4 ms·

> Politics are impossible to escape That's a bold claim to put in the title but I believe it's generally true unless you're in a position to not have to direct

by nickjj 7y ago

> Politics are impossible to escape That's a bold claim to put in the title but I believe it's generally true unless you're in a position to not have to directly deal with paying taxes (homeless or so rich that someone else deals with it for you). I would consider myself to be extremely unpolitical. Honestly speaking I don't even know who my state's mayor is, I never voted and I don't listen to the news. I simply don't care about any of that stuff because I know as an individual it's close to impossible to change anything due to how politics work in the first place (it follows money not popularity). However, when it comes to paying taxes or health insurance penalties you can't avoid thinking about or dealing with it and it's stressful even in those short doses of having to deal with taxes a few times a year (quarterly taxes).

admax88q 7y ago
Paying taxes is not politics. Being stressed about that is just the same as being stressed about any other personal administration task.
- nickjj 7y ago
  > Paying taxes is not politics. Being stressed about that is just the same as being stressed about any other personal administration task. I think it's very much related because as soon as you talk or think about taxes you immediately correlate it to forcefully giving the government a large amount of your hard earned money. And now it becomes political because you might not see directs benefits of that, so now you wonder why you pay so many hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxes over your life, but there's potholes in your neighborhood for years that could break a car's axle and thieves are breaking into houses with police who don't care enough to solve the mystery, all while you continue to pay some of the highest state tax in the US (percent wise). And it snow balls from there. You begin to wonder why so much has to be spent on things you don't necessarily agree with and before you know it, you're ruminating on this stuff to the point where your heart is racing and you want to move to a private ungoverned island. Thinking about stuff like that is super disappointing / demoralizing to me, so I try my best to avoid it as much as possible. I know avoiding bad things is usually terrible advice but this is one case where I'm more than happy to not play the game or only play the absolute bare minimum to enjoy my life the best I can.
- Nasrudith 7y ago
  It is politics in a literal defacto way of supporting it more than literal open rebellion of the "rather be in jail than support this". Said position is very radical and has seldom been taken much less effective. I think the closest example I heard of involved the Japanese Burakumin's simple request to not be called a euphemism after their excluded enclaves instead of a slur which translates roughly to "an abundance of filth/defilement" in exchange for paying taxes after they were previously shunned even from that. Ironically said outcast status was apparentlynonce a /privledge/ or blessing apparently. Anyway It is so embedded into the norms that it is uncontentious and a divergence is considered "political". So objectively concretely true but perhaps not connotationally in the same way an uninduced miscarriage is technically an abortion and including all miscarriages in abortion rate statistics would be considered deliberately misleading without explicit characterization that the technical sense was meant such as tracking all pregnancy end conditions by percentage.
davidw 7y ago
> as an individual it's close to impossible to change anything This is actually not true at all. A small group of determined people is often able to affect large changes. Here's one thing I managed to do in Italy, a country where I'm not even a citizen: https://blog.therealitaly.com/2015/04/16/fixing-italy-a-little-bit-at-a-time/ https://blog.therealitaly.com/2015/04/16/fixing-italy-a-litt... The most effective way to never change anything is to cynically decide that it's impossible and not even get involved.
programmarchy 7y ago
You may not be interested in politics but politics is interested in you...
elhudy 7y ago
>I simply don't care about any of that stuff because I know as an individual it's close to impossible to change anything due to how politics work in the first place (it follows money not popularity). Lori Lightfoot became the mayor of Chicago with 1/6 of the funding of the top fundraiser, and 7th most funding overall. You should participate in your local elections, your vote matters. Bill Daley $8,741,434.81 Toni Preckwinkle $4,608,041.90 Gery Chico $3,024,652.09 Jerry Joyce $2,784,410.00 Susana Mendoza $2,748,365.91 Willie Wilson $1,612,681.16 Lori Lightfoot $1,537,456.53
mgbmtl 7y ago
Or if you have kids in school/college, family/friends/colleagues burdened by the health system, stuck in immigration limbo, who can't afford housing, kids who want to live above 40 or not get shot at in school, etc :) It's actually pretty easy to change things. A few think-tanks actively invest in propagating this idea that it's impossible to change things, because lower voter turnout works better for them. Local elections have even lower turnout, therefore giving a lot of power to those who can participate in the process. Sure, federal politics are further away. If you feel alienated by that, start by your municipal politics, attend counsel meetings, join a local political party and their meetings (their nomination process might only have 20-50 people actually picking your next candidate). I'm in Canada, which is a bit different, but I have participated in a lawsuit against our provincial government (regarding software purchases) and presented myself as a candidate in municipal elections. And trust me, I have little background for that, but it helped me get better acquainted in the processes and I'm pretty happy on how it nudged a few things forward.
save_ferris 7y ago
> I know as an individual it’s close to impossible to change anything due to how politics works A society that fails to participate in their representative democracy is destined to lose it. Voter apathy is one of the greatest existential threats to our society, hands down. Voting is one of the easiest, smallest commitments you can make as a citizen. Activism certainly isn’t for everyone, and many aspects of the American political system are designed to systematically discourage voting and participation, but that’s not a valid reason not to exercise your basic voting rights. Nothing in our system of government is guaranteed.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

by nickjj 7y ago

admax88q 7y ago

Paying taxes is not politics. Being stressed about that is just the same as being stressed about any other personal administration task.

nickjj 7y ago
> Paying taxes is not politics. Being stressed about that is just the same as being stressed about any other personal administration task. I think it's very much related because as soon as you talk or think about taxes you immediately correlate it to forcefully giving the government a large amount of your hard earned money. And now it becomes political because you might not see directs benefits of that, so now you wonder why you pay so many hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxes over your life, but there's potholes in your neighborhood for years that could break a car's axle and thieves are breaking into houses with police who don't care enough to solve the mystery, all while you continue to pay some of the highest state tax in the US (percent wise). And it snow balls from there. You begin to wonder why so much has to be spent on things you don't necessarily agree with and before you know it, you're ruminating on this stuff to the point where your heart is racing and you want to move to a private ungoverned island. Thinking about stuff like that is super disappointing / demoralizing to me, so I try my best to avoid it as much as possible. I know avoiding bad things is usually terrible advice but this is one case where I'm more than happy to not play the game or only play the absolute bare minimum to enjoy my life the best I can.
Nasrudith 7y ago
It is politics in a literal defacto way of supporting it more than literal open rebellion of the "rather be in jail than support this". Said position is very radical and has seldom been taken much less effective. I think the closest example I heard of involved the Japanese Burakumin's simple request to not be called a euphemism after their excluded enclaves instead of a slur which translates roughly to "an abundance of filth/defilement" in exchange for paying taxes after they were previously shunned even from that. Ironically said outcast status was apparentlynonce a /privledge/ or blessing apparently. Anyway It is so embedded into the norms that it is uncontentious and a divergence is considered "political". So objectively concretely true but perhaps not connotationally in the same way an uninduced miscarriage is technically an abortion and including all miscarriages in abortion rate statistics would be considered deliberately misleading without explicit characterization that the technical sense was meant such as tracking all pregnancy end conditions by percentage.

davidw 7y ago

> as an individual it's close to impossible to change anything This is actually not true at all. A small group of determined people is often able to affect large changes. Here's one thing I managed to do in Italy, a country where I'm not even a citizen: https://blog.therealitaly.com/2015/04/16/fixing-italy-a-little-bit-at-a-time/ https://blog.therealitaly.com/2015/04/16/fixing-italy-a-litt... The most effective way to never change anything is to cynically decide that it's impossible and not even get involved.

programmarchy 7y ago

You may not be interested in politics but politics is interested in you...

elhudy 7y ago

>I simply don't care about any of that stuff because I know as an individual it's close to impossible to change anything due to how politics work in the first place (it follows money not popularity). Lori Lightfoot became the mayor of Chicago with 1/6 of the funding of the top fundraiser, and 7th most funding overall. You should participate in your local elections, your vote matters. Bill Daley $8,741,434.81 Toni Preckwinkle $4,608,041.90 Gery Chico $3,024,652.09 Jerry Joyce $2,784,410.00 Susana Mendoza $2,748,365.91 Willie Wilson $1,612,681.16 Lori Lightfoot $1,537,456.53

mgbmtl 7y ago

Or if you have kids in school/college, family/friends/colleagues burdened by the health system, stuck in immigration limbo, who can't afford housing, kids who want to live above 40 or not get shot at in school, etc :) It's actually pretty easy to change things. A few think-tanks actively invest in propagating this idea that it's impossible to change things, because lower voter turnout works better for them. Local elections have even lower turnout, therefore giving a lot of power to those who can participate in the process. Sure, federal politics are further away. If you feel alienated by that, start by your municipal politics, attend counsel meetings, join a local political party and their meetings (their nomination process might only have 20-50 people actually picking your next candidate). I'm in Canada, which is a bit different, but I have participated in a lawsuit against our provincial government (regarding software purchases) and presented myself as a candidate in municipal elections. And trust me, I have little background for that, but it helped me get better acquainted in the processes and I'm pretty happy on how it nudged a few things forward.

save_ferris 7y ago

> I know as an individual it’s close to impossible to change anything due to how politics works A society that fails to participate in their representative democracy is destined to lose it. Voter apathy is one of the greatest existential threats to our society, hands down. Voting is one of the easiest, smallest commitments you can make as a citizen. Activism certainly isn’t for everyone, and many aspects of the American political system are designed to systematically discourage voting and participation, but that’s not a valid reason not to exercise your basic voting rights. Nothing in our system of government is guaranteed.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]