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> In other words, for me personally, it's not sure that following politics has very much real utility value. This sort of privilege must be nice. Until it runs

> In other words, for me personally, it's not sure that following politics has very much real utility value. This sort of privilege must be nice. Until it runs out. > otherwise I have effectively zero say in how these things turn out Textbook complacency. There are a ton of things you can do to try and make a positive impact. Don't use our eyeballs here to whitewash the fact that you're comfortable in your life and don't want to be bothered with the fact that the world is literally on fire.

everdrive 1y ago
What sort of things are you doing to advance your political views currently?
- sherburt3 1y ago
  Picking fights with strangers on social media apparently...
  - johnnyanmac 1y ago
    That's definiely the biggest thing I "advanced" from earlier on. Fighting others on the internet doesn't change their mind, nor is it really speaking to anyone who actually is in control. There will always be shills and haters and trolls, but that's the noise you need to filter through on the internet if you really want to seek the truth or find solidarity and start taking action. Fighting that base instinct of "I need to call this guy out for how BS this is" was definitely a much harder issue for me than I care to admit last decade.
- notpachet 1y ago
  I didn't say "advance my political views", I said make a positive impact. Help people in your community. Give your extra time and resources to aid others who need it. Not rocket science.
  - everdrive 1y ago
    I agree with you, and I think that helping people around you, volunteering, and generally just being a good neighbor are some of the biggest impacts individuals can make. I'm not sure that heavily engaging with the news really helps you here. We might just be speaking from different frames of reference. If I say "disengage from the news" and someone hears "put your head in the sand and give up," then I agree that's not a great move. On the other hand, if someone is glued to an outrage feed, and "disengagement" still means that they have a good general sense of what's going on, then I'd say that's a positive move.
    - johnnyanmac 1y ago
      There's definitely a spectrum, but to be fair I do see a lot more "put your head in the sand" than "being too engaged and doomer" . Or rather, it varies from community to community. This one is a lot of the former. Ones I see on Reddit are probably a bit too much of the latter everytime I see stuff like "it's too late to vote in 2026" or "protests aren't doing anything, we need more". Saying that just ignores all the lawyers and judges who are in fact slapping such attempts away in real time.
      - everdrive 1y ago
        That's a really fair point, and frame of reference can skew a lot of conversations about what people _should_ be doing. If you talk about parenting advice and "just letting kids be themselves" the advice lands quite differently if you're speaking to an 1800s German family vs. a hippie commune in the 1960s. One may desperately need the advice, and another might need to be reined in a bit.
- johnnyanmac 1y ago
  It's not so much "advance" as "maintain". I want to make sure I have enough context of everything going on, especially in an age where there's a lot of blatant misinformation coming out the mouths of "offiial" sources. Me by myself can't do much, and that's frustrating. But if nothing else, social media does at least let me boost people who do have a voice and can shout through all the spin (even if yes, they need a bit of spin themselves). I've joined a few protests in my area (things that the news will never inform and cover themselves), I try to at least like important news stories on social media to help those kinds of modern reporters rise up. I've been trying to at least keep a pulse on any union situations around here (none, sadly. But it's a muscle to flex with that will pay off later). It doesn't feel signifigant on the day to day, but I do see the wider effects happening overtime. If you feel you don't need to do any work to progress that, I understand. But I also just want to lightly ask to consider the bystander effect. If everyone thinks "someone else will do something", no one will.

everdrive 1y ago

What sort of things are you doing to advance your political views currently?

sherburt3 1y ago
Picking fights with strangers on social media apparently...
- johnnyanmac 1y ago
  That's definiely the biggest thing I "advanced" from earlier on. Fighting others on the internet doesn't change their mind, nor is it really speaking to anyone who actually is in control. There will always be shills and haters and trolls, but that's the noise you need to filter through on the internet if you really want to seek the truth or find solidarity and start taking action. Fighting that base instinct of "I need to call this guy out for how BS this is" was definitely a much harder issue for me than I care to admit last decade.
notpachet 1y ago
I didn't say "advance my political views", I said make a positive impact. Help people in your community. Give your extra time and resources to aid others who need it. Not rocket science.
- everdrive 1y ago
  I agree with you, and I think that helping people around you, volunteering, and generally just being a good neighbor are some of the biggest impacts individuals can make. I'm not sure that heavily engaging with the news really helps you here. We might just be speaking from different frames of reference. If I say "disengage from the news" and someone hears "put your head in the sand and give up," then I agree that's not a great move. On the other hand, if someone is glued to an outrage feed, and "disengagement" still means that they have a good general sense of what's going on, then I'd say that's a positive move.
  - johnnyanmac 1y ago
    There's definitely a spectrum, but to be fair I do see a lot more "put your head in the sand" than "being too engaged and doomer" . Or rather, it varies from community to community. This one is a lot of the former. Ones I see on Reddit are probably a bit too much of the latter everytime I see stuff like "it's too late to vote in 2026" or "protests aren't doing anything, we need more". Saying that just ignores all the lawyers and judges who are in fact slapping such attempts away in real time.
    - everdrive 1y ago
      That's a really fair point, and frame of reference can skew a lot of conversations about what people _should_ be doing. If you talk about parenting advice and "just letting kids be themselves" the advice lands quite differently if you're speaking to an 1800s German family vs. a hippie commune in the 1960s. One may desperately need the advice, and another might need to be reined in a bit.
johnnyanmac 1y ago
It's not so much "advance" as "maintain". I want to make sure I have enough context of everything going on, especially in an age where there's a lot of blatant misinformation coming out the mouths of "offiial" sources. Me by myself can't do much, and that's frustrating. But if nothing else, social media does at least let me boost people who do have a voice and can shout through all the spin (even if yes, they need a bit of spin themselves). I've joined a few protests in my area (things that the news will never inform and cover themselves), I try to at least like important news stories on social media to help those kinds of modern reporters rise up. I've been trying to at least keep a pulse on any union situations around here (none, sadly. But it's a muscle to flex with that will pay off later). It doesn't feel signifigant on the day to day, but I do see the wider effects happening overtime. If you feel you don't need to do any work to progress that, I understand. But I also just want to lightly ask to consider the bystander effect. If everyone thinks "someone else will do something", no one will.