02 Feb Anyone else sick of politics?

Is anyone else completely sick of politics? This election cycle feels like it’s been in full swing for a full year, but yesterday was the Iowa caucus and was the first meaningful vote cast (though you could argue that they weren’t super-meaningful, given that 6 precincts were decided by a coin toss!). There will be 10 more months before the election(!).

Is this how they (whoever ‘they’ are) get us to not care about voting in our democracy? Bore us to death? Whip us into a frenzy of righteousness and rage so early that it can’t possibly be maintained until the actual election, so when the election actually comes we just think, “screw this crap, I’m too burned out to care”. Is this how they divide us up, too busy fighting each other to notice that ‘they’ are the true enemy? Is this how media companies finally take over the world? (think of how much they’re making on all the ads that will swamp us in the next 10 months!).

We’ve gone nuts, from politicians at the top of their parties down to the citizens themselves on social media. Everyone posts one-sided meme arguments about why their party is right, or more frequently why the other party is wrong. Everyone ‘screaming’, no one listening, learning, researching, or (heaven forbid) understanding an argument from the other side, finding a common ground, and finding a way to move forward.

I would argue that ALL political memes, supporting either party, regardless of how well researched and sourced, are varying degrees of bullshit. Telling one side of any story is always misleading, even if every fact you give is accurate. No one is giving the whole picture anymore, and that scares me because people are getting stuck in info bubbles as they only get input from sources that they agree with. Hence, we’re dangerously polarized as a country.

This is affecting families and friends, driving folks apart. I’m tired of it. I’m so tired of it that I’m sick of the people who I agree with (and don’t get me started on folks who I disagree with). I’m done with it. No more political posts. No more memes or articles on Facebook. I won’t post them, and I won’t read them.

It’s a shame, because this is important stuff. I’m not excited about a Facebook feed of only cat videos and pictures of high school classmates’ dinners. But I’m done with it.

Go Bernie! (sorry, force of habit).