Ontimp

Things can be both factually true and bad dinner conversation at the same time lol

I don’t understand your comment. Who were you quoting there?

I agree that this was the message of the cartoon and that’s a valid concern that some people do not have the privilege of being apolitical.

My comment was made in reaction to some other comments in this thread which seems to take the generalized and very cynical position that anyone without a politicized outlook on life should be considered, to paraphrase, stupid, a bad person or not worth knowing. And I don’t agree with that.

I don’t think so. I’m privately a very political person; I work in public policy.

I just know enough people from different walks of life with different degrees of interest or capacity for politics.

Some examples:

A friend; she was raised by parents who themselves were socialized in a former Sowjet state and hence never talked about politics at home. To this day, discussing politics with others feels uncomfortable to her. She has opinions, but frequently cannot properly verbalize them.

My grandmother; she is old, depressed and in pain. She does not want to know how bad the world is because she feels powerless when she is exposed to the news etc. She is protecting herself by not thinking about politics.

My uncle; spends basically all the time that is not used up on work caring for my grandparents. He literally does not have any time or mental bandwidth to think about politics.

A friend; he is from a rather poor family background and his main priority in life is building a good life for his children. He cares about certain political issues that affect this plan, but “wasting time” on the big picture does not contribute to increasing his own family wealth.

Etc.

Most average humans have other things to think about. They might be mobilized to protest when shit hits the fan - but the people who actually make activism and politics their main concern and think about political issues all the time are a comparatively tiny group, even in functioning democracies.

Ironically, this is actually a very entitled position to take. There are many justifiable reasons to be apolitical - first and foremost what this cartoon seems to criticize: The issue does not affect you and you have better things to do. You might still have basic empathy, but you would rather spend your limited time on earth with your kids, in your garden, reading, watching TV, etc. instead of fruitlessly thinking about all the injustices of the world. Usually, the people who judge others for not making a war, famine or garbage dump at the other end of the planet their main focus on life are those privileged enough to live life without major problems of their own. Whoever has that privilege, I’m happy for you. Just show some humility before judging others for being apolitical.