Not Everything Needs to be Political
There's nothing wrong with switch off and withdrawing from things that bring negativity.
It seems that politics is being forcibly injected into every facet of our lives. This could be a result of what I’m exposed to, but I feel I am seeing everything dragged through this toxic landfill of culture war nonsense every day. It’s damn tiring.
I’ll go through some absurd examples of politics being needlessly thrust upon us and why having this mentality can be damaging, not just to the individual, but to the cause the individual is supporting.
Sometimes I put my phone away and let my mind wander to anything but the world's worries. It allows me to keep my sanity. I don’t need to see news about Israel/Palestine or DEI or what Trump said. I’m allowed to switch off and not care for a bit, and you are too.
Unfortunately, this is hard to do. Our smart devices throw information at us at the speed of light. Even withdrawing from the internet, politics is still somehow injected into everything around us, sports, TV shows, boat disasters - it’s sometimes overwhelming. Impossible to get away from. And it doesn’t need to be.
I was at a family street fair the other day, it was a nice atmosphere and had everything you’d expect from a local fair, the smell of street food, the sound of children playing with their new toys and the general bustle of courteous human activity. Yet one person managed to ruin it. A single pro-Palestine protester screaming Hamas’ slogan with a jacket to match. There was a collective internal rolling of eyes from everyone passing by.
Ya know, maybe this isn’t the place for that? Everyone is minding their own business trying to have a nice time, we don’t need to be reminded that bad things are happening somewhere. “bUt iT’s a gEnoCiDe” they screech. Okay? And I can’t do anything about that while eating my overpriced, under-sauced spring roll. It’s an inappropriate time. It’s a street fair, go away.
My pessimistic ex-co-worker loved the culture war nonsense. Borderline obsessive. First thing in the morning he’s immediately quoting Kamala Harris, presuming I had seen the clip. There wasn’t even a ‘hello’, ‘how was your weekend’ or any usual small talk co-workers engage in. Dude, it’s 6 am, and I’ve had 5 hours of sleep, do you need to bring this up now? Just straight into culture war/politics, drenched in a good coating of negativity. All before my coffee. It’s not what I need to start the day, go away.
Well lucky I can tune out and read a book about music. Surely that’s unrelated to politics… right?
If you said ‘yes’ - oh, how naive of you!
I just finished Listen, On Music, Sound and Us by Michel Faber. From the title, one might assume it’s about music. 40% of it is. The other 60% tenuously connects racism and sexism with music to make a big point about how he thinks those things are wrong - as if the readers weren’t already aware.
He’s perturbed by the fact that classical music’s audience is mostly white - like that’s somehow a problem. He has a chapter whining about how the majority of Wikipedia articles are written by men (I for one salute those men who do that) and that this is somehow proof of the ‘patriarchy’. At one point he talks about prejudice in music and how it’s widely acceptable to judge people based on their musical preference. I think the only reason he brought this up was so he could feel good about saying this:
I wanted to read about time signatures, why the major and minor scales feel different, and the evolution of various genres. Instead, he complains about classical composers being mostly white men (while remaining suspiciously silent on the black rap scene). God, it was so tiring getting through this book. Nothing but identity politics, grovelling self-flagellation and posturing. This was not written to be a book about music at all. It’s a vehicle for him to virtue signal.
He can’t just write about music, he has to let people know he’s a good person. Pathetic. Write about music - have your own political beliefs, that’s fine, but stop thrusting them upon your disinterested readers. I just want to read a book, go away.
So what’s the problem?
The downside to people whose mind is entrenched in the political atmosphere is it’s a major turn-off for others. When I see these activists constantly bemoaning over one issue or the other, it has the opposite of the intended effect. I become less passionate about their cause. I am less likely to help them when they’re shoving it in my face, telling me I’m a bad person if I do not support them. Sorry, I don’t take kindly to moral blackmail.
They also find it hard to switch off. If the only content one consumes is related to the culture war, then one's thoughts will focus on that. The blinders will be put up and all other interesting things in the world are gone. They can be sitting with a group of people wondering why they aren’t talking about the trans bathroom issues.
These sorts of things are okay when it’s brought up every once in a while, but if that’s all someone ever wants to talk about, it becomes tiring. If one’s whole life is hyper-focused on a single aspect- politics, a sport, or a religion - it’s a turn-off for those not aligned with that same goal.
Be careful how often you choose to bring up political/cultural stuff, even with those you are comfortable with. A lot of the time it will be doused in negativity because you’re usually complaining about how the ‘other side’ acts. People are not fun to be around when all they do is grumble. I’m guilty of this as well. It’s easy to do, but hardly conducive to happiness.
If you’re to take away one thing it’s this: You don’t have to feel bad for not caring about an issue.
Remember, there was a time when this wasn’t happening. Well before the internet, well before TV or radio. Before any of us were alive. You were only aware of the happenings in your immediate surroundings. Hearing about scandals across the other side of the country, let alone the world was rare. And when you did hear about it, much time would have passed. This is the result of us having an immediate connection with the entire globe, for better or for worse.
Let people come together without pushing an ideology. This constant need to bring up politics and culture only makes people more divided because you’re placing people into a group of either, us vs them. Please, not everything needs to be political.