“Everything is political” is a terrible way to convey that you should care about politics. It conflates the broadest dictionary definition of “politics” with the narrow, collaquial one, and it overwhelms the layman.
How about “take an interest in politics, or it’ll take an interest in you?” It centers the interests of the individual you’re conversing with, and doesn’t leave the implication that politics should be the only thing they care about (contrarily, it posits caring about other things is why you should care about politics.) I see this phrase repeated within the Vtuber community, which is normally a very politics-resistant space, in light of tarrifs driving up merch prices.
It conflates the broadest dictionary definition of “politics” with the narrow, collaquial one
Actually, it completely erases the narrow, colloquial one. I think the colloquial definition of politics is completely unacceptable to use, and I refuse to legitimise it. Words have meanings and I’m going to treat people like they used the correct ones. If they have a problem with that, they can say what they mean instead of what they don’t.
Treating politics like something you can escape is a microaggression against BIPOC people whose identities are politicised every day, and is therefore racist. I’m not going to legitimise racism. If people want to act like politics is avoidable, they can go do it at the klan rally.
A definition of a word that your audience doesn’t understand is pointless. Language is defined from bottom up, not top down.
You’d better be nonwhite to be typing that second paragraph, because I’m not white either.
Telling me “everything is political” when my identity is politicized unfairly sounds more like an excuse for it than defending POC. You sound like you’re making an excuse for culture warriors who bitch and moan whenever a non-white character shows up. LGBT people in my experience tend to correctly insist that their identities are not political. That makes more sense, it correctly puts the onus on the right wing assholes that politicized it.
There is no phrase clever enough to convince any american who doesnt already say they care about politics to say they care about politics.
The people who say this only care about themselves, and will not change until it directly affects them. What we should be striving for is ensuring it affects them.
My use of that phrase was inspired by it’s use in the Vtuber community, a community that is normally extremely hostile to discussing politics (this is one of the things I like about it, but because I already spend a lot of time on politics, not because I’m running from it entirely) after it was affected by tarrifs. So yeah you’re right about that.
“Everything is political” is a terrible way to convey that you should care about politics. It conflates the broadest dictionary definition of “politics” with the narrow, collaquial one, and it overwhelms the layman.
How about “take an interest in politics, or it’ll take an interest in you?” It centers the interests of the individual you’re conversing with, and doesn’t leave the implication that politics should be the only thing they care about (contrarily, it posits caring about other things is why you should care about politics.) I see this phrase repeated within the Vtuber community, which is normally a very politics-resistant space, in light of tarrifs driving up merch prices.
Actually, it completely erases the narrow, colloquial one. I think the colloquial definition of politics is completely unacceptable to use, and I refuse to legitimise it. Words have meanings and I’m going to treat people like they used the correct ones. If they have a problem with that, they can say what they mean instead of what they don’t.
Treating politics like something you can escape is a microaggression against BIPOC people whose identities are politicised every day, and is therefore racist. I’m not going to legitimise racism. If people want to act like politics is avoidable, they can go do it at the klan rally.
A definition of a word that your audience doesn’t understand is pointless. Language is defined from bottom up, not top down.
You’d better be nonwhite to be typing that second paragraph, because I’m not white either.
Telling me “everything is political” when my identity is politicized unfairly sounds more like an excuse for it than defending POC. You sound like you’re making an excuse for culture warriors who bitch and moan whenever a non-white character shows up. LGBT people in my experience tend to correctly insist that their identities are not political. That makes more sense, it correctly puts the onus on the right wing assholes that politicized it.
There is no phrase clever enough to convince any american who doesnt already say they care about politics to say they care about politics. The people who say this only care about themselves, and will not change until it directly affects them. What we should be striving for is ensuring it affects them.
My use of that phrase was inspired by it’s use in the Vtuber community, a community that is normally extremely hostile to discussing politics (this is one of the things I like about it, but because I already spend a lot of time on politics, not because I’m running from it entirely) after it was affected by tarrifs. So yeah you’re right about that.