The good news: We have some small modicum of control.
The bad news: Control involves pain, disappointment, frustration, anger, and a whole bunch of mental anguish that people who don't pay attention to politics don't have to deal with.
When I say "I'm not interested in politics", what I mean is "I can't bear to listen to another right-wing crank regurgitating the latest bullshit he's read on Infowars". Sometimes it means "I can't bear to listen to my 100% white sister-in-law castigate me for not using the term 'LatinX'".
Oh, well then you're using the wrong words to describe things. What you mean is, you're not interested in extremist politics. It doesn't sound like you have a problem with moderate politics.
Here's an example of some moderate politics: I want to watch the new season of Star Trek Prodigy with my partner, but my partner wants to run a load test on its CPU to check for problems. Turns out my partner can't be in a voice chat while running the load test, I won't be able to hear it. So I told it that it should finish its load test and message me when it's ready to watch TV. That's politics. A group of people had to make a decision, and we did. I made the decision and my partner accepted it, because my partner trusts me with political power and I place importance on my partner's needs.
(Also my partner does not yet know there is a new season of Prodigy. I'm planning to surprise it!)
No, it means I'm lying to them. If I say I don't agree with their politics, I'll get an ear full. If I lie and say I don't follow politics, I can diplomatically end that discussion branch. Grow up liberal in a conservative family and you'll get it. I'm not convincing these geezers of anything and I don't want to waste my social energy trying.
Join city council meetings and tell your city to adopt Ranked Choice Voting. This is often do e through city charter amendment. Find your local RCV group and support them. Educate people about RCV what RCV is and what it is not. Keep it non-partisan. You don’t have to vote for somebody you don’t want to. That is also engaging in politics whether you like it or not.
Political apathy is a clear sign of unknown, unappreciated and unused privilege. Screw conservatives but at least they know the value of being able to vote and thus try to uphold this privilege by taking part in a society that allows them to take part in that way.
According to conservatives "politics" is apparently only something the nasty evil The Others™ do, just like everything everybody else does that they don't like is "ideology".
Which is a real doozy when you think about the duplicity it is to no longer allow a convicted citizen the right to vote, which is so strongly held by some people on all sides, almost evenly I'd say.
How it must feel, to be so cool to allow yourself the privilege of not participating, just like the criminals politics generates. 😎
Football Jerseys from a bygone era on Saturdays isn't the only indicator that someone never really grew beyond highschool.
I ruthlessly ask people about and talk about my own salary because of this. Usually they dont mind, but when they do it gives me a lot of insight, which sounds kinda creepy but i like knowing who i work with.
If you cant even talk about your fairly easily predicted salary, then talking bigger politics is just not gonna be productive probably.
