Thing makes you uncomfortable? Don’t want to think about it? “Politics”.
As a coping strategy it is a thing to behold. It lets you just coast along and anything that doesn’t instantly strike you as agreeable or might threaten previous information, “Politics”, and you can just ignore it. Until something impacts you directly, and then you’re being singled out and can be outraged, or at least disgruntled. But that’s just your personal issue, there’s no systemic problems, that would be… the bad word.
“Those” people want to be treated like people and be able to marry and have rights? “My party’s candidate” is having bad stuff said about him? The local aquifer has been running a yearly deficit? Students are yelling about something?
They tricked us into thinking that politics was a taboo topic in America. Politics has been so batshit the past few years though, that sentiment has evaporated. We just can’t help but talk about politics all the time now. I imagine a much more politically aware America in 5 to 10 years time if we survive that long.
It’s taboo because they’re uncomfortable justifying their positions, at least to others, because if they expand on those positions they have to apply labels they don’t like to themselves, and that sucks.
The root word of politics is just “city”. Politics is just matters being discussed in the city/population. Everything intrapersonal is politics. Ignoring it, making it a dirty word, is sticking their head in the sand because evaluating things is hard, and if they let the logic of their positions play out it ends up in a bad place. But that can’t be true because they’re a good person. So “politics” must be the problem.
In my new community [email protected], apoliticism is banned. I think that should be the norm. If you join a book club or a queer collective or go to a bar, there should be a sign up on the wall saying no apolitics. Spaces that tolerate apoliticism should be rare. You should have to put in effort to seek them out.
The trick is “Politics” has become a dirty word.
Thing makes you uncomfortable? Don’t want to think about it? “Politics”.
As a coping strategy it is a thing to behold. It lets you just coast along and anything that doesn’t instantly strike you as agreeable or might threaten previous information, “Politics”, and you can just ignore it. Until something impacts you directly, and then you’re being singled out and can be outraged, or at least disgruntled. But that’s just your personal issue, there’s no systemic problems, that would be… the bad word.
“Those” people want to be treated like people and be able to marry and have rights? “My party’s candidate” is having bad stuff said about him? The local aquifer has been running a yearly deficit? Students are yelling about something?
“Politics”.
They tricked us into thinking that politics was a taboo topic in America. Politics has been so batshit the past few years though, that sentiment has evaporated. We just can’t help but talk about politics all the time now. I imagine a much more politically aware America in 5 to 10 years time if we survive that long.
It’s taboo because they’re uncomfortable justifying their positions, at least to others, because if they expand on those positions they have to apply labels they don’t like to themselves, and that sucks.
The root word of politics is just “city”. Politics is just matters being discussed in the city/population. Everything intrapersonal is politics. Ignoring it, making it a dirty word, is sticking their head in the sand because evaluating things is hard, and if they let the logic of their positions play out it ends up in a bad place. But that can’t be true because they’re a good person. So “politics” must be the problem.
In my new community [email protected], apoliticism is banned. I think that should be the norm. If you join a book club or a queer collective or go to a bar, there should be a sign up on the wall saying no apolitics. Spaces that tolerate apoliticism should be rare. You should have to put in effort to seek them out.