I look at it as a matter of both privilege and apathy. I get upset (not visibly, of course) when people say they don’t “like” politics, or blow it off entirely. Politics is not some separate entity, we are living in a society! An inherently political game!
Furthermore, there is no “politics” as just a concept. What part of politics? Literally everything is politics. Climate change and environmental care? Food and agriculture? Economics? Culture, beauty, art? How can someone blow off literally everything? To me its an attempt to shut down conversation and demonstrates they don’t care or have no idea about the atrocities that have occurred/are going to due to the West’s collapse and climate change. Am I out of touch? Being non-undedstanding?
Let me know, thanks
Nobody is apolitical.
I get very frustrated with people who claim they are, or people who get out of difficult discussions or reflecting internally on current issues by saying things like “I don’t pay attention to politics/the news” or “we can never know what the truth/right answer is so why bother.”
These are inherently political positions, and ones which almost exclusively benefit the status quo.
I think what people mean by being apolitical, especially people in the imperial core, is that they don’t follow party politics, and they don’t cheer for one team or another. That’s perfectly fine of course, especially knowing as we do that all bourgeois parties are essentially the same. “Politics” in this sense is a distraction from taking care of the real issues we face as working people in a predominantly capitalist world.
It’s hard to get people with this “apolitical” mindset out of it though. Teaching people that “politics” is two or three “diametrically opposed” teams, fighting against each other for life and limb, has been a wildly successful grift on the part of the capitalist class. It’s hard to get people to come to the realization that labour issues, living conditions, social/cultural conditions, environmental issues, and so on are all political, and that we can challenge and change them without needing to declare allegiance to a bourgeois party.
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There’s a relevant adage: “Never discuss religion or politics”
Of course you shouldn’t listen to it, but it’s there because like you said, controversy and relationships. Those ideas tend to be deeply seated as a part of someone’s identity that will get them offended if you insult, and they tend to be beliefs that people want the rest of the world to share.
The real answer is to be careful when talking about them, understand your audience and pick your battles.