Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2004-06-16 08:31 am
azurelunatic) wrote2004-06-16 08:31 am
Political Intimidation
I'm not a student of politics. I don't keep as close an eye on the government as I feel I should. I'm busy with work, home, and my other interests, and have neither the time nor the inclination to spend a few hours a week doing my homework and reading up on the backstory and legal details of the latest political scandal of the week.
Sometimes it feels like I don't know enough about politics to have an opinion. That I, who don't pay attention to the vast majority of the political action going on, have no right to form an opinion about something that's complex enough that I have to study it before I know if my opinions on how it should be are at all feasible.
It feels like every time I try and formulate an independant half-baked idea about politics, something based on what I'm seeing and where I think it's all heading (handbaskets are involved), someone with more political knowledge, or maybe just a grudge, comes along and tells me that I'm naive and clueless and obviously haven't been doing my homework or I'd know why my idea was half-baked to start with, and tells me what I should believe, or that I should examine everything more closely because just because it looks like a good idea doesn't mean it is, and just because it looks like a bad idea doesn't mean it is.
And while some further examination is probably always in order -- I don't have the time nor the interest to spend upwards of fifteen minutes on every issue on a regular basis. Politics is not my cup of tea, nor is it my bread and butter, nor is it what gets me up in the mornings. It seems to me that when people of politics are trying to encourage others to take an interest, they do so in such a bloody backasswards way that it winds up discouraging them instead.
So I tend to let others do the deep thinking and get outraged and do the research for me. I can't be arsed to care because every time I look like I'm caring and stating my own political opinions, instead of parroting someone else's, I don't have enough experience to be taken seriously, and I wind up huffing off to sulk somewhere anyway.
So that's why I don't tend to post any deeper thoughts on politics, as a rule. I'm used to bad things happening, and I'd rather remain politically less-visible than get told what I'm doing wrong by the bloody tactless.
Sometimes it feels like I don't know enough about politics to have an opinion. That I, who don't pay attention to the vast majority of the political action going on, have no right to form an opinion about something that's complex enough that I have to study it before I know if my opinions on how it should be are at all feasible.
It feels like every time I try and formulate an independant half-baked idea about politics, something based on what I'm seeing and where I think it's all heading (handbaskets are involved), someone with more political knowledge, or maybe just a grudge, comes along and tells me that I'm naive and clueless and obviously haven't been doing my homework or I'd know why my idea was half-baked to start with, and tells me what I should believe, or that I should examine everything more closely because just because it looks like a good idea doesn't mean it is, and just because it looks like a bad idea doesn't mean it is.
And while some further examination is probably always in order -- I don't have the time nor the interest to spend upwards of fifteen minutes on every issue on a regular basis. Politics is not my cup of tea, nor is it my bread and butter, nor is it what gets me up in the mornings. It seems to me that when people of politics are trying to encourage others to take an interest, they do so in such a bloody backasswards way that it winds up discouraging them instead.
So I tend to let others do the deep thinking and get outraged and do the research for me. I can't be arsed to care because every time I look like I'm caring and stating my own political opinions, instead of parroting someone else's, I don't have enough experience to be taken seriously, and I wind up huffing off to sulk somewhere anyway.
So that's why I don't tend to post any deeper thoughts on politics, as a rule. I'm used to bad things happening, and I'd rather remain politically less-visible than get told what I'm doing wrong by the bloody tactless.
no subject
You're not missing much; the patterns of human stupidity vary very little with time..
Standard-issue interrogative control drama, as described neatly by James Redfield in The Celestine Prophecy... Anyone who really cared about helping you would focus on the accurate, positive, useful bits of your idea and then point out areas where it could be improved..
I imagine anybody with more than a couple of brain cells who spends much time involved in politics quickly becomes tired and frustrated with all the idiocy. They may end up taking that frustration out on others..
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Then there's the ones who just like arguing. I was at a party once and a guy asked me "Are you a liberal or a conservative?" I replied "I'm a libertarian." "DAMN!"--'cause he was one and wanted to find a topic to have an argument about. But I'm the same way so we got to merrily dispute something or other. Fun for us, unpleasant for people who get dragged into our game. Here's hoping you can find a more pleasant crew to talk politics with.
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I don't aim to get caught up in a conversation about how I should change my core values when what I was wanting to know about was their interpretation of evidence/extra evidence they might have that I might not. I'm not generally interested in changing my core values, nor changing the core values of anyone else. (When someone's core values include racism or homophobia, my systems return a value of "asshat", and I don't want to have anything to do with them, and would like it if they would change their core values, but I wouldn't want to change it for them, except with maybe a big stick.)
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Of course, for any lie to be effective, it has to be at least 10% truth, or something like that. But which 10%?