There's something to this, I think. For younger generations, politics has become an identity and seems to influence a significant majority of their life - including who they associate with, etc.
I enjoy the sport of the debate - but am very careful not to "get into it" with people who do not initiate that conversation on their own. Not everyone can have a debate and walk away at the end not thinking less of the other person.
I have a few close friends that I actually enjoy debating with because they will listen to arguments with an open mind and often make thoughtful arguments that cause me to reevaluate.
If someone I don't know well asks if I'm interested in anything politics related my answer is now a hard no, even though I actually do follow politics quite a lot. Those conversations practially always end up feeling like a waste of time, IME.
> I finally realized today why politics and religion yield such uniquely useless discussions.
> As a rule, any mention of religion on an online forum degenerates into a religious argument. Why? Why does this happen with religion and not with Javascript or baking or other topics people talk about on forums?
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Isn't it a law that all programming language discussions eventually devolve into religious arguments?
I can't imagine Javascript is somehow immune.
Nowadays? I believe that quite a few homicides could be traced to have started with discussions about baking, beer brewing, or cooking.
People are fucking opinionated about everything nowadays.
I mean we use to even have goth bars, punk bars. Imagine a bar in 2023 that only caters to people who like industrial or punk music. It sounds absolutely ridiculous.
The music business though was also highly connected to all other art forms in terms of the visual arts, fashion, literature.
With the change in the importance of music it basically devalued nearly all art forms compared to what use to be.
It seems like politics stepped in to fill this void for the youth. It is such a boring and disappointing development.
It is also not good for politics either to have competing factions who at 20 believe what they believe with near religious fervor.