Are you Anti-Political?

[Ahriman]

It's not for everyone. Still better than any other news source.

Better in what respect?

More respectable and trustworthy (by far) than anyone else.

[zebo-the-fat]

Better in what respect?

More respectable and trustworthy (by far) than anyone else.

you think so??

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

'If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.' - Plato

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

-Back to something like a useful discussion.

Boru, would you say that I'm making a distinction that makes no difference?  I don't vote and I was appointed (in part) on the basis of folks perceiving me as apolitical.  I have (strong) political views....but I go out of my way to ignore those views in my capacity as a member.  Is that political?

I know how I think the world should be - but I'm not wedded to making it that way, particularly when some other way solves a problem in front of me.

I was merely pointing out that taking a political job (elected or appointed - doesn't much matter) hardly makes you apolitical. You said you vote at the county level, which is a political activity, so that's not really being apolitical. Even offering pragmatic, non-party affiliated suggestions that have consequences for your community is a political endeavour.

I suppose I was trying (not very well, in retrospect) to highlight the difference between 'politics' and 'party politics'. Your own George Washington was a consummate politician who warned about the danger of political parties.

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

Sure, but I'd characterize what we do as something akin to working at the dmv, lol.

[vulcanlogician]

I'm anti-political as well as unsocial. Ultimately, I'm anti tribal.

Are you pro-politics in general? Pro-democracy but otherwise against politics? Are you apathetic about politics? Are you pro some other form of politics? (Meritocracy, Aristocracy, Monarchy, Communism, etc, etc)?

How much do you care about politics and in which direction?

Are you, perhaps, some combination of the above depending on your mood, or whatever?

I have attached a poll.

IDK where this thread has gone since the OP and page one. Like Angrboda, I dropped out at 2016 (two years before her, anyway). It wasn't serious Trump-disillusionment. Trump was more the straw that broke the camel's back. I used to be really into politics, but have since become just... disillusioned. I could give a fuck about current politics. But I'm still interested in underlying principles.

To me, proper politics isn't about tribes. It's about ideas. Each ought to (preferably using reason/logic) come up with a political party that supports their aims and values. But politics is seldom about that in practice. Democracy, as much as I like it, forces politics into the realm of demographics, that the demographics involved end up resolving political disputes rather than which idea or political philosophy is best.

I tend to think anarchism is the best system, IF we could get it to work. We may be able to, we may not. Something I don't like about anarchism is that it seems unstable-- it could lead out of itself. I've done quite a bit of thinking about whether some stable "republican" (small "r") form of anarchism could be conceived of that didn't have this issue.

I also like meritocracy. But meritocracy isn't without its shortcomings. When you get right down to it, excellence is a disputed term, and who REALLY wants a system that emphasizes rewarding those who have merit over those who don't. Like, meritless people serve an important purpose. Even from a utility standpoint, meritocracy has trouble seeing beyond its own nose. It's like going into an ecosystem and trying to remove the organisms that "serve" that ecosystem and remove the organisms that don't. But the fact is, the organisms presence (even the "worthless" ones) all make a contribution to what the ecosystem is in the first place. I tend to look at human social life on those same terms. But still, I like the idea of some kind of meritocratic structure being present in society.

[Disagreeable]

I'm a political junkie.  When I was younger I was apolitical.  The 2018 election changed me.

Similar. Until, um, this year I think. Stopped caring again. More interested in COVID now. And just glad that we are Trumpless.

---

These are not mutually exclusive options.

Right. (I did allow you to select multiple, and I also allowed an 'other' box. Do you suggest anything else?).

Also it is unclear what “anti-political” means.

'Definition of 'antipolitical'
in British English
(ˌæntɪpəˈlɪtɪkəl)
ADJECTIVE
opposed to politics or political principles
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers'

 

One could no more operate in a society and object to the concept of and strategy in public affairs than one could live on earth and object to its gravity.

Debatable. You must have never met me before. Or Diogenes. Or Schopenhauer. Or Epicurus. Or anybody who truly matters. No offense. Or do I misunderstand you?

Society is not necessarily intelligent individualistically. Sure, an ant colony is pretty smart but so are individual spiders. But just you wait until you have a colony of spiders ... or Bears more tribalistic and intelligent than humans (hypothetically—it's a metaphor). But I digress.

Quality > quantity. Because the former can also develop the latter. But the latter can never develop the former. Period.

[JairCrawford]

I don’t think I was ever anti-political as much as I was struggling to find someone with policies to match what my old political beliefs were like. I used to be fiscally liberal but socially more conservative, due to my religious environment. A couple of things happened. I gradually started to become more and more socially liberal, and 2016 got me out to vote because I couldn’t fathom a certain former reality TV host becoming president after the campaign he ran. Since then I haven’t missed an election, and though I still consider myself an independent because I feel the two party system has largely led to a lot of problems, every time I’ve voted since 2016 has basically been a referendum against the current GOP. Blue all the way down ballot, and when a GOP candidate is unchallenged, I left it blank. If you can’t tell, the current GOP scares me.

[Silver]

I'm basically a political atheist, but I'll always vote Democrat come election time.

[Rev. Rye]

Depends on the situation. If it's about moving America towards a model more like the kind Western Europe tends to take for granted, I'm extremely for it. Radical jackasses on the Internet (whether the obvious fucking Nazis, or the obnoxious "SJW" types who seem to live mostly on Twitter and the crappier parts of BreadTube from my experience) I detest like a sickness. American party politics I'm more than a little cynical about, but it's fucking obvious which ones are the depressingly ineffectual ones and which ones are evil. And as an Anglotopia columnist, I'm expected to be very much anti-political, specifically because the boss doesn't want to deal with the flame wars that happen when politics enter the mix.