Comment by hjanssen | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hjanssen | Hacker News Reader

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Im not sure that the apolitical stance many people believe to hold is such an apolitical stance. In fact, living in any state and taking part in any kind of society is political in and of itself.

You do not get to take part in any community without having a political stance - being part of a community is communicating that you agree with the morals and values of the community and wilfully accept them - thats the basis and general agreement of a community, it's what differentiates a group of people from a community.

Now, Im not sure that turning a blind eye to the consequences that this has is inherently wrong, that surely depends on what impact the concrete political/moral/ethical stance has, but I disagree with the notion that, really, anything is apolitical. In context, everything is political, and we have to live with the notion that anything we do has impact on other people, as long as the consequences of the the thing we are doing is visible to other people.

You think everything is political because you've failed to make a distinction between morality, culture, and politics. Politics doesn't have to do with "morals and values". It's not a political stance to have a birthday party for your 3 year old or pray in a church or a mosque.

Your second argument is "everything affects everything else". Using that argument we can prove that we're all mass murderers for keeping our thermostats at 70 degrees. One reason this way of thinking is so useless is that it fails to single out actual murderers (i.e. the person who pulls the trigger).

I think it's blurry. Morals and values are very much at the heart of politics.

It's what drives engagement & wins votes.

One side views abortion as a moral sin. The other thinks that access to healthcare is a value and have a moral obligation to fight for the rights of women.

There are a bunch of issues like that.

For me right now my LGBTQ community is being used by Republicans as an election issue. An example where one side thinks (or pretends to in order to win votes) that it's some political issue, while I and many others feel like it's a direct attack on our lives akin to racism & racist jim crow era laws.

> One side views abortion as a moral sin. The other thinks that access to healthcare is a value and have a moral obligation to fight for the rights of women.

How about all the people who view abortion as a sin but think it should be legal anyway? You know, like Joe Biden and every other liberal Catholic.

You're just spitting out talking points.

Sure. Again politics is blurry, messy, blurry. True dichotomy is rare.

But even that example still mixes morals, values, & politics. Joe Biden values legal autonomy & access.

And it is a fundamental campaign issue. He would not win the Dem primary if he was against abortion. You can't un mix the two it's blurred.

I agree, everything is political, and what we consider to be apolitical is oftentimes just a reflection of what we consider to be acceptable politics. Even objective facts about observable phenomena become political in how we interpret them (or outright reject them, see: flat earth). Back during gamergate, for example, this was a point completely lost on the pro-GG side: lingerie as armor and the sexualization of women was so accepted and widespread, you would have to view women primarily as an accessory for men to get upset over relatively unobjectionable depictions of women and call that "forcing politics into video games." Dan Olson made a great point in the same vein in "Cooking Food On The Internet For Fun And Profit" [0] that even what you eat is political: what you consider normal, exotic, and assume others are familiar with or have access to is a reflection on where you grew up, how you grew up, your wealth, and your values.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EXVrzOACv4

Edit: It's also a lot easier to stay "apolitical" when you don't have any skin in the game (or rather, don't think you do). When your rights don't feel threatened, it's really easy to go with the status quo.

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