So this is inspired by a blogpost I read today because it was posted by someone on my fediverse instance, and it just really rubbed me the wrong way. It was titled as “Why I don’t talk about politics” and I was expecting some kind of respectable thing like “I just don’t care about politics that much” “I’m overwhelmed by it and don’t have the spoons for it” or at least something honest like “It brings out so many people that disagree with me, which is not a good time”.

So that you can make your own picture of the situation and not only see my side, here is the link to the post I’m talking about . Well, yeah talk about something.. I’m firmly on the left side of politics, but this is not a position I came to without thought, or reading, probably more than what was healthy for me at time, following news, and my own feeling of right and wrong.

My politics is something that I built up as I also worked on figuring out if religion was something I would be able to subscribe to or not, more than a set in stone “This is how it is, and how everything should be” it’s always been a fleeting goal for me, I listen to people’s arguements, what they say, and then evaluate it out from the position where I am.

As I have taken more part in discussions and talking with people who are in a different place than me, be it genderexpression, fiscal positions, minorites, environmental activists or religious people , things they have said, and the experiences that they have had are things that I have taken with me into the tapestry of my politics. Now of course some things are things that I’m not moveable on, as in that everyone should be treated with a modicum of respect, as long as they show the same trying, and somet times even if they don’t. Every person deserves to exist freely, and for either a state or a person to want to end that in any way is just wrong.

So enough waffeling about around my own base, and let’s start to look at the thing that annoyed me.

Let’s start off with the first sentence:

It’s not like I don’t care about what goes on in the world. I do. But I don’t care about your opinion. It’s not personal, it goes for both sides of the political aisle.

Yeah, that’s all well and good, and if that would be it I wouldn’t care, if they don’t care then I don’t see why they would dedicate a whole blogpost to it, this is a nice short social media post that needs no elaboration. But since I’m writing this whole thing, you know that’s not where it ends…

I think both sides are full of zealots who would watch the world burn if only they could be proven right. And the thing is, if you’re one of those on the far right or the far left, and you can bring yourself to be honest about it, you know I’m right.

Ehm, shots fired.. I guess.. This is a blatant miscaracterisation of at least the left, watching the world burn is the opposite of our stance, now I won’t speek too much about the far right, I am not a part of it, but yeah I can see that fitting more to many of them, but making a blanket statement like that about it is just wild. It’s also an equivocation of the two sides which is extremely dishonest. Not everyone on the fringes are the same, every politically active person is not the same. And you are not the only person reasoning yourself into your current point of view. Yes other people are sentient and have their own thoughts and opinons, you are not the main character in history.

Someone asked me what my political beliefs are, and my response was as it always is: I think both sides are stupid. I’m a moderate

Stupid? Really? What a well thought through and deeply argued stanmce that is. So what exactly is stupid about them, the right’s focus on lowering taxes and conservative focus on moving slowly to keep things as they are? The left’s focus on trying to make it possible for everyone to take part in society? Is it the focus of the left of everyone helping everyone foreward, or the more right view of giving the people who acheive things more, to encourage growth, what exactly is stupid?

I also have so little interest in hearing about actual politics from people, because what’s the fucking point? You’re not going to sway me, and for sure you’re not going to be swayed, so why waste our breaths? Let’s talk sports. Then at least when we argue, it will be fun.

Well, you might not find arguing politics fun or worth it, so then just don’t. It’s kind of funny how they are here just thinking that everyone is the same as themselves, I would never be where I am now, or hold the opinions that I do if I wasn’t open to discussions, and having the base empathy of being able to put myself in others shoes. The point of a discussion is never to “win” to sway the other person to admit defeat, but to sow seeds, to exchange opinions and better understand and communicate with the person you’re conversing with. This is not something that is possible if you enter the conversation as “I won’t fucking move, you’ll submit to my awesome intellect moron”, I mean of course you will get nowhere in a discussion if that’s how you enter it. I repeat, the goal of a discussion is not winning, it’s information gathering, and sowing seeds, treating it as anything else, yeah of course that will leave you frustrated.

All talking about this shit does is widen the gap.

Yeah, if the way you enter the discussion is like you wrote earlier, of course that is the result, if you go in thinking your conversational partner is a moron, of course they will distance themselves from you, because you’re acting like a dick. Nobody wants to associate with a dick.

I’ll just skip some more repeating of “I think everyone is a moron for not agreeing with me, and that’s pushing them away from me” for a bit of brevity.

The dumb thing is, a lot of us agree about a lot of things.

And how exactly is agreeing about a lot of things dumb? It’s not, we’re all human, the variance of experience and situation isn’t really that big, we all live, we all die, we all have people we love, and things we want to do, we all enjoy good art, of course we agree about most things, and that’s a baseline for any discussion, when we discuss things like politics there is a reason why we don’t talk about things that we agree about, that would kind of nix the point of a discussion in the first place, we usually reserve the things we agree on to smalltalk and just talking about stuff rather than in a discussion.

But we’re driven by the media to focus not on the things that we agree on, but on that which divides us. Why? Because division and hatred make them more money. If we’re busy fighting each other, we can’t protest too much as the ultra wealthy do whatever it is they want to do.

Now I don’t watch much media, but I don’t think this is some kind of revelatory point. Everyone knows this, so what’s the point of bringing it up? Again, don’t treat every not you person as being some sheep who can’t think for themselves, we are all human beings, both you and me, that I don’t agree with you doesn’t mean I’m brainwashed by media and just spew talking points I found there, give others the same leeway you’re giving yourself.

So while one side is hating immigrants and gay people and the other side is hating religious people and gun owners, the Elons of the world are spending their money ensuring nothing is working the way we need it to.

This is a wild comparison of two things, and it’s a crazy thing to say, so I will take a bit of time to. First of all, see the two groups that the people supposedly hates, on the one side you have immigrants and LGBTQ+ persons, here you have two intrinsic caracteristics which are something you cannot change, it’s a part of you as a person, then on the other side you have religious people and gun owners, both things that you choose to get into, and that you can just stop doing if you want to, to make a comparison like this means setting them as something compareable, which they are not. Choosing to be religious or owning a gun is not a political thing, I know many lefties who are religious, and own a gun. Why would lefties “hate” these things? I assure you we don’t, how would we be able to have a weaponised revolution without weapons, and I don’t see what religions have to do with this at all. Let’s take christianity, jesus flipping the tables of the money lenders and associating with the prostitutes, pretty lefty believes right? So that means in this twisted view of “politics” jesus must hate religion. Now lets move over to guns, look at the cubans with Che Guevarra, or the Vietnamese guerilla warriors, people who absolutely hate guns right?

So what this paints a picture about more than someone standing above, and looking down at people for being brainwashed MSM-Zombies is someone who just doesn’t care, think themselves above others who are little else than a chinese room to them, philosphical zombies who don’t think for themselves, but regurgitate and hate for some not stated reason.

I don’t talk about politics, because nobody listens. I prefer spending my time more productively than talking to an immovable object.

Nobody listens to you, because of the way you talk about others, because of how little empathy you show in the way you are talking, and in the obvious disdain and lack of belief in their powers of reason you show. Of course people won’t change if you call them stupid before you even begin.

The thing about politics is that you need a baseline of empathy, if you’re unable to put yourself in somebody else’s shoes you won’t be able to have a good discussion. And a discussion is not necessary there to sway someone’s point of view, rather for an exchange of ideas, and sowing seeds.

The older I get the more I see that everything is in some way politics, and to close oneself off from being able to take part we would do nothing else than calsify, being unable to change and becoming a better selve that can look back and be ashamed of something they said before. I think that is a good thing, it shows that even an oldish person like me can learn, can see and learn from other people, and I do sincerely believe that we can work together every single one of us to create a place that is better for everyone. It’s not a zero sum game, something you see in everything small like curb cutouts, and better footpaths, it may be focused on making life easier for one group, but in the end it shows that doing these things will make a place better for everyone.

Rising tides raises all ships, the world is not a zero sum game, and rather than caracterizing people you don’t agree with as brainless creatures unable of reasoning and thought, we should see them as they are, flawed human beings like ourselves, and we are way closer than what you think.

Which is why I do talk about politics.