Thinking about how a white woman recently told me she was specifically trying to get her Instagram algorithm to never show her anything political. And isn’t that just the whole problem summed up right there
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@danirabbit I get this, although now I am thinking about the difference between this and people on fedi (including me) who push for things like USPol to always be CW'd and hashtagged appropriately. I guess one major difference is that the content is still there but it provides the reader with more tools for choosing exactly how they want to engage with it (if at all.)
@danirabbit yeah... I'm gonna get roasted on that one, but I think this is a bad take guilt-tripping a reasonable way to use socials and curate exposure.
Doomscrolling misery isn't a virtue. Not putting your head into the spinning amplified echo chamber doesn't mean being apolitical or not having skin in the game.
Maybe that person was uninformed and tone deaf about it, but having a feed composed exclusively of cats, makeup and pokemon fanart doesn't sound like "the problem" without context.
@danirabbit
I know those people. They vote Republican for the tax breaks (that they don't necessarily get) because "Well all of them are horrible on both sides anyway."
@danirabbit not sure how being white is relevant here. Political disinterest is even more important among PoC and I personally don't think it's about being conservative.
It's about resignment, knowing that things won't change either way, so why even putting on an effort?
What she reads is likely making her mad too and that is why she doesn't even want to look at it
@danirabbit
She probably doesn't realize she COULD toggle to a feed of only accounts she follows, which, if she follows no political accounts, would contain no politics. 🤷
@mizblueprint that’s not the point though. She wants to participate in the world and discover new things outside her bubble, but only when those things don’t make her uncomfortable. That’s the point
@danirabbit
Yes, I realize that. The sarcasm font is not working on my tiny keyboard! 😊
“Apolitical” is a conservative position. You know that right? Avoiding politics means you aren’t opposed to the current conditions. You would be happy *conserving* the status quo. That’s what that is
@danirabbit This.
As the meme goes,
Two genders: Male and political. Two races: White and political. Two sexual orientations: Straight and political. Etc.
@danirabbit conserving the power situation yes, which is a different direction than conserving life on earth
@steltenpower literally nobody thinks “conservative” means “conservationist”. Cmon man why are you wasting my time with this
@danirabbit I've just searched the etymology of these words hoping to properly remember them from now. Thanks.
I reposted a reel from a black woman a while back where she said, “your politically engaged friend is burned out too”. We are also exhausted and tired of hearing about it and talking about it. You deciding you’re too stressed out and overwhelmed to participate just puts more of the burden on the people for whom participation is not voluntary