You do realize most people can’t really afford to care about politics right? When you’ve got people to care for, a job to work, a house to maintain, hobbies to participate in to keep a sane mind, how much time do you really have to spend on politics? Because whatever amount that is, it’s not enough. All sides spend a huge amount on propaganda and to see through all that takes more effort than normal people can spare.
Besides, there are far more important things you could focus on other than politics. That might depend on where you live and how old you are, but most people out there just don’t see the effect of politics beyond the occasional headline and higher taxes/inflation. Why not then spend the time you would spend on politics doing something that has an actual impact?
Hard disagree. Keeping up with politics takes very little of my time, and I’m a “normal person.” It doesn’t take deep research to figure out how a platform could help or harm the things you care about. I don’t know a single person of a vulnerable community affected by political decisions that has no political opinions. The only people that don’t care about politics are those unaffected by its consequences, and thus consent to the status quo.
I work full time and I’m paying my way through a degree after returning to school as a full time student (18 credit hours). I maintain several friendships, a relationship, a home, pets, and hobbies, and yet I find the time to understand the political climate, because sticking my head in the sand isn’t gonna help me when ICE comes for my friend, or the government takes away my right to medical care. If you don’t feel the effects of politics beyond the occasional headline, you live a privileged or ignorant life. If you choose to be apolitical, you are choosing the status quo.
The problem with that like I said is your opinions and beliefs become really shallow and you pretty much just swallow whatever you feel like believing. To actually make sense of politics takes a whole lot of time, though most people, even on lemmy, actually know really little of it. However everyone on this platform is super confident in their opinion, though they don’t seem to able to debate it at all.
This was the big issue with direct democracies. You can help the problem a bit with representative democracies or republics, but you still have people taking a few minutes or sometimes hours every couple years to vote for the one that sounds better to your ears. This is how you get someone like Trump as president. People can’t really be trusted with any decisions about something they know nothing about.
One person changes nothing anyway. What would my vote change in a 80% conservative region? I’d rather spend that time on things I enjoy.
*Bit of a different situation in the US, but the US isn’t the entire world.
Your landlord cares about politics… that’s why he votes people in who make sure renters have less rights.
Your boss cares about politics… that’s why he votes people in who make sure you can’t form a union, and keep the minimum wage low
You may not care about politics, but the people who have a direct impact on your life definitely do. And the longer you leave it to them, the less rights you’ll have.
True, but their votes also make no difference in the grand scheme of things. The only thing that does make a difference is if your boss is the CEO of a big company that donates to politicians. But you can’t counter that.
That you’d bring up the minimum wage argument kind of shows exactly what I was talking about. Most people think this is remotely relevant and keep bringing it up as an argument when all it does is show how little they know of how economy works. This is the kind of people that got Trump in office, no thinking, just parrotting what feels good to say because they’d like it to be true.
You do realize most people can’t really afford to care about politics right? When you’ve got people to care for, a job to work, a house to maintain, hobbies to participate in to keep a sane mind, how much time do you really have to spend on politics? Because whatever amount that is, it’s not enough. All sides spend a huge amount on propaganda and to see through all that takes more effort than normal people can spare.
Besides, there are far more important things you could focus on other than politics. That might depend on where you live and how old you are, but most people out there just don’t see the effect of politics beyond the occasional headline and higher taxes/inflation. Why not then spend the time you would spend on politics doing something that has an actual impact?
Hard disagree. Keeping up with politics takes very little of my time, and I’m a “normal person.” It doesn’t take deep research to figure out how a platform could help or harm the things you care about. I don’t know a single person of a vulnerable community affected by political decisions that has no political opinions. The only people that don’t care about politics are those unaffected by its consequences, and thus consent to the status quo.
I work full time and I’m paying my way through a degree after returning to school as a full time student (18 credit hours). I maintain several friendships, a relationship, a home, pets, and hobbies, and yet I find the time to understand the political climate, because sticking my head in the sand isn’t gonna help me when ICE comes for my friend, or the government takes away my right to medical care. If you don’t feel the effects of politics beyond the occasional headline, you live a privileged or ignorant life. If you choose to be apolitical, you are choosing the status quo.
The problem with that like I said is your opinions and beliefs become really shallow and you pretty much just swallow whatever you feel like believing. To actually make sense of politics takes a whole lot of time, though most people, even on lemmy, actually know really little of it. However everyone on this platform is super confident in their opinion, though they don’t seem to able to debate it at all.
This was the big issue with direct democracies. You can help the problem a bit with representative democracies or republics, but you still have people taking a few minutes or sometimes hours every couple years to vote for the one that sounds better to your ears. This is how you get someone like Trump as president. People can’t really be trusted with any decisions about something they know nothing about.
One person changes nothing anyway. What would my vote change in a 80% conservative region? I’d rather spend that time on things I enjoy.
*Bit of a different situation in the US, but the US isn’t the entire world.
Your landlord cares about politics… that’s why he votes people in who make sure renters have less rights.
Your boss cares about politics… that’s why he votes people in who make sure you can’t form a union, and keep the minimum wage low
You may not care about politics, but the people who have a direct impact on your life definitely do. And the longer you leave it to them, the less rights you’ll have.
True, but their votes also make no difference in the grand scheme of things. The only thing that does make a difference is if your boss is the CEO of a big company that donates to politicians. But you can’t counter that.
That you’d bring up the minimum wage argument kind of shows exactly what I was talking about. Most people think this is remotely relevant and keep bringing it up as an argument when all it does is show how little they know of how economy works. This is the kind of people that got Trump in office, no thinking, just parrotting what feels good to say because they’d like it to be true.