I'm 18 and somewhat care about politics. Well, much more than most people my age in my opinion. Why people don't care? Maybe they're starting to realize it doesn't matter who's elected or for how long, the country is going to get worse no matter what.
Caring about politics is a good way to make yourself clinically depressed.
This. I care about politics, I just decide not to pay any mind to them for the most part because I get depressed when I tune in. It's just a bunch of greedy people lying about each other and telling people what they want to hear instead of what they should hear. I tried following the last presidential election (I wasn't old enough to vote yet) and I just got depressed, and this time it's bound to be worse :(
Why do 17 year olds and younger not care about politics? I imagine it is for 3 reasons. 1: Schools probably try to avoid political discussion these days like the plague itself. 2: Their parents might not be worth a crap and not care therefore they don't instil this in their kids either. 3: When you are under 17 you don't have a vote so maybe they just don't care until they can actually do something about it, which sort of makes sense.
Why do 17 year olds and younger not care about politics? I imagine it is for 3 reasons. 1: Schools probably try to avoid political discussion these days like the plague itself. 2: Their parents might not be worth a crap and not care therefore they don't instil this in their kids either. 3: When you are under 17 you don't have a vote so maybe they just don't care until they can actually do something about it, which sort of makes sense.
Actually, I can contest that first point. I can't speak for other schools, but my Civics class spent the entire year talking about politics.
A lot of young and old people don't care about politics. If you think that is scary, most people think the US is a democracy and not a capitalism based republic. They don't understand that the creation of laws is a dangerous thing that must be approached with caution because removing those laws is a lot harder than passing them. They think the president is mostly responsible for the economic growth/decline not thinking at all about the Federal Reserve chairman. Most people could not tell you the three branches of government without looking them up.
I've moved past worrying about the general populous' lack of knowledge, and are currently much more concerned with how their stupidity and clamor for protection will hurt me next. And the meek shall inherit the earth, indeed.
I think they do, it's just that a lot of them are probably afraid to speak up in this age of the two major affiliations becoming more and more like childish clubs that exist only to put the other side down. It can be intimidating to get into a subject that can turn otherwise decent people into screaming bundles of misguided rage.
Exactly this, for me.
Well, this, and the fact that I feel like both parties have far too many negatives... I care about politics, I just can't get into them. (I do vote, though)
Nah most people don't want to engage in topics of politics and religion because the conversation goes the same way every time. People who like talking about these subjects just repeat talking points everyone has heard a million times and go into a one way conversation rant. It is hilarious when two people at a party start "arguing" politics when it is really just them waiting for pauses to get in some unrelated talking point.
A good tip is to avoid quiet people at parties. These people are really just waiting to talk politics and are unable to engage in any other conversation that doesn't involve them just reciting talking points as if they invented the ideas.
People who talk politics dismiss people like me who will rudely just leave that conversation when they awkwardly segue into politics or religion as unintelligent, but we are actually more intelligent than them to realize that a conversation about politics or religion could be interesting but 99% of the time it never is.
I think they do, it's just that a lot of them are probably afraid to speak up in this age of the two major affiliations becoming more and more like childish clubs that exist only to put the other side down. It can be intimidating to get into a subject that can turn otherwise decent people into screaming bundles of misguided rage.
Exactly this, for me.
Well, this, and the fact that I feel like both parties have far too many negatives... I care about politics, I just can't get into them. (I do vote, though)
I feel the same way.
But I also feel that in school we're inadequately taught about how our own government works (Not only at the Federal level, but at the State level as well) and how it does influence peoples lives. It's because we have the preconceived notion that the individual doesn't matter in politics, yet people put so much power in one individual. Someone here said they really started understanding politics when they were 22. We're allowed to vote when we are 18, but how many 18 year olds actually vote? How many vote for just the President, but not for a congressmen or congresswoman? How many know who their state's representative or who their senator is? How many care about who those people are? With the way the media portrays the government, so much emphasis is placed in the Presidency and not equal emphasis on Congress. Many people forget that the Congress has a 1/3 of the power alotted in the federal government and that Presidency has another third and Judicial Branch (Supreme Court) has the other third.
If people keep ignoring, not understanding, and refuse to vote then the people others don't want in office will keep dictating how our country will be run. The people will run themselves into the ground, because it's the people that are voting in all these politicians that are dictating how we're running the country. The people are complaining at what the government is doing yet almost half the population refuses to or doesn't vote for who is going to run the country.
I also hate that mentality that voting doesn't matter, which may be pretty obvious from this post.
I think people don't talk about it because it's a futile conversation. You aren't going to change a lot of minds in a casual conversation about politics. Thus, people don't care as much because of this. That's why I slowed down on it, I used to care quite a bit about politics but every conversation I have, I'm wrong in the eyes of the other person, or we agree on everything. It's never a great thing to talk about with anyone, thus, I kind of stopped expressing my opinion. There are always people looking to pick a fight about it and why even bother? That's become my opinion.
I cared way more about politics when I was younger.
This. I went from far right to far left and then grew up and realized there are no simple solutions and ideologies are all bull shit to simplify everything for people who want a simple formula to fix everything.
I'm young... I have a passing interest in what the eff is happening politically.
My parents never gave me much choice what with their constant blasting of Rush and Glenn throughout the house... Not htta my political inclinations necessarily lie in a agreement with theirs.
Everyone involved is an opinionated idiot who has no regard for what is best for the country and only cares about pushing their party's outdated policies.
So yeah, I'm disillusioned with politics because no one in politics has done anything to earn my respect.
I don't really know if its true that young people care less about politics than any other age group (except for senior citizens but that's mostly because they have nothing else to do but vote) in fact the most politically active people I know are young people. Heck, right after graduating from college I worked for the governor of my home state. However if it is true that young people care less about politics, I think its mostly due to all the venom that is being slung around in our political system, I mean I know that people like to say that we're more divided now than we have been since the Civil War, but the sad thing is that that's true. All you had to do last week was turn on the RNC to see just how much anger and malicious behavior was being slung around, and its no wonder young people wouldn't want to be involved in something like that. I mean if Coke advertised itself by saying "Pepsi is slowly killing you," and then Pepsi responded with "The head of Coke funds research to create new flesh eating diseases," eventually you would just say "I'm not thirsty anymore."
It's the futility of it all. No matter who wins the elections, nothing fucking changes. Politicians try to differentiate themselves during the elections, but once they're in the parliament they'll either drop the pretense or quickly realize they can't change anything by themselves and settle for making meaningless objections in media to prove that they're still trying. And presidents are fairly useless in my country (they're just the PR/international relations person), so who fills that position rarely matters either.
Politicians get nice salary and they do barely any work. More often that not, it's the same people getting voted in every four years and rather than trying to change anything, they're more interested in preserving the status quo. Nobody wants to rock the boat. Those that do, rarely achieve anything and probably won't get re-elected.
So yeah - it's rather hard to care about politics.
All you had to do last week was turn on the RNC to see just how much anger and malicious behavior was being slung around, and its no wonder young people wouldn't want to be involved in something like that.
Twitter was bad during all that. A lot of it was coming from certain gaming press members too. It all feels so reactionary.
Because they don't pay taxes, or the rent, or the morgage or any other of the 500 things that spawn an interest in governance. It's only when the real world really starts to hit home full force that people start to pay attention.
Isn't it important to have an interest in politics? Politicians are given power. Therefor that power should be monitored. If the young people (18-30) don't care about politics in order to be informed about how the government wants to run their lives; then this country is ultimately screwed. Not like it already isn't..
THe hell are you talking about? You do realize what happened in the 2008 political cycle or were you out of the country or something?
In a broad stroke social media have invigorated the younger population to become politically active because their voice is heard more now than ever.
A friend of mine (age 23) said he didn't bother voting because none of the politicians have youth in mind. "They all seem like idiots. Two faced, middle/upper class obsessed idiots." I don't know if I agree with him or not, but it isn't an unpopular point of view towards politics.
@bombedyermom: That is so understandable. It's hard to relate to something/someone that seems so distant and foreign, even though these guys (politicians) are the ones who decide how we experience the future.
I just watched 11 straight hours of The Newsroom so my mind's all politically wired, but I would totally love to see the nation actually get involved with the government more than just once every four years.
Not if you have influence. And Influence = power = wealth
I'm pretty sure it's wealth = power and not the other way around.
I think kids should totally be more involved in politics, nazi youth, communist youth league of china, komsomol, etc. It's all good.
But seriously, politics, like so many other subjects, are not represented in any interesting way in the media. Just like science, astronomy, history and art, politics are presented to us in the worst way possible in school and beyond. Maybe if there was a reality show with drama and sex that revolved around the capitol kids would start paying attention....I dunno.
Log in to comment