this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2023
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Caring about humanity is why I care about politics, though. Politics is the vehicle through which humanity's fate is decided. If you don't participate in it, you allow people who do to run roughshod over you. Politics decides whether your country goes to war or not, whether people die in poverty or not, whether the climate apocalypse kills us all or not.
Note that by politics I do not necessarily mean electoralism. Voting is a stopgap measure at best. But there's much more to politics than voting and elections.
Abstaining is not apolitical, either. Every choice you make related to politics, including the choice of not participating in elections or discussions or whatever, is political and has consequences. That doesn't mean you need to be on political messageboards 24/7, either, but choosing to do nothing at all is an extreme position, of a kind. Apolitical just sounds like apathy, to me.
Whether the consequences of said apathy fall on you personally, well, perhaps not, for someone who feels safe enough to abstain.
P.s. please vote so us trans and nonbinary people don't end up genocided. K thanks.
idk what feeling safe has to do with it. I was homeless a few months ago, I do not feel safe in my own private life. Regardless of that–I still prefer my link aggregators to have a focus on topics which I find entertaining.
Idk about you guys, but I get ZERO entertainment value out of political discussion or discourse.
Why does that necessarily have to reflect negatively back on me? You aren't willing to accept me just because I don't find enjoyment in the same things that you do?
i don't think anyone's saying it does--and in fact i think you're kind of reading into a point that's not being made (at least not intentionally). as i'm interpreting @[email protected] and @[email protected] here, they're just saying that abstention or apathy is also an unavoidably political act in political discussions or circumstances, even if it seems like it isn't, and that in some circumstances it can be as extreme as taking a political position.
i'd also note Lowbird in particular is making a distinction between "apolitical" abstention and the decision to not participate in online political discourse, because those are two different things and certainly the latter doesn't speak to much of anything on anyone's part politically.
They're painting those who abstain from online political discussion to be privileged types who are taking advantage of the feeling of safety in their own lives and identity. I was simply refuting that caricature because I am a prime example of a person where it simply does not fit.
To be honest with you, when I want political discourse, I'm going to go and seek that out from scholars in the form of well-written books. There's really barely any insight to be gained from the average complete moron on the internet.
No, they're pointing out to people who claim the label "apolitical" that that's both a political stance and a privilege that not everyone gets to have.
I obviously identify myself as apolitical on the internet when I have zero interest in discussing politics with strangers on the internet.
Does that make me privileged somehow?
Your privilege is being apolitical. That is the privilege. For many of us, that isn’t an option.