• corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    51 minutes ago

    If someone claims to be apolitical, they just don’t want to talk about it with you; even if they agree with you.

    Even in the army, when we were supposed to present as apolitical, we still voted, which means we needed to consider and learn and understand. We just didn’t talk about it at work or socially.

    • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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      11 minutes ago

      we still voted, which means we needed to consider and learn and understand…

      I feel like that particular voting strategy is long dead in the U.S. and Canada. Knowledge?! Who needs it?!

  • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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    21 minutes ago

    Literally an impossible position. Every facet of your day to day life is the result of politics. They may be ignorant of politics. They may hate politics. But they were born into a political world, and so they are a part of politics.

  • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
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    52 minutes ago

    It’s naive at best, but either willful ignorance or poorly reasoned resistance at worst. You can’t change things by not participating.

    And pretending you have any high ground, when you don’t vote because of a singular issue being a problem, is foolish to the extreme.

    Some people think they will improve things by not participating because the candidates don’t line up perfectly with their principals. All you get then is the direction others pick for you. You’ve solved nothing, but potentially made things worse.

    There is no upside to not participating if you are seeking to improve things. If you are a shitty person and fear other people because of melanated reasons, by all means, allow other more reasonable people handle the voting. But otherwise, look at all the issues and vote for the one that does the most good or the least damage.

  • HubertManne@piefed.social
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    21 hours ago

    I mean im in the us and we have often masked, often unmarked, paramilitary draggin people off the streets in a way that seems to be geared toward as much property and health damage as possible and executing people every so often for good measure. The bill of rights is being ignored which is basically a list of things happening to cause the revolutionary war that they put in there to say these can never happen. Being apolitical 50, 25, heck even 10 years ago was one thing but you have to be a fool to not speak out at this point.

  • mech@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    There are no apolitical people.
    Only people who don’t understand that everything is political.
    When you’re stuck in traffic commuting to work, that’s a result of political decisions made by others.
    When you go to work despite being sick, that’s forced on you by political decisions made by others.
    When you have to decide between buying your meds and buying food, that’s due to political decisions made by others.
    “Apolitical people” just accept (or are forced) to let others dictate how they live.

    • AskewLord@piefed.social
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      1 hour ago

      when i poop is that political?

      what if when i go to work, i sometimes drive, sometimes walk, sometimes take a bike, and sometimes take public transit, depending on the weather or my mood? does that mean my politics changes each and every day?

      • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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        7 minutes ago

        Indirectly, yes. How is the infrastructure of your town/city maintained. Is it falling apart or is it in good condition. Do the richer neighbourhoods coincidentally see more city workers updating their plumbing while you sometimes have to flush twice to get it all down because of unmaintained pipes, and are therefore paying a higher water bill as a result?

        These are all political decisions.

      • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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        18 minutes ago

        It means that the impacts of the politics on you change each day. It means you are in a place where the politics have allowed you to have these myriad options.

      • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
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        46 minutes ago

        Are you pooping at work? Politics that force companies to allow you to have bathroom breaks can be thanked.

        Is there a sidewalk when you walk or ride a bike? Thank your taxes and the people that pushed city politicians to install those pathways.

        Like being able to take public transit? Then be glad regulations and ordinances in your city encouraged those services to be available.

        Your political opinions and your thoughts on how your community and city are run, will most certainly change with regularity if you are putting in the effort to understand what can be done to improve things. And most people start with the things that affect them on the daily.

        • AskewLord@piefed.social
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          37 minutes ago

          no, i don’t poop at work. is pooping in my own house a political act too?

          i ride my bike in the road with cars. riding on the sidewalk is illegal and dangerous.

          public transit is often falling apart where i live. it has been underfunded for 50 years. it’s very unreliable and nobody wants to fix it because that would mean raising taxes.

          • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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            17 minutes ago

            Pooping itself, no. Probably not political. But getting to the point where you have indoor plumbing, provided by a utility company you probably pay significantly less than the actual cost of said utility? Yeah, that’s the direct result of politics.

      • mech@feddit.org
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        56 minutes ago

        what if when i go to work, i sometimes drive, sometimes walk, sometimes take a bike, and sometimes take public transit, depending on the weather or my mood? does that mean my politics changes each and every day?

        The fact that you even have those options, as well as the weather, are affected by politics.

        when i poop is that political?

        Yes, when you do it at work.

          • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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            14 minutes ago

            If you buy the current science on global warming, literally yes. The politics of generations ago still affect us to this day, including such things as the fossil fuel industry’s massive prevalence.

    • JamieDub86@piefed.social
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      1 day ago

      I had a friend years ago that studied political science at uni, that told me i couldnt discuss politics cause i hadnt. Took me a while to realise who the idiot was.

      Unfortunately too many are like him and i.

  • stringere@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    “Oh, you don’t care about politics. Your landlord does. Your boss does. Your banker does. People with a lot more money, power, and influence do. And they’re interested in what’s good for them, not you.”

  • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    It’s a myth, unless you literally lack the brainpower to have an opinion, you can’t be apolitical. What you really are, is willfully ignorant of politics, and too cowed to stand against (or with I guess) the literal nazis currently running the country.

  • Kristell@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol
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    1 day ago

    They think they exist, but they do not. “Apolitical” usually just means “Fine with the status quo” which isn’t apolitical, it’s at bst non-confrontational. It also tends to reek of ignorance of what’s actually happening around them. That’s all at best, there are tons of people who use “Apolitical” to push far right agendas in spaces not centered around politics.

    There’s a reason the joke of “Only two races/genders/etc exist to gamers; white/male/etc, and political.” You can replace gamers with any group that’s (at least perceived to be) predominantly white men, and it still comes out.

    • amos@slrpnk.net
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      1 day ago

      This is a good way way to put it, and I hadn’t though of that. Switching “apolitical” with “fine with the status quo” is elucidating. I will be doing that from now on.

      Thank you for being on lemmy!