You must log in or register to comment.
There are no apolitical people.
Only people who don’t understand that everything is political.
When you’re stuck in traffic commuting to work, that’s a result of political decisions made by others.
When you go to work despite being sick, that’s forced on you by political decisions made by others.
When you have to decide between buying your meds and buying food, that’s due to political decisions made by others.
“Apolitical people” just accept (or are forced) to let others dictate how they live.when i poop is that political?
what if when i go to work, i sometimes drive, sometimes walk, sometimes take a bike, and sometimes take public transit, depending on the weather or my mood? does that mean my politics changes each and every day?
what if when i go to work, i sometimes drive, sometimes walk, sometimes take a bike, and sometimes take public transit, depending on the weather or my mood? does that mean my politics changes each and every day?
The fact that you even have those options, as well as the weather, are affected by politics.
when i poop is that political?
Yes, when you do it at work.
Even at home. The luxury of indoor plumbing and utilities in general are pretty firmly political.
sorry, so who i vote for affects if it’s cold or not?
If you buy the current science on global warming, literally yes. The politics of generations ago still affect us to this day, including such things as the fossil fuel industry’s massive prevalence.
OK, so I voted for harris. And it’s cold this year.
apparently my voted caused it to be cold this year.
did i vote wrong if i didn’t want it to be cold?
You’re not interested in good faith discussion, so literally fuck off!
is in good faith discussion if I start pointing out the absurdities that come from your arguments? that are massively overgeneralized?
lots of things are apolitical. most people are not thinking about politics every moment of everyday. even if you are.
Something like the climate is a centuries long process to change. Your vote moved the needle one way or the other, absolutely. But something like the climate takes generations, multiple administrations, choices, processes…
So like… You didn’t vote for it to be cold, no. You voted for a person who had a set of policies that will impact the world, moving things in a certain direction. And further, the fact that the world is as it is now is the result of all of those previous votes throughout history. You live IN politics. You are not exempt from it, your world is literally molded by it.
you are basically arguing for the butterfly effect. i open my car door, does that cause a typhoon in japan?
if i did, how could it ever be proven?
and if things are so deterministic, what is the point of making choices really?
most of us are not that important. my vote for harris did nothing to help or harm the climate or change weather patterns. i won’t be here in 50 years, let alone 500, so it climate policy is irrelevant to me.
I vote all the time. just don’t have any delusion that my vote is this big huge deal or that I’m ‘changing the world’. I also don’t care about a lot of issues, and that’s fine. I am limited being with limited time and resources and I not everything I do is an explicit endorsement of any politics. Perhaps for you it is, but for me it’s not.
Just like maybe you enjoy PB and J sandwiches, and I do not. People are different. Some people don’t ever have a PB & J sandwich in their life, and the concept doesn’t exist to them.
when i poop is that political?
The price of the toilet you use, the cost and coverage of the sewage system used to take the poop away, the question of whether or not you need to clock out of work to do that poop, what happens to the wastewater from that toilet and how your tax dollars are spent maintaining that system, are all political questions that others who had involvement with the system worked out before you, so you can shit without thinking about it and so your community doesn’t end up with cholera.
But I promise, if anyone decided to change any of that because it became apparent people “don’t really care about politics” you would notice pretty fast.
Are you pooping at work? Politics that force companies to allow you to have bathroom breaks can be thanked.
Is there a sidewalk when you walk or ride a bike? Thank your taxes and the people that pushed city politicians to install those pathways.
Like being able to take public transit? Then be glad regulations and ordinances in your city encouraged those services to be available.
Your political opinions and your thoughts on how your community and city are run, will most certainly change with regularity if you are putting in the effort to understand what can be done to improve things. And most people start with the things that affect them on the daily.
no, i don’t poop at work. is pooping in my own house a political act too?
i ride my bike in the road with cars. riding on the sidewalk is illegal and dangerous.
public transit is often falling apart where i live. it has been underfunded for 50 years. it’s very unreliable and nobody wants to fix it because that would mean raising taxes.
Pooping itself, no. Probably not political. But getting to the point where you have indoor plumbing, provided by a utility company you probably pay significantly less than the actual cost of said utility? Yeah, that’s the direct result of politics.
which politics though? is that progressive or conservative?
It’s not about sides, in this context. It’s just -political-. Whether you vote conservative, progressive, anything in between, you, me, and the whole rest of the world has to deal with that decision.
So I vote for Harris and she doesn’t win, it’s my fault she lost? and i’m personally responsible for USAID being dismantled?
You’re American, aren’t you?
Politics isn’t sports ball. Especially on a local level, it usually isn’t “us vs them”, it’s a bunch of people with different opinions about how things are supposed to be done. Politics is more complicated than red vs. blue.
Although the US “red” and “blue” parties do everything they can to convince people like you it’s that simple.
“Oh, you don’t care about politics. Your landlord does. Your boss does. Your banker does. People with a lot more money, power, and influence do. And they’re interested in what’s good for them, not you.”
Carlin right?
Paraphrased, yes
To each their own.
They think they exist, but they do not. “Apolitical” usually just means “Fine with the status quo” which isn’t apolitical, it’s at bst non-confrontational. It also tends to reek of ignorance of what’s actually happening around them. That’s all at best, there are tons of people who use “Apolitical” to push far right agendas in spaces not centered around politics.
There’s a reason the joke of “Only two races/genders/etc exist to gamers; white/male/etc, and political.” You can replace gamers with any group that’s (at least perceived to be) predominantly white men, and it still comes out.
“You can’t be neutral on a moving train.” - Howard Zinn
Idiots
Apolitical people: please I beg you just pay attention for a few minutes
“When someone tells me he is politically neutral, I always ask which politics he specifically has in mind” - Baptism of Fire (The Witcher Book 5)
i don’t understand this quote
Because politics encompasses almost everything, to be truly politically neutral would mean having no strong views on anything in life.
It’s possible to be neutral on certain topics, but to be fully neutral you’d have to have no real opinions on economics, immigration, the military, the role of religion, equality, education…
So the quote is saying you can’t truly be neutral on everything, what specific things are you actually neutral on.
You basically are political opinionated or a plant.
What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for money? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?
the fact people are finite.
we can’t care about everything, nor should we. we generally only care about what we perceive to be relevant to our lives, and ignore most everything else.
Some people are apolitical because they can’t decide if we should install a stop sign on second avenue or instead use that money to repaint the crosswalk.
Some people are apolitical because they can’t decide if it’s ok for cops to kill innocent mothers in their car or not.
Distancing from politics is a political act.
Being embedded in a society formed by politics, they become beneficiary and victim to what others decide.
I can empathize and understand why one would be apolitical. Some things need activism and political involvement, though. Investing the minimum is not that hard - if you at least know your sources. If they’re aware of being a beneficiary and there’s no immediate need for activism, I’m find with their political decision to be apolitical. If they ignore (glaring) issues, I may be a bit disappointed or sad.
What is an apolitical person?
A privileged idiot.
someone who doesn’t participate in politics
Someone who thinks they don’t participate in politics.
Either you have an ideology, or an ideology has you.
isn’t that black and white thinking?
there is nothing wrong with being apolitical.
that upsets people who are very political, because those people are different than they are. and they don’t like that. political people derive meaning and purpose from political viewpoints and actions. apolitical people don’t.
it’s not any different than those who believe in God demanding those who don’t believe in God must believe in him. it is very hard for someone who cares a lot about a thing, and derives their meaning and purpose in life from that thing, that that thing doesn’t matter or exist for someone else.
what it boils down to is ‘us vs them’. political people see non political people as ‘them’ and also see those who don’t agree with their politics as ‘them’. my dad was very political, but very conservative, is that better than him being apolitical and not voting? i’d have liked him better actually, since he spent most nights at the dinner table talking about how women should not be able to vote and all liberals and non-whites should be shot.
i don’t like sports. lots of people who like sports and get very upset that i don’t care about sports, often to the point my disinterest is considered a hostile attitude towards them personally.
that’s how i feel about political people vs a apolitical people. political people are ‘offended’ that apolitical people exist and they are offended by me for not being upset that they exist like they are. I’m not apolitical either. But I respect people’s choices to be different than me. I choose to vote in all elections, local or national, and spending my free time being ‘informed’ and frankly, I realize that I am a weirdo. and i don’t get upset at people who don’t vote like i do, or don’t vote at all. i also don’t get on my high horse at people for not knowing what i know.
Politics isn’t religion, sports, or a hobby. Politics are what decide if you get to have the choice of religion, sports, or hobbies. Politics decide how many hours/days people must work, and if people get to eat, or even live for that matter.
for you. that’s how you see the world.
lots of people see it as a hobby, or a sport. or many other things.
you are speaking for yourself. not everyone sees the world as you see it. for most people politics doesn’t exist when it comes to food. maybe it does for you. why is it that you think you speak for everyone?
Every right you have is determined by the government systems you live under. If they declare no food goes to anyone in your town, and anyone who provides them food or grows food there will be executed on site… Politics just determined you don’t get food.
I don’t speak for everyone, that’s how the world works. You can’t even choose to just leave your government system either, unless you find another government system willing to take you.
I don’t live under them, I create them. I live in a democracy. I’m involved in my political systems. But I am not arrogant enough to think anyone who doesn’t is stupid or wrong or bad.
The vast majority of people do not even know how their government works in my country. How do you expect them to become involved if they lack basic knowledge? I’d rather they just keep out of it.
Some people don’t have the luxury of being apolitical. There’s literal five year olds in dentition camps for things completely outside their control. People get upset with apolitical people because their indifference feeds the status quo. I don’t find your religion comparison to be apt for that reason.
So what is worse, being apolitical, or being political such that you support 5 year olds in detention camps?
Asking people to be political, and asking them to be on your side of politics, are two different things.
Your need to browbeat people into being political is more likely to cause them to become political against you, than for you.
And thus you work to defeat yourself. Harassing and calling people names doesn’t bring them to your side.
I think that’s a distinction without meaning. Apolitical people support the status quo, and anyone that says “oh you were mean to me so now I support putting children in concentration camps” wasn’t ever going to be an ally in the first place.
apolitical people don’t even know what the status quo is dude. that isn’t supporting it.
but again, if you had empathy enough to think about how an apolitical person would interpret your beliefs about them… you’d not be shocked why they would not want to be political at all. because they often see political people as raging assholes who want to browbeat them for not getting upset about what’s on the news.
Ignorance in and of itself isn’t sinful, but willful ignorance is. Any adult in a democracy has a duty to be at a minimum mildly informed and vote and anyone not doing so is abdicating their responsibility to our society. You don’t have to have knowledge of something to indirectly support the conditions that perpetuate it.
There were plenty of Germans that said “we didn’t know” in 1945 despite living very close to concentration camps and having over a decade to witness the persecution of Jews, socialists, gay people, Roma, etc. I don’t find it absurd to ask people to pay attention to what is going on in the world in which they exist and have an opinion. I’m not even asking for them to hit the streets, just to be aware of what is going on rather than burying their head in the sand.
You should really read MLK’s letter from Birmingham jail. Your arguments somewhat mirror his frustration with what he called the “white moderate” who prioritized comfort over justice.
so what do you suggest, we fine people for not reading the news?
the issue here you are glossing over is you want to control people. you want to force them to do things they may not want to do. how would you feel if you were forced to say, play sports, or do some other thing you hated?
I was forced to play sports as a kid and it just made me angry and resentful, but it was for ‘my own good’. my folks even went so far as to verbally and physically assault me anytime i suggested I didn’t want to play anymore, and socially not playing sports in my community made you an outcast.
You can’t force people to care about anything, and if you think you must and you can, well, are you sure you aren’t the fascist? are you going to physically abuse in jail people for not reading the news, or voting, or various other forms of political activity you feel they must participate in?
I have read many of MLK’s writings, but even he was very ignorant of what was going on in the world around him. Nobody is perfect, we are all limited beings with limited time and resources. You choose to spend your time and resources on political stuff, that’s fine, but who are you to demand other people do so, let alone that they do so in the same way as you do?
You find it absurd… but I bet other people find aspects of your life equally absurd. Maybe you don’t care about fashion, or sports, or popular tv shows, or cars. or lots of things like that that are very important to other people. I don’t care about fashion and I regularly have gotten lectures from folks about how ‘stupid and ignorant’ i am for not following fashion trends or buying $500 pairs of jeans.
The truth is you just want people around you to reflect the things you care about back at you, and you are angry when they don’t. And that’s how most everyone else is too. I care about obscure 19th century literary works, should I browbeat everyone around me into reading that stuff because I do? Are they stupid and ignorant and ‘sinful’ for not wanting to read Mikhail Lermentov? Or would I be the stupid person for demanding that they do so?
I never said people should be forced to do anything, but if they refuse to do the bare minimum to educate themselves then they have earned my contempt. There is no measurable harm in not being interested in sports; I would argue that the harmful consequences of political apathy are all around us.
I’d love to hear you elaborate on what specifically MLK was ignorant about, shy of his infidelity.
The 19th century books you like aren’t resulting in people getting separated from their families or deported to countries they’ve never lived. They’re also not an immutable piece of your identity; your argument doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
I’ll leave you with this, which brings me back to my original point that being apolitical isn’t a privilege that everyone has. Do you think a black person drinking from a whites only fountain in Mississippi in 1960 was able to just tell the cops “oh no need to arrest me, I’m not political”? Did a Jew residing in Vienna in 1941 have the privilege of saying “oh no need to evict me from my home and shove me into a ghetto, I’m not political”? I could go on. The ignorance and indifference that people have to their privileged status is what drives my contempt.
I’m not apolitical - I’m a political minimalist. I vote, then I check out until the next election rolls around. Not really interested in the daily back-and-forth.
Your country must be less on fire than mine.
It is! Completely frozen in-fact.
…I want to be your neighbor. We don’t have to interact or anything if you don’t want. I usually keep to myself anyways. I just want to live somewhere quiet and cold with decent internet and a nearby place to pick up package shipping if it can’t come to the door. Lol
a nearby place to pick up package shipping if it can’t come to the door
That’s 700 meters away. The nearest bus stop is 5 meters from where my property ends. Welcome - my other neighbour is probably dying soon anyway judging by the coughing when he comes out for cigarette every 30 minutes or so.
Perfect. Keep me posted in the neighbor lol
Must be nice for you.
Shit on “apolitical” people all you want, but i’d certainly prefer them over highly radicalized douchebags. Staying a decent human being should come first, political stance somewhere after.
