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To avoid the subject is to, implicitly, side with the status quo. "Everything is political", even the choice to avoid politics.
by flir 6y ago
To avoid the subject is to, implicitly, side with the status quo. "Everything is political", even the choice to avoid politics.
- gedy 6y agoOnly in your belief system. Not mine and others.
- nerdponx 6y agoConsider that this might be a privileged perspective. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to carry out their lives regardless of what happens in politics.
- will4274 6y agoIn my experience, the people saying "the ability to not pay attention to politics is privilege" are typically privileged rich white women, not oppressed minorities - those people don't like talking about politics in knitting club. Just a sample size of one.
- nerdponx 6y agoAnd in my experience, it's trans people, DACA recipients, people with dark skin, and people who identify as queer.
- gedy 6y agoLikewise, not everyone has the privilege of dragging politics into every facet of their lives. Many people like me were bullied by groups when they were younger. And these supposed "anti-hate" mobs look an awful lot like those bullies.
- none_to_remain 6y agoPolitical involvement is dominated by the privileged
- flir 6y agoTo be honest, you sound like a flat earther. Reality isn't a belief system. Would your hypothetical knitting club allow all patterns? That's a political position. If not, would it allow a pattern with the word "VEGAN" baked into it? Yes or no, that's a political position too. There's no flow through that paragraph that doesn't end in making a political choice. You can't avoid politics, you can only pretend to.
- nerdponx 6y agoAnd other people don't want their club to be political as such, but they feel personally threatened by people with certain political views. They feel uncomfortable with even the suggestion that someone in their club might hold such views. This is true regardless of one's personal political affiliation. I know at least a few people who think (not without justification) that American political conservatives generally want them and everyone like them dead and/or in some state of second-class citizenship. On the flipside, I know a handful of conservatives who believe fervently that left-leaning political policy is going to destroy their and their families' livelihoods, leaving their children without the future that they've worked hard to build. I don't see how anyone could be comfortable in a knitting club alongside someone who they see as a literal existential threat.
- TheOtherHobbes 6y agoIt's not specifically a knitting club problem, is it? The corollary is that it's not realistic to expect hobby knitters to solve a set of radioactively toxic political problems. Not even locally.
- nerdponx 6y agoIndeed and well-said.
- leoedin 6y agoThis is exactly why they _should_ be in a knitting club together. To deflate these tribalistic views which are mostly fuelled by isolation from each other.