor’s house is on fire. The family is trapped inside. You rush over with a hose, adrenaline pumping.

But before anyone acts, a progressive activist steps in:

 “Wait, before we help, does this family support climate action? Did they wear masks during COVID? Are they intersectional enough?”

That’s the world we’re living in.

The conservative says, “Get the family out.”

The modern Left says: “Depends who they are.”

It’s not about outcomes anymore. It’s about allegiance. And that makes gray thinking so dangerous to them because it doesn’t guarantee the correct answer. It only guarantees an honest one.

Fredrik Backman’s book, "Beartown," portrays a town obsessed with tribal loyalty. The local hockey hero sexually assaults a girl named Maya. The community doesn't just look away. They actively rename her.

“So when night comes, and the truths spread, no one types ‘Maya’… they type ‘M.’ Or ‘the young woman.’ Or ‘the slut.’”

“It starts with ‘she wanted it’ and ends with ‘she deserved it.’”

Sound familiar?

Today, people are canceled before they're heard and judged before facts are gathered. If you question the narrative, you're not skeptical: you're evil.

Backman again:

“The easiest way to unite a group isn’t through love… hate is simple.”

And the mob loves simplicity.

It’s why conservatives, though often caricatured as rigid, are actually showing more flexibility than their critics because they’re the ones still bothering to ask questions.

Sowell’s wisdom cuts through emotion like a knife through warm butter. One of his most brutal truths:

“There are no solutions. There are only tradeoffs.”

That’s gray thinking. It accepts imperfection. It knows human nature is messy, flawed, and conflicted.

The Left today doesn’t deal in tradeoffs. It deals with demands.

Defund the police, then act shocked when crime rises.

Affirm every identity, then silence women who speak up about fairness in sports.

Lockdown schools, then wonder why kids are suicidal.

Conservatives, by contrast, say:

“What’s the goal? What’s the cost? What works?”

President Ronald Reagan, often miscast as overly ideological, actually embodied nuance when he said:

“Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things.”

You don’t get that freedom when you live in absolutes. When every debate is moral, every policy is existential, and every dissent is treated like treason.

Gray allows failure.

Gray allows redemption.

Gray allows a second thought.

And the modern conservative base, from truckers to farmers to small-town pastors, gets that. 

They’ve lived through hard times. 

They’ve worked through contradictions. 

They’ve paid the price for getting it wrong.

Here’s another analogy:

Society is a speeding bus. The Left is at the wheel, shouting, “Faster! Equity is ahead!” But they haven’t checked the map. And the brakes.

The Right isn’t perfect, far from it, but they’re the ones saying:

“Hey, there’s a cliff up there.”

Sometimes, they say it gruffly. Sometimes awkwardly. But they say it. Because they’re not obsessed with being seen as morally enlightened, they’re obsessed with not crashing the bus.

Jordan Peterson said it plainly:

“Ideologies are substitutes for true knowledge, and ideologues are always dangerous when they come to power.”

Today, one side trades in ideology. The other in caution.

And the caution is starting to look wise.

“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”

The irony? That’s an absolute.

The Jedi, who taught balance, restraint, and thoughtfulness, contradicted themselves with one line. Much like modern liberals, who preach tolerance and inclusion… right until you say something they don’t like.

Then the lightsaber comes out.

And in the culture war that followed, it’s conservatives who have become the rebels, the ones defending nuance, freedom of speech, and the right to try without being destroyed.

The gray space is where we wrestle with truth, allow questions, and think before we punish.

That’s where the conservative lives now, not in slogans but in discussions, not in purity, but in pragmatism.

That’s not a weakness. 

That’s grown-up thinking.

And it's rare.

Fredrik Backman wrote:

“It doesn’t take long to persuade each other to stop seeing a person as a person.”

That’s the danger of absolutes. You stop seeing people. You start seeing symbols. Enemies. Infidels. Targets.

Let the Left have their absolutes.

Let them demand fealty.

Let them live in fiction.

Because the rest of us, the ones who still believe in people, are staying right here.

In the gray.

Where truth lives.

Unelected bureaucrats are shaping your life more than your elected officials. That’s not democracy, that’s D.C. tyranny.

Help PJ Media expose it. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to save 60%.