8 ms·

everything is political Can't stand this phrase that literally came out of nowhere. People will try and justify it with walls of text about the oppressed, blah

everything is political Can't stand this phrase that literally came out of nowhere. People will try and justify it with walls of text about the oppressed, blah blah, when it's just an excuse for them to chide you about why you're wrong and why this issue intersects with their politics.

minikites 5y ago
Name a subject or domain that involves people which isn't "political".
- dmpk2k 5y ago
  Me taking a shit? :)
  - shoemakersteve 5y ago
    Is it right for you be taxed for using the sewer system? What are the environmental impacts of the massive scale of human shit having to be processed in treatment plants? Why does the government prevent me from shitting wherever I want, infringing on my freedom? First they take away your rights to shit on your neighbour's porch, then they take away your rights to see your kids on weekends. Stepping stones to tyranny.
    - justin_oaks 5y ago
      You're demonstrating that everything can be made political by those who want to take it on a political tangent.
      - baq 5y ago
        Not OP, but yeah, that was the point. Humans are social, thus political, animals.
        goatlover 5y ago
        That just means there’s a political element to human interaction, not that everything is political. Astronomy is about the cosmos, not politics, but astronomers engage in politics like everyone else. There’s an entire world outside of humanity, and some people are not interested in turning that into more human bickering, which you can easily find in explicitly political and news discussions.
        baq 5y ago
        People being allowed to look at stars is a political issue. I’m a big astronomy fan and I’d like more money to go to astronomers to do more research. That’s political…
  - tstrimple 5y ago
    If only there wasn't a political party who though legislating who can use what bathroom. Now your shit is political too.
  - baq 5y ago
    Pipes to flush your shit into aren’t there because it’s a good idea to have them. They’re there because somebody made a political decision to require them.
- Veen 5y ago
  My love of my partner and my nephews and nieces. My enjoyment of art. My appreciation of the natural world. You can do a political analysis of those things, but they are not intrinsically political. Of course, some on the left believe that there is nothing that isn't political. But I don't think they're correct.
  - NeoTar 5y ago
    For lots of people around the world the ability to love their partner is a very political thing - homosexuality being illegal in a majority of Africa, and punishable by death in parts of the world.
    - Veen 5y ago
      We could quibble about this, but I don't think that makes their love political. The repression is external to their love of each other, not part of it. In fact, it would be a diminishment of their love to analyze it purely through a political framework—which is one reason many people don't like "everything is political". It diminishes many of the most important aspects of our lives.
      - Shish2k 5y ago
        > The repression is external to their love of each other It’s not very “external” when the police are breaking down your door to force themselves into the middle of your activities. It’s something you need to be constantly aware of - if you want to have love at all, then you need to thread it through the government’s loopholes; if you do it in public, you are “an activist”. It would be nice if “love” and “government” could be cleanly separated - but for queer people, that seems to be a fantasy that only straight people have the luxury of believing in :/
  - minikites 5y ago
    Was the art you're enjoying created in a vacuum? Art is often extremely political.
  - MisterBastahrd 5y ago
jowsie 5y ago
This isn't a new phrase that came out of nowhere, I've seen it in use for a few years now. I believe it became more mainstream with this Ted Talk; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=171flckdKic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=171flckdKic
Veen 5y ago
It's not new; it's a variant of the 60s feminist activists' pronouncement that "the personal is political" or "the private is political".
fidesomnes 5y ago
> Can't stand this phrase that literally came out of nowhere. I don't know where you have been or how new you are here but this phrase has been around since at least the 1960's New Left ideological frameworks.
underseacables 5y ago
Everything is political now. Remember a year ago when you couldn’t wear a red hat in public without fear of someone attacking you physically? People are being canceled, fired from their jobs, ostracized in their communities, because they dared to have an opinion that differed from the mob. It’s all political now, and there’s not much we can talk about that someone isn’t going to try to make it political.

minikites 5y ago

Name a subject or domain that involves people which isn't "political".

dmpk2k 5y ago
Me taking a shit? :)
- shoemakersteve 5y ago
  Is it right for you be taxed for using the sewer system? What are the environmental impacts of the massive scale of human shit having to be processed in treatment plants? Why does the government prevent me from shitting wherever I want, infringing on my freedom? First they take away your rights to shit on your neighbour's porch, then they take away your rights to see your kids on weekends. Stepping stones to tyranny.
  - justin_oaks 5y ago
    You're demonstrating that everything can be made political by those who want to take it on a political tangent.
    - baq 5y ago
      Not OP, but yeah, that was the point. Humans are social, thus political, animals.
      - goatlover 5y ago
        That just means there’s a political element to human interaction, not that everything is political. Astronomy is about the cosmos, not politics, but astronomers engage in politics like everyone else. There’s an entire world outside of humanity, and some people are not interested in turning that into more human bickering, which you can easily find in explicitly political and news discussions.
        baq 5y ago
        People being allowed to look at stars is a political issue. I’m a big astronomy fan and I’d like more money to go to astronomers to do more research. That’s political…
- tstrimple 5y ago
  If only there wasn't a political party who though legislating who can use what bathroom. Now your shit is political too.
- baq 5y ago
  Pipes to flush your shit into aren’t there because it’s a good idea to have them. They’re there because somebody made a political decision to require them.
Veen 5y ago
My love of my partner and my nephews and nieces. My enjoyment of art. My appreciation of the natural world. You can do a political analysis of those things, but they are not intrinsically political. Of course, some on the left believe that there is nothing that isn't political. But I don't think they're correct.
- NeoTar 5y ago
  For lots of people around the world the ability to love their partner is a very political thing - homosexuality being illegal in a majority of Africa, and punishable by death in parts of the world.
  - Veen 5y ago
    We could quibble about this, but I don't think that makes their love political. The repression is external to their love of each other, not part of it. In fact, it would be a diminishment of their love to analyze it purely through a political framework—which is one reason many people don't like "everything is political". It diminishes many of the most important aspects of our lives.
    - Shish2k 5y ago
      > The repression is external to their love of each other It’s not very “external” when the police are breaking down your door to force themselves into the middle of your activities. It’s something you need to be constantly aware of - if you want to have love at all, then you need to thread it through the government’s loopholes; if you do it in public, you are “an activist”. It would be nice if “love” and “government” could be cleanly separated - but for queer people, that seems to be a fantasy that only straight people have the luxury of believing in :/
- minikites 5y ago
  Was the art you're enjoying created in a vacuum? Art is often extremely political.
- MisterBastahrd 5y ago

jowsie 5y ago

This isn't a new phrase that came out of nowhere, I've seen it in use for a few years now. I believe it became more mainstream with this Ted Talk; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=171flckdKic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=171flckdKic

Veen 5y ago

It's not new; it's a variant of the 60s feminist activists' pronouncement that "the personal is political" or "the private is political".

fidesomnes 5y ago

> Can't stand this phrase that literally came out of nowhere. I don't know where you have been or how new you are here but this phrase has been around since at least the 1960's New Left ideological frameworks.

underseacables 5y ago

Everything is political now. Remember a year ago when you couldn’t wear a red hat in public without fear of someone attacking you physically? People are being canceled, fired from their jobs, ostracized in their communities, because they dared to have an opinion that differed from the mob. It’s all political now, and there’s not much we can talk about that someone isn’t going to try to make it political.