• @LemmyIsFantastic
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    3811 months ago

    Or, they are politely telling you to bugger off 🤷‍♂️

    • @Stoney_Logica1
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      1911 months ago

      This. I care about the wellbeing of our society and its health via policy. I’m not interested in having conversations about it.

        • @Smoogs
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          11 months ago

          ‘Hey I need some advice about this situation at hand’ is a discussion

          ‘I want to impose my unsolicited opinion on someone else so I can feel valid’ is an unwelcome sales pitch

        • @[email protected]
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          411 months ago

          People don’t want to discuss because rational, reasonable takes on politics are met with vitriol and anger. Those attacking don’t actually want a discussion, they want to insult and feel morally superior.

          I talk politics with those I’ve felt out first, who can come up against ideas they don’t agree with and are willing to keep it as a discussion rather than an emotional, shit-slinging argument.

          Just because people don’t want to discuss politics with YOU doesn’t mean they don’t discuss it with others, and no, not just with people they agree with.

    • @Smoogs
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      311 months ago

      Yeah as it can be a way to have an argument that can taint a good social time when there are other aspects at play. Like ok we’re having an outing for kids to play is that really where you want to air your grievances about how you feel about reproductive rights? Is that the situation that presses this needs to be discussed right now?

      There are times and places where it’ll be applied accurately to the point when that the primary goal. But too often it’s introduced as a ‘talking point’ just to have some bullshit drama and feel right about something while someone else can feel bad. That’s not delivering the same message, goal or intent as OP.

    • @clearleaf
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      111 months ago

      I’ve totally done this and not just about politics. Some people are not very fun to talk about food and cooking with.

    • @[email protected]
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      -711 months ago

      99% of people who say this simply don’t want to have their preconceived notions challenged.

      • FlashMobOfOne
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        11 months ago

        Precisely.

        In the age where having a social media account means I have to hear about politics all the dang time, maybe just let me chill if I indicate that’s what I want.

      • @Smoogs
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        11 months ago

        Shocking observation: not everyone wants an unsolicited opinion shoved down their throat while they are just trying to live in their space and manage their own brain at that moment.

      • @[email protected]
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        211 months ago

        Not at all true. They pick and chose based on those who remain calm when their ideas are challenged, vs. those who get angry and emotional.

  • The Assman
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    3011 months ago

    On the flip side, some really stupid people are really into politics and we’re all worse off for it

    • @[email protected]
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      311 months ago

      Fun fact: many of them only pretend to be stupid, and are actually completely malevolent, evil beings!

    • Kilgore Trout
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      -1111 months ago

      For this fantomatic group of stupid people, you are probably the stupid one. It’s no use to call each other names.

      • @WaxedWookie
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        1111 months ago

        I’ll just point to GOP voters that aren’t multi-millionaires - no reason.

          • @WaxedWookie
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            211 months ago

            Success isn’t an indicator that you’re any less stupid - just look at Elon Musk.

  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
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    2211 months ago

    I hate that I have to pay attention. Sometimes I feel like if I took a ball peen hammer to my prefrontal cortex I’d be so much happier.

    • @rockSlayerOPM
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      11 months ago

      A just world wouldn’t require us to exert so much mental energy on securing our basic needs. It’s exhausting. Just remember to step away now and then to avoid burnout

      • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
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        811 months ago

        If I do that then I’m being bad and letting fascism win.

        I just want one election where the fate of the world doesn’t hang in the balance.

        • @rockSlayerOPM
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          511 months ago

          I understand what you mean. Just remember that beating the fascists requires all of us. No single person can defeat fascism. As long as you still show up when needed, mental breaks are ok.

          • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
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            11 months ago

            When do I get a break, though? Fascism is on the rise everywhere. Climate change will just make it worse. I’m going to be dealing with this shit until I die. I’ve taken breaks and when I start paying attention again it’s just worse than before. It’s like I’m the only one who read the rubric for a group project.

            Where’s my hammer…

        • metaStatic
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          411 months ago

          Move to Australia. We vote on every’fucking’thing and its rarely end of the world type shit.

          • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
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            211 months ago

            I’m thinking that’s my way out. Find a country that’s not an empire and move there. Then my actions won’t allow a hospital to be bombed with impunity.

    • Flying Squid
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      1611 months ago

      Remember: It’s okay to check out for a little bit and take a break. Just don’t do it for so long that you come back not being able to catch up.

      • @[email protected]
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        411 months ago

        Exactly. People that get fed up with politics are usually the empathetic, moral people we literally need running, voting, volunteering, and donating! So take care of yourself, but please come back when you can…

    • @[email protected]
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      -211 months ago

      Then they’d have you exactly where they want you to be. The people who are working against your interests are using the divisiveness precisely to make people look away. Once you look away they’re free to pull their nefarious shit.

  • @LemmysMum
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    1911 months ago

    “Non-voters” vote too. They vote for what everyone else chooses for them, then they complain when they don’t get what they wanted.

    • FlashMobOfOne
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      11 months ago

      They complain because, thanks to you and I, they can’t afford to miss a day of work in order to vote, and that isn’t changing no matter who we elect.

      • @LemmysMum
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        11 months ago

        Here in Australia we have a public holiday for voting, mandatory voting, preferential voting, and every school, and hundreds of other community locations become polling locations. I can walk to 3 from my house in less than 10 minutes.

        Why did Americans vote for the system they have? Americans voted for first past the post, gerrymandering, the right to throw away their only voice. That’s not a great electoral system to vote for.

        • @[email protected]
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          411 months ago

          Canada requires employers to give a few hours to vote and also makes seemingly every school a polling station. Every time I’ve voted, the polling station was walking distance. Notably, though, we don’t have mandatory voting. And our turnout is horrendous.

          We were also going to have electoral reform, but it got canceled and so few people cared that the party that cancelled it got reelected. It’s frustrating the level of apathy many Canadians have. Provincial elections are even worse, despite the fact that healthcare and housing are big, big issues that are under provincial jurisdiction.

          • @LemmysMum
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            11 months ago

            I’ll always support mandatory voting, the fine is $50 if you don’t, but we get a day off, voting booths are close, we have pre-polling locations for a week beforehand, and nationally accessible postal voting, just for that added convenience. It really is more of a hassle to not vote than to vote and the process rarely takes long.

            When your system is built around mandatory voting it becomes mandatory to make it easy to vote.

            And you’re right, apathy is a problem, but it’s a carrot and stick problem with plenty of viable solutions. You tell someone they have to have an opinion or lose $50 they can come up with one pretty easily. Then it becomes an education problem.

            But those trying to subvert power don’t want fair elections where every voter has to give their 2c, or $50, whichever the case may be, because every non-voter is already on their team, they just have to win the rest.

        • FlashMobOfOne
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          11 months ago

          You’re right. It’s not.

          The short answer is that most people who vote care more about who wins elections than what our legislators actually do. Look at Biden, who hasn’t fulfilled hardly any of his promises and we’ve even regressed significantly under his leadership, losing abortion rights and seeing increasing scarcity of housing, but 49% of voters will loudly and proudly argue that re-electing him is a moral imperative rather than demanding better from the Democratic Party.

          And the fascists won’t have to lie about what a shitty president he is, so his inaction is going to pave the way for us to become an overtly fascist state.

          • @LemmysMum
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            11 months ago

            I’m not even American, but don’t blame Democrats for the failures of the other voters. They at least vote for progression rather than regression of Republicans.

            That would be like me blaming superman for not being enough superman when there’s 9 lex luthors in the room. Fuck off with that disingenuous bullshit.

            most people who vote care more about who wins elections than what our legislators actually do.

            He says right before blaming Biden for the actions of the Republican senate, house, and supreme court.

            • FlashMobOfOne
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              They at least vote for progression rather than regression of Republicans.

              How exactly?

              Minimum wage / Living wages, Abortion, Housing Scarcity, War Spending, Health Care, Education, Fascism, Police Violence

              Every single one of these has worsened and Biden had total congressional control for the first two years of his presidency.

              He says right before blaming Biden for the actions of the Republican senate, house, and supreme court.

              The presidency and Congress were both Dem-controlled. I am, in fact, blaming them for their inaction.

              It doesn’t matter what they say they support if the end result is conservative rule regardless of who’s in power.

              • @LemmysMum
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                11 months ago

                You’d shoot an ally rather than an enemy. You are the problem.

                You think yourself uniquely cognizant, you’re not, you’re the typical American voter, and we all know how cluey they are because non-Americans know the failures of the American electoral system and their politics better than they do.

                • FlashMobOfOne
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                  -111 months ago

                  Thank you for sharing your perspective.

      • @[email protected]
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        211 months ago

        In the Netherlands the voting stations are open between 7:30 and 21:00 to somewhat mitigate the work issue.

        • FlashMobOfOne
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          311 months ago

          Voting is made harder in many states on purpose, sadly, but when you’re a wage earner and you know both candidates aren’t going to do anything to help you, why miss work?

        • @[email protected]
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          11 months ago

          We should really hold elections on Sundays though. Open up mail-in for the bible belt.

          • @[email protected]
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            111 months ago

            I guess that mail-in votes are still considered being active on a resting day though (by the SGP crowd), so they might still be against sunday voting.

  • @[email protected]
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    1111 months ago

    I know quite a few people who say this because they don’t want an argument. People can care about politics and not want to talk about it with you.

    • Gorgritch_Umie_Killa
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      411 months ago

      Very true, and those more inclined to engage should be respectful. But the refusal and shutting down of the dialogue is damaging in itself.

      It turns people into lone rocky outcrops buffeted by an ocean they inevitably fall to.

      • @Leg
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        211 months ago

        Wonderful imagery. Talking about politics with your peers and creating a community of ideas is how good grassroots movements are able to take hold. The more we avoid doing that, the easier it is for fascism to thrive.

  • AnonTwo
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    To be fair, I think what they’re really saying is “I don’t want to talk to you about it so i’m shutting this discussion down as politely as possible”

    So I feel like if you actually responded to someone saying that with this, they would just walk away. Cause most of the time I don’t think it’s actually the politics, it’s the person they’re talking to about it with.

    • @rockSlayerOPM
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      1011 months ago

      I’m sure this is the case for some people, but I personally know many people that actively avoid all politics. It’s difficult to get them engaged with it, but I’m slowly seeing success

      • @[email protected]
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        011 months ago

        Around you, maybe. Maybe you’re the reason why they don’t want to talk politics… with you

        • @rockSlayerOPM
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          111 months ago

          No actually, they don’t like politics at all. I’m managing to get them to engage and realize that a lot of their problems aren’t individualized. They aren’t just a bunch of strangers, they’re my friends and family. I know them enough to know how they feel about politics.

    • Kilgore Trout
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      -111 months ago

      Who is “they”?

      My “they” simply adore complaining but last thought in their mind is to try to practically change something.

      • @WaxedWookie
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        011 months ago

        Who is “they”?

        The people saying

        “I don’t want to talk to you about it so i’m shutting this discussion down as politely as possible”

        I’m not sure what you’re confused about - this seems pretty straightforward.

        • Kilgore Trout
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          111 months ago

          I understood what you wrote. I was pointing out that you are speaking for anecdotes. You have no way of knowing what “they” actually think, as “they” is no definite group.

          • @WaxedWookie
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            011 months ago

            You have no way of knowing what anyone other than you is thinking - you need to infer it. I’m not sure what point you think you’re making here.

  • @Mango
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    711 months ago

    I’m not interested in playing the game they made to convince me I’m well represented.

    • @[email protected]
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      211 months ago

      Electoralism only serves to prevent the worst-case from playing out. Actual, meaningful change happens at the grassroots level. Read, educate, unionize, organize, participate in charity, and build your community.

      • @Mango
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        -111 months ago

        Actual meaningful change happens after humanity is gone. We are the problem. We can’t help ourselves.

  • MenKlash
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    511 months ago

    Moral outrage against corrupt leaders is not an isolated historical phenomenon but a common precursor of change. It happens again and again whenever one era gives way to another. . . . This widespread revulsion comes into evidence well before people develop a new coherent ideology of change. As we write, there is as yet little evidence of an articulate rejection of politics. That will come later. It has not yet occurred to most of your contemporaries that a life without politics is possible.

  • @Emerald
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    411 months ago

    Image Transcription: Text and Image


    A grayscale image of Martha Gellhorn is shown with a quote under it.

    People often say with pride, “I’m not interested in politics.” They might as well say, “I’m not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.” … If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics.

    Martha Gellhorn

    novelist, journalist, war coorespondent

    (1908 - 1998)

  • @[email protected]
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    311 months ago

    I sometimes use this when I dont want to to talk to someone. I have a co worker who still brings up covid and how we’re going into a lockdown again any day now. I just say in not interested in politics and she will usually drop it. She one day pushed it and I just said your style of politics is unappealing to me and she pushed more I said your coming off as a looney. She took it personally and I said well you should listen when people don’t want to talk about politics.

  • @cosmicrookie
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    11 months ago

    The problem is, that the the ones interested in it, use their votes as if it was a reality show. It’s not a popularity vote. The right thing to do is not always popular, it’s not always the best for you and it is not even always easy.

  • @badbytes
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    211 months ago

    I’d like to know if she had the same opinion today. Post citizens united and our orangutan ex-prez