Let me paint you a picture. It’s Thanksgiving 2016. You’re sitting by the door, tying your shoes as slowly as you can, desperate for some extra time before you have to get into the car to see your extended family. Finally, you can put it off no further. You trudge to the car, shivering in the chilly air, shut the door, and are on your way. When you finally arrive, you meander around, waiting for the onslaught of arguing to begin. It only takes an hour. At this point, grandparents and their children are in the midst of screaming matches loud enough for the neighbors to hear. You slowly back into the corner, hoping no one will notice you hiding. You’ve only just begun to understand politics, but you are already disillusioned by them. Flash forward four years, and you can be found saying to many people, “I just don’t really like politics. It’s just not my thing.” You’re tired, exhausted even. And so what?
I get it. Politics are draining. It seems every minute that things are changing, and every decision is life or death. However, you cannot simply ignore them. Running from a problem will not make it go away. We learned this in elementary school. As exhausting as it may be, it is our responsibility to stay informed, and even more important, be active. It’s not enough anymore to simply understand the issues. We need to both be learning about the ways we can make change and help implement change.
“But I just don’t have an opinion on politics,” you say. This, in itself, is a political opinion. You have admitted that you have enough privilege to not have to care. If you don’t know what’s going on in the news, it’s not a big deal because it won’t affect you. New laws will not change your life. You can sleep through a revolution and never have to worry about a thing.
However, it is essential that you come to terms with the fact that not everyone has this privilege. Other people can’t afford to simply not care. If they were to stop paying attention, they would die. Every day, laws are being passed that affect people’s right to live freely. If you stay complacent and uninformed, you are not just a bystander. You become a perpetrator. You had the ability to change things, and yet you stood idly by.
Need examples of when this could apply to today? Let’s begin.
Right now, Amy Coney Barrett is the newest member of the Supreme Court. She was nominated by President Donald Trump and is known for her extreme Catholicism and conservatism. It is projected that she may try to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that made abortion legal. If this happens, women’s bodies become regulated by law once more and are thrust into danger. A woman’s right to choose becomes vilified. And regardless, abortions will continue to take place, only then they will happen illegally and dangerously. Without proper medical care, women will die.
However, Barrett won’t just stop there. There are rumors that she will also try to use the conservative majority court to overturn gay marriage. 10 million people will be deprived of their right to be with the ones they love, simply because of their sexual orientation. No one should be punished for something they cannot change, nor should they be shamed for who they love. To overturn gay marriage is to condemn one of the purest forms of intimacy that can be shared between members of the human race. Barrett sees this love as something to be regulated under law, as she plans to push her religion on the state.
All of this is simply one example. There are countless more. For example, police brutality in America (and globally) is being criticized heavily right now. Do you know the laws regarding police in your state? Do you know what people of color have been saying about them? If not, you must educate yourself. This is not something you get brownie points for doing. It’s something you should’ve been doing all along. To ignore half of the country’s struggles in the name of a dislike of politics is to announce that you acknowledge you have privilege and don’t care to do anything with it. You essentially proudly declare that you will put your ignorant bliss over other people’s livelihoods.
These are the political decisions we must stay informed about. While this news is devastating, we cannot simply choose to ignore it. Comfort in unawareness is not true comfort. It is cowardice. By saying you don’t care for politics, you say that you simply don’t care what happens to other people so long as it doesn’t affect you. These words are merely a thinly veiled attempt to justify this sentiment. So while I understand that politics can be trivial and annoying, or even saddening and frustrating, you cannot stop paying attention. You cannot give up. You must not only be constantly educating yourself, but also be trying to help. Otherwise, you too become a perpetrator of systems of oppression.