I understand not wanting to bear the labels of a group because that often comes with being tied to some views you don’t express or believe. This is the issue with party politics, as it’s not realistic to expect people to perfectly slot into a whole set of beliefs, we all have unique lived experience and so also unique profiles of understanding of the world we live in. It’s even more understandable when you consider how commonly the poisoned political discourse weaponizes labels to taint how people view your stance on one subject by associating it with other beliefs, or making up imaginary sets of beliefs to weigh down something most people would agree with (e.g. people should have freedom of movement, or some core element of privacy and a right to individuality in their lives). This is the importace of discource, and being able to challenge and advocate ideas together, and it’s what we’ve gradually been robbed of by social and legacy medias stealing the attention and the venues in which we have access to healthy discourse. I persoanlly think this reflex away from political engagement by saying ‘I’m not political’, is conditioned, and a response to how badly our societies have been fractured by monied interests, and that also ties in to the nature of the post. This all helps extremist groups recruit siloed individuals and indoctrinate them with a single set of views.

I won’t get into your stated views, though I’d love to, that’s not really the point here with the spirit of the post. I more appreciate your wilingness to state them. I know if we discussed them we would find areas of agreement, and middlegrounds to share because discourse is ultimately how you refine your closely held beliefs, and how you discover new understanding. It’s also how we build ideas worth mobilizing politically over to encourage change that will benefit us on lines of common interest. This is part of how you can see that crippling discourse enables class warfare and helps special interest lobbies advocate for their own interests at the expense of the majority, by occupying the void of activism. Be political, it’s intrinsic to human nature to participate socially, we’re evolved to do this and it’s the only reason our species earned this place in nature.