Is Apoliticism a Good or a Bad Thing?

[Psyduck]

It's a good thing. How else can we let people know we are euphoric and illuminated above the rest of them?

 

[Unassuming Local Guy]

If having and espousing opinions on [media driven outrage of the week] is mandatory, then so is having and espousing opinions on literally everything, which is not only impossible but would be paralyzing if it wasn't.

Tell me about your opinion on Ghanian military policy. What, you don't have one? Are you some kind of convictionless moron? How about the economic policy of Seychelles. Nothing? Wow, what's it like being a brainless sheep? I bet you don't even have strong opinions on the Silla-Tang alliance. You disgust me.

Denounce this atrocity. Now this one. Now this one. Over and over, forever. There are more atrocities than a human could possibly care about in a lifetime of study, but if you ever stop, you're tacitly endorsing every genocide and massacre you forgot to say was bad.

These two tribes are fighting. Take a side. No I don't care that you're completely oblivious to their situation, you need to hate one of them. Okay, now these other two tribes. Forever. If you ever refuse it means you're choosing the side I hate, which is the side of evil. I am now justified in destroying you and your family and there's nothing you can do about it because I have nothing you can sue me for.

 

[jje100010001]

Public apoliticalism is a good thing, and I honestly wish more people were publicly apolitical. Not everything should be considered political, contrary to popular mantras.

Democracies and republics were not designed to account for everyone wanting a word on the issue, nor for everyone’s opinions to be considered equal.

 

[ConfederateIrishman]

Its actually good for most people to be apolitical and the fact democracy and democratic republics need everyone to be political to keep things running means they are ultimately bad systems.

Leave politics to a trained nobility; Let the plebs just grill for god's sake.

 

[TheProdigalStunna]

Its actually good for most people to be apolitical and the fact democracy and democratic republics need everyone to be political to keep things running means they are ultimately bad systems.

Leave politics to a trained nobility; Let the plebs just grill for god's sake.

Unironically this.

I'm reminded of something Angela Merkel, who grew up in the GDR, once said: "Life in the GDR was almost comfortable in a certain way sometimes, because there were some things one simply couldn't influence." I know that saying that the Eastern Bloc was anything but evil incarnate, or that Merkel is anything but a soulless globalist technocrat, will ruffle some feathers here, but there is some truth to that statement. In a liberal democracy, there is always the burden one feels that the world can be changed, and indeed it is even one's responsibility to do so. In a dictatorship where all problems were almost solely in the government's hands, one can have the peace of mind to point to that apparatus as the source of all misfortune. The people can enjoy knowing that they had no role in the problems of society. In a democracy, it really is a war of all against all. You can't point to the central planners, you have to point to the capitalists, the blacks, the whites, the federal reserve, the police, etc. And everyone, your neighbor, your family members, your race, you yourself, shoulder that burden. I really do think that's why there is this profound sense of despair at the heart of the political world today: we believe we can change the world, the world is terribly sick and heading off a cliff, and yet there is no one really at the reins. The elites themselves at war with one another.

One of the things that has always amused me about modern Left, specifically the American Left, is that it has always admired democracy as the highest of all political aspirations. Given the failures of a centrally planned economy (which I don't deny, and most people wouldn't deny), they usually propose some kind of economic democracy where all economic decisions are in the hands of the people. Listen to someone like Chomsky, who treats Libertarian Socialism as the logical endpoint of Liberalism, and generally tosses aside any of the pre-liberal warnings about the excesses of democracy as merely reactionaries trying to hold onto their power. While I am a fan of cooperatives, putting every economic decision in the hands of the people, I think, is a recipe for disaster, for turning every man against every man. Imagine if every broken window, every pothole in the road, every food shortage, every puff of polluting smoke could not be directed at a concrete entity but the whole of society. The responsibility would be too much to bear.

At the end of the day, people do not mind having responsibilities outsourced. One of the deepest human needs is the right to be left alone, to be unbothered. To grill for God's sake.

 

[hundredpercent]

In a dictatorship where all problems were almost solely in the government's hands, one can have the peace of mind to point to that apparatus as the source of all misfortune. The people can enjoy knowing that they had no role in the problems of society. In a democracy, it really is a war of all against all. You can't point to the central planners, you have to point to the capitalists, the blacks, the whites, the federal reserve, the police, etc. And everyone, your neighbor, your family members, your race, you yourself, shoulder that burden

Isn't that what makes democracy such a good system? Whatever decision the government makes, they were ultimately elected by the people, and so the people are ultimately responsible for their decisions.

 

[Dumpsterfire Enthusiast]

Tend not to say anything political recently since my opinions will seriously piss off lefties who absolutely need to start pointless arguments and they're unfortunately common where i live. I dont see the point in getting so pissed off about things that dont effect me personally and i cant do anything about

 

[Irritable Bowel Syndrome]

Isn't that what makes democracy such a good system? Whatever decision the government makes, they were ultimately elected by the people, and so the people are ultimately responsible for their decisions.

Uhh no, that's exactly why democracy is a bad system for exactly the reason you stated. Have you seen the average person lately?

 

[AmpleApricots]

People should care way more about their local politics than they really do. The dude that's local to your state/city/district/whatever probably has an more immediate effect on what's happening in your life than the head of state ever had, and contrary to the head of state, he might get away with shit that head never would get away with and might already been there for twenty years because just nobody ever bothered to vote him out.

I'll also maintain that discussing politics with some random retards on the internet is the worst waste of time there is.