Ask Lemmy

Distancing from politics is a political act.

Being embedded in a society formed by politics, they become beneficiary and victim to what others decide.

I can empathize and understand why one would be apolitical. Some things need activism and political involvement, though. Investing the minimum is not that hard - if you at least know your sources. If they're aware of being a beneficiary and there's no immediate need for activism, I'm find with their political decision to be apolitical. If they ignore (glaring) issues, I may be a bit disappointed or sad.

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.

Assuming US or similar, they're dumber than the MAGA cultists at this point, or are MAGA themselves but ashamed to admit it.

Government is inevitable.

Apolitical people just want to avoid conflict.

Cowards living in denial.

They irritate me. I guess I sort of understand, some people have too much going on in their personal lives to pay attention to politics, but it still drives me mad. Especially given the current situation in the Untied States. It's inching closer and closer to full on holocaust. Soon, people will be being imprisoned and executed purely because of their race and there will be people going "I don't know anything about that cause I don't follow politics". And it will be because of people who couldn't be bothered to pay attention and vote against it.

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.

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.

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.

They're often conservatives who don't have the balls to admit it.

They're cowards.

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.

"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."

I'm reminded of Werner von Braun

Children.

Fully and wholely children. Politics matter; shutting your ears and eyes to reality is not a viable strategy long term, honestly not even in the short term.

Children arent expected to participate in civic matters, at least to the degree adults do. You shirk those duties you are a child in practice. I'm not saying you need a stance on every thing that happens in a society but saying I don't do politics (no the same as saying I'm not informed enough to have a strong opinion) is not becoming of a responsible adult in a functional society. Unfortunately we have a lot of people who say they're not into politics as a cover for their beliefs in bad policy.