Oblivious to the End
The Indifferentists are not a faction. They have no coherent programme, no ideological vision, and no awareness that the liberal order in which they were formed has already collapsed. They are a population pool, the political equivalent of an untended reservoir, from which other factions draw support when it suits them.
In the liberal era, the Indifferentists were the ballast of the system: the “middle ground” voters, the “average citizens” who kept the machine stable simply by following routine. In the postliberal era, they remain where they were … only the ground beneath them has shifted entirely. The death of liberalism has passed them unnoticed.
How the Factions Use Them
- Proceduralists and Globalists fish from the Indifferentist pool during the election cycle, appealing to their lingering civic habits with slogans about “democracy,” “stability,” or “the economy.” Once the votes are counted, they are thrown back until the next campaign.
- Deconstructionists try to mobilise them against perceived injustices (climate, racism, inequality) but just as often antagonise them by politicising their entertainment, sports, and everyday life.
- Vitalists attempt to redpill them online, flooding social platforms with memes and provocations designed to shock them out of complacency and into existential crisis.
- Restorationists have no real method of addressing them collectively. Restorationism is transmitted relationally, through friendship, family, and lived example, not through mass propaganda. As a result, the Indifferentists are largely untouched by Restorationist messaging unless they personally encounter a committed believer.
Life in the Hollow Centre
For the indifferentist, life in the so‑called “centre” is neither a position of conviction nor of stability. It is the inheritance of a political order that assumed consensus could be maintained by balancing extremes. But in a postliberal climate, where rival factions are defined by metaphysical divergence rather than policy nuance, the “centre” has lost its substance.
To proceduralists, the centre still carries nominal value — a myth of moderation that legitimises procedural management of society. Yet for the indifferentist, who lacks deep allegiance to any metaphysical pole, the centre is not a safe ground but an empty ground. It offers neither the clarity of belonging nor the energy of conviction, only the illusion of neutrality.
This hollow centre leaves the indifferentist vulnerable. With no durable frame of reference, they drift between narratives, reacting to events rather than shaping them. They may borrow language from proceduralism, or gestures from deconstructionism or globalism, but without adopting the underlying metaphysics, their stance collapses when tested. What was once a consensus position has become, in practice, a condition of dispossession.
What the Death of Liberalism Means for Them
For the Indifferentists, the end of liberalism was not experienced as a dramatic collapse, but as a slow and ongoing erosion of normality:
- Laws and customs are changing in ways they do not fully understand.
- Their freedoms are shrinking incrementally, justified by emergencies they barely register.
- Their culture has become unrecognisable, but they continue to accept each change as “just the way things are now.”
By the time they realise how much the ground has shifted, it will be far too late for them to meaningfully choose a side. They will be swept along by whichever faction gains control of the systems they still trust.
The Indifferentists are the sleepwalkers of the end of history. Not rebels, not reformers, but passengers on a vessel whose captain is long gone. They do not know where they are going, only that the motion continues. And as long as the lights stay on and the feed keeps scrolling, they will not ask why.