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I think that the term "politics" makes it very abstract what we're talking about. If you substitute in some salient issue, like "jailing children", then it kind

I think that the term "politics" makes it very abstract what we're talking about. If you substitute in some salient issue, like "jailing children", then it kind of changes the tone. It's just politics -> It's just jailing children People are ending friendships over politics -> People are ending friendships over jailing children "Team Red" and "Team Blue" -> Team jail children, Team do not jail children

gojomo 7y ago
Your desire to replace the meta-discussion of "politics" with reduction to a highly-emotional framing of a pet issue ("jailing children") is an excellent example of why the politicize-everything mindset is so corrosive.
- patientplatypus 7y ago
  Disagree. You can do it with healthcare too. Team "spent 4 years attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with nothing" vs Team "Universal Medical Care for Everyone" Or tax cuts - Team "Gave trillions away via a big corporate tax cut" vs Team "Proposal to fund higher education via Wealth Tax" Or environmentalism - Team "denying there's a problem while the permafrost melts" vs Team "Wants to do something before society literally falls around us" Or Treason - Team "Has president in White House that literally asked Ukraine for dirt on his political opponent" vs Team "Holy Fucking Shit!" It seems super frustrating dealing with articles that say that "politics" is stressing me out when really it's that the right has literally driven the country into the ground. What in god's name are they doing? We have a president that is literally laughing about killing immigrants days before a national shooting in Texas, who commits high crimes via Twitter, and worse! What Republican is speaking out against him? And they own the senate, so we've had 4 years of deadlock. And that's just the United States! In the UK you have crazy Boris Johnson literally doing everything he possibly can to crash the country out of the European Union because no one was willing to work with Theresa May. God knows why as the effects for the economy (and Ireland for God's sakes - they have a border between Northern Ireland and Ireland that would have to go back up - and it could cause the Troubles again!) would be horrific. Probably because he has money on it somehow. And he attempted to essentially dissolve parliament that then unprecedentedly got thrown out by their Supreme Court and the entire thing is just a shit show. And then there's Modi, and Bolsonaro is burning down the rain forest. The thing is the entire planet looks like it's having an attack of conscience and we could be looking at a breakdown of the global order. Things have been ok bordering on decent in most parts of the world for the last 50 years, as compared to the last 500 that preceded them. But we paid for the prosperity by consuming more than we should, and, as "stuff" starts to run out perhaps people are just no longer interested in sharing with others or playing nice. That's a really scary thought.
  - gojomo 7y ago
    This compulsion to steer every discussion into simplistic partisan campaign talking-points is not good for people's mental or physical health, as the linked study suggests. I hope you learn to disengage before accumulating too much damage.
    - patientplatypus 7y ago
      It's not a talking point to say I'm scared for my country because my president is literally asking a foreign power to get dirt on his enemies. Like, I'm worried here. This is bad, right? This isn't a simplistic partisan campaign talking point - I mean it shouldn't right? We should all have some basic values we all subscribe to, like a president should keep his oath of office and not torture kids. I'm scared we as a country no longer share those basic values because there's a lot of people who are just angry. And that freaks me out. I mean that's pretty normal, right?
      - username90 7y ago
        > This is bad, right? Both of the last two republican presidents started wars killing and displacing way more than anything Trump did, this isn't so bad compared to that. The only significant thing this administration did was to ignore climate science, which is huge yes, but it isn't something new it is just normal american corporate lobbying. USA has been a major polluter for a really long time and hasn't really done much about it under any presidency.
    - snowron6 7y ago
      Personally, I think it's more damaging that positions like, "Let's not lock children in cages", or "Let's actually listen to the scientific consensus on climate change rather than people paid by the oil industry" or considered partisan viewpoints. I totally get political fatigue, I'm getting really tired of all the shit going on too, but when pointing out the president blatantly committed a crime is considered partisan, the issue isn't that people talk about politics too much.
      - 7y ago
_edo 7y ago
You're demonstrating why friendships are ending over politics.
seattle_spring 7y ago
You can have an opinion without ramming it down your friends' throats at every opportunity.
rjf72 7y ago
Imagine this from another perspective. Let's say you saw somebody trying to suggest that the abortion debate was about murdering babies versus not murdering babies. What is your response going to be to them and to such a notion? Of course it's foolish, at best. It is taking an extremely complex topic with significant nuance and then trying to distill down into the most emotionally charged, and deeply misleading, one-liner. And it does nothing except drive emotional responses. It's not like somebody is going to sit there pondering, 'Wow, you know - I never realized that murdering babies was wrong. I agree with you. Thanks so much!' Obviously nobody supports arbitrarily murdering babies, nor does anybody support arbitrarily imprisoning children. The emotional responses you're going to get are not going to be productive. You're going to get love or hate. No discussion, no progress, no nothing except an ever furthering chasm. By contrast if we frame issues as they actually are we can rationally discuss them with one another and perhaps point of things or ideas one side or the other had not considered. And even if we disagree at the end of the day, perhaps we can at least have some degree of understanding of why those we disagree with think in the way that they do.

gojomo 7y ago

Your desire to replace the meta-discussion of "politics" with reduction to a highly-emotional framing of a pet issue ("jailing children") is an excellent example of why the politicize-everything mindset is so corrosive.

patientplatypus 7y ago
Disagree. You can do it with healthcare too. Team "spent 4 years attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with nothing" vs Team "Universal Medical Care for Everyone" Or tax cuts - Team "Gave trillions away via a big corporate tax cut" vs Team "Proposal to fund higher education via Wealth Tax" Or environmentalism - Team "denying there's a problem while the permafrost melts" vs Team "Wants to do something before society literally falls around us" Or Treason - Team "Has president in White House that literally asked Ukraine for dirt on his political opponent" vs Team "Holy Fucking Shit!" It seems super frustrating dealing with articles that say that "politics" is stressing me out when really it's that the right has literally driven the country into the ground. What in god's name are they doing? We have a president that is literally laughing about killing immigrants days before a national shooting in Texas, who commits high crimes via Twitter, and worse! What Republican is speaking out against him? And they own the senate, so we've had 4 years of deadlock. And that's just the United States! In the UK you have crazy Boris Johnson literally doing everything he possibly can to crash the country out of the European Union because no one was willing to work with Theresa May. God knows why as the effects for the economy (and Ireland for God's sakes - they have a border between Northern Ireland and Ireland that would have to go back up - and it could cause the Troubles again!) would be horrific. Probably because he has money on it somehow. And he attempted to essentially dissolve parliament that then unprecedentedly got thrown out by their Supreme Court and the entire thing is just a shit show. And then there's Modi, and Bolsonaro is burning down the rain forest. The thing is the entire planet looks like it's having an attack of conscience and we could be looking at a breakdown of the global order. Things have been ok bordering on decent in most parts of the world for the last 50 years, as compared to the last 500 that preceded them. But we paid for the prosperity by consuming more than we should, and, as "stuff" starts to run out perhaps people are just no longer interested in sharing with others or playing nice. That's a really scary thought.
- gojomo 7y ago
  This compulsion to steer every discussion into simplistic partisan campaign talking-points is not good for people's mental or physical health, as the linked study suggests. I hope you learn to disengage before accumulating too much damage.
  - patientplatypus 7y ago
    It's not a talking point to say I'm scared for my country because my president is literally asking a foreign power to get dirt on his enemies. Like, I'm worried here. This is bad, right? This isn't a simplistic partisan campaign talking point - I mean it shouldn't right? We should all have some basic values we all subscribe to, like a president should keep his oath of office and not torture kids. I'm scared we as a country no longer share those basic values because there's a lot of people who are just angry. And that freaks me out. I mean that's pretty normal, right?
    - username90 7y ago
      > This is bad, right? Both of the last two republican presidents started wars killing and displacing way more than anything Trump did, this isn't so bad compared to that. The only significant thing this administration did was to ignore climate science, which is huge yes, but it isn't something new it is just normal american corporate lobbying. USA has been a major polluter for a really long time and hasn't really done much about it under any presidency.
  - snowron6 7y ago
    Personally, I think it's more damaging that positions like, "Let's not lock children in cages", or "Let's actually listen to the scientific consensus on climate change rather than people paid by the oil industry" or considered partisan viewpoints. I totally get political fatigue, I'm getting really tired of all the shit going on too, but when pointing out the president blatantly committed a crime is considered partisan, the issue isn't that people talk about politics too much.
    - 7y ago

_edo 7y ago

You're demonstrating why friendships are ending over politics.

seattle_spring 7y ago

You can have an opinion without ramming it down your friends' throats at every opportunity.

rjf72 7y ago

Imagine this from another perspective. Let's say you saw somebody trying to suggest that the abortion debate was about murdering babies versus not murdering babies. What is your response going to be to them and to such a notion? Of course it's foolish, at best. It is taking an extremely complex topic with significant nuance and then trying to distill down into the most emotionally charged, and deeply misleading, one-liner. And it does nothing except drive emotional responses. It's not like somebody is going to sit there pondering, 'Wow, you know - I never realized that murdering babies was wrong. I agree with you. Thanks so much!' Obviously nobody supports arbitrarily murdering babies, nor does anybody support arbitrarily imprisoning children. The emotional responses you're going to get are not going to be productive. You're going to get love or hate. No discussion, no progress, no nothing except an ever furthering chasm. By contrast if we frame issues as they actually are we can rationally discuss them with one another and perhaps point of things or ideas one side or the other had not considered. And even if we disagree at the end of the day, perhaps we can at least have some degree of understanding of why those we disagree with think in the way that they do.