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>That's to say, I hardly take any of this to heart or dedicate my time to thinking critically about things that will never affect me. It must be nice to be tha

>That's to say, I hardly take any of this to heart or dedicate my time to thinking critically about things that will never affect me. It must be nice to be that privileged. Most people are not lucky enough to be this insulated from society.

kodah 5y ago
I always thought some of my friends would do what you did to me here, which is to dehumanize me for my choice to maintain my sanity. If you look through my posts you'll see I do belong to a protected class which has struggled for representation over decades, one which most recently saw people blowing their brains out in front of hospitals begging for the system to be better. Politics, in that way, can be perceived as life and death for my group, and of which I have very personal trials with. For a time, I thought "educating" people on what these issues were would make them care more yet as group after group garnered national attention and my group was further deprioritized, villainized, and misrepresented I came to understand that even if people say they care, they will never care the way I care, and so the outrage to fix those issues will never come. It's an unrealistic expectation that everyone else will care about your issues as much as you do and my own experience being on the other end of this equation, where I'm being told this is life and death important, while having to ignore my own priorities and concerns tells me this is not a healthy construct. That's to say, I was wasting time on people I don't know trying to rectify paradigms I was lucky enough to make it through when I could've spent time with my friends who are actually in them. Maybe I am privileged in your definition, in that I made it, but my life-experiences tell quite a different story.
- minikites 5y ago
  I appreciate your thoughtful reply to my hasty comment. I don't think it's about educating other people. It's about educating yourself and being an informed citizen. I think it would be better to engage with your friends on at least some level, instead of smiling along, because even if you're not educating them per se, it helps people feel like their struggle is shared and understood. The other useful thing that I don't consider educating is pushing back to some extent on things they're reciting if they're wrong or lacking context. That's obviously a huge minefield, but can be helpful with many individuals if you know them. Maybe we have different definitions of educating, maybe you don't know anyone where what I've said is an option, maybe you're already doing this and I never asked because my initial comment was thoughtless.
  - kodah 5y ago
    I will not push back on soap-box issues because, unfortunately, too many folks have uttered the line, "x issue is life and death for me and cannot be debated". I get that feeling, because my groups issues are like that for me, however my groups issues aren't of such popularity that I don't have to witness people doing exactly that. It's quite a frustrating paradigm, especially when your political allegiances land you among folks who have quite rich opinions about people of said group and the institutions around them (at times.) All in all, I don't miss the news or politics. I hear about important things and am still "informed" just by the virtue of having a pretty eclectic group of friends. For instance, I heard about the rocket attacks on Israel because part of my team is in Israel. That prompted me to read the entire wikipedia article on this topic, which was illuminating in giving me a fact-based understanding; however what I lack is an opinion. What I don't get is the every day reminders of issues x, y, or z while seeing my groups issues ignored or deprioritized and when friends do this (probably inadvertently) I'm able to tolerate it because I hear it less.
pc86 5y ago
Most people in fact are this privileged, they just choose not to remain as insulated as they could be.

kodah 5y ago

I always thought some of my friends would do what you did to me here, which is to dehumanize me for my choice to maintain my sanity. If you look through my posts you'll see I do belong to a protected class which has struggled for representation over decades, one which most recently saw people blowing their brains out in front of hospitals begging for the system to be better. Politics, in that way, can be perceived as life and death for my group, and of which I have very personal trials with. For a time, I thought "educating" people on what these issues were would make them care more yet as group after group garnered national attention and my group was further deprioritized, villainized, and misrepresented I came to understand that even if people say they care, they will never care the way I care, and so the outrage to fix those issues will never come. It's an unrealistic expectation that everyone else will care about your issues as much as you do and my own experience being on the other end of this equation, where I'm being told this is life and death important, while having to ignore my own priorities and concerns tells me this is not a healthy construct. That's to say, I was wasting time on people I don't know trying to rectify paradigms I was lucky enough to make it through when I could've spent time with my friends who are actually in them. Maybe I am privileged in your definition, in that I made it, but my life-experiences tell quite a different story.

minikites 5y ago
I appreciate your thoughtful reply to my hasty comment. I don't think it's about educating other people. It's about educating yourself and being an informed citizen. I think it would be better to engage with your friends on at least some level, instead of smiling along, because even if you're not educating them per se, it helps people feel like their struggle is shared and understood. The other useful thing that I don't consider educating is pushing back to some extent on things they're reciting if they're wrong or lacking context. That's obviously a huge minefield, but can be helpful with many individuals if you know them. Maybe we have different definitions of educating, maybe you don't know anyone where what I've said is an option, maybe you're already doing this and I never asked because my initial comment was thoughtless.
- kodah 5y ago
  I will not push back on soap-box issues because, unfortunately, too many folks have uttered the line, "x issue is life and death for me and cannot be debated". I get that feeling, because my groups issues are like that for me, however my groups issues aren't of such popularity that I don't have to witness people doing exactly that. It's quite a frustrating paradigm, especially when your political allegiances land you among folks who have quite rich opinions about people of said group and the institutions around them (at times.) All in all, I don't miss the news or politics. I hear about important things and am still "informed" just by the virtue of having a pretty eclectic group of friends. For instance, I heard about the rocket attacks on Israel because part of my team is in Israel. That prompted me to read the entire wikipedia article on this topic, which was illuminating in giving me a fact-based understanding; however what I lack is an opinion. What I don't get is the every day reminders of issues x, y, or z while seeing my groups issues ignored or deprioritized and when friends do this (probably inadvertently) I'm able to tolerate it because I hear it less.

pc86 5y ago

Most people in fact are this privileged, they just choose not to remain as insulated as they could be.