2) Along the same lines, refuse to buy into the narrative that *everything* is binary. It's not. It makes for great theatre - and media profits - that every issue is binary. Unfortunately, that narrative is a lie.
3) You're not going to like this one but...Don't vote. Doing so creates a bias. It's difficult to remain evenly balanced, voting will add a bias and upset any attempt at balance.
Disagree with don't vote. If reasonable don't vote, then only extremes are voting, creating an even more polarized society/community. I say vote for anyone if they make sense to you, regardless of party affiliation.
The criteria wasn't "reasonable". It's apolitical.
Psychologically, making a choice creates a bias. A bias that makes people less likely to change their position, change their mind, etc. Sound familiar?
I'm not necessarily suggesting voting in and of itself is bad. I am directly saying that voting without realizing you've unwillingly opted in to a bias can be dangerous and create problems. Again, sound familiar?
Me personally? I just don't engage time wasting morons. (The fact that I'm engaging with you means I don't put you in the "time wasting moron" category.)
Maybe a better way to say this is "you don't have to engage people who don't share your political bent."
If your solution to avoiding political anxiety is to deny reality, then you're more likely to fall into cognitive bias and irrational reasoning patterns than accepting you have political inclinations and subjecting them to critical inquiry, being willing to change your mind and so on.
I hear you. "Don't engage" is more like an aspirational statement. Though in the last year I've been doing better at it. It may be because I spend more time reading these days than I did a year or two ago.
I don’t think it is possible to always be apolitical. I think there are many instances where you need to be aware of what sort of political statement you are making.
To elaborate: the easiest way to stay apolitical is to never say anything. But that’s no way to live. Depending on the context you may want to be more or less opinionated or - alternatively- know when to say nothing v saying something.
To avoid bias, maintain objectivity, and focus on my personal interests and professional responsibilities without being influenced by any political affiliations or agendas.
If you have any values at all, you have bias. If you eat food and generally use resources that other people have labored for, you are a political entity by the choices you make. Even taking up space as a hermit requires making choices for self-government, and your existence has an impaon other life around you.
However, if you're taking a narrow definition of political to be what happens at the representative layer of this (ideally) representative democracy (ideally because I don't want to spend my time reading and voting on all the bills, which is a political preference I have), just focus on what you have reasonable control over and keep striving to live the life you feel suits you (which naturally may change over time).
I used to think I was immune to advertising. I used to think I was rational and in control of my emotions. Once I realized I was delusional, I took steps to limit my exposure and to focus on old-school hedonism- what really, truly, feels right. I quit all social media except hn, recently quit all videogames, quit alcohol and coffee, increased sleep duration and quality, and read more books, applying what I learn to be a less-grumpy caretaker and companion to myself and my family members. I now procrastinate less, because I can identify what I'm feeling and sometimes why, and address the causes rather than hide from the stress. I'm not perfect at this, but at least it feels like a healthy track rather than a holding pattern.
You cannot “maintain” objectivity, because humans access the universe through subjective experience, and you cannot “avoid bias”, you can only recognize bias in one thing as compared to another.
OTOH, if you want to cultivate a distance from the concerns of the material world that will help you avoid the kind of concerns that would result in having a political affiliation or agenda, there are religious traditions that can probably help with that – OTOH, the same disregard that helps distance you from political concerns may or may not be compatible with the “personal interests and professional responsibilities” that you seem to have as the reason for seeking that. OTOH, if that is genuinely what you value, trying to avoid political affiliations or agendas may not actually be what you want; personal and professional interests are generally where people’s political affiliations and agendas are rooted, rather than being being a competing interest.
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2) Along the same lines, refuse to buy into the narrative that *everything* is binary. It's not. It makes for great theatre - and media profits - that every issue is binary. Unfortunately, that narrative is a lie.
3) You're not going to like this one but...Don't vote. Doing so creates a bias. It's difficult to remain evenly balanced, voting will add a bias and upset any attempt at balance.
Disagree with don't vote. If reasonable don't vote, then only extremes are voting, creating an even more polarized society/community. I say vote for anyone if they make sense to you, regardless of party affiliation.
Psychologically, making a choice creates a bias. A bias that makes people less likely to change their position, change their mind, etc. Sound familiar?
I'm not necessarily suggesting voting in and of itself is bad. I am directly saying that voting without realizing you've unwillingly opted in to a bias can be dangerous and create problems. Again, sound familiar?
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/invisible-influences-how-choi...
Maybe a better way to say this is "you don't have to engage people who don't share your political bent."
Sometimes it is not that easy to just ignore what is going and pretend the world is at peace. I find myself taking a stance unconsciously..
I don’t think it is possible to always be apolitical. I think there are many instances where you need to be aware of what sort of political statement you are making.
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However, if you're taking a narrow definition of political to be what happens at the representative layer of this (ideally) representative democracy (ideally because I don't want to spend my time reading and voting on all the bills, which is a political preference I have), just focus on what you have reasonable control over and keep striving to live the life you feel suits you (which naturally may change over time).
I used to think I was immune to advertising. I used to think I was rational and in control of my emotions. Once I realized I was delusional, I took steps to limit my exposure and to focus on old-school hedonism- what really, truly, feels right. I quit all social media except hn, recently quit all videogames, quit alcohol and coffee, increased sleep duration and quality, and read more books, applying what I learn to be a less-grumpy caretaker and companion to myself and my family members. I now procrastinate less, because I can identify what I'm feeling and sometimes why, and address the causes rather than hide from the stress. I'm not perfect at this, but at least it feels like a healthy track rather than a holding pattern.
Good luck finding what you're looking for.
OTOH, if you want to cultivate a distance from the concerns of the material world that will help you avoid the kind of concerns that would result in having a political affiliation or agenda, there are religious traditions that can probably help with that – OTOH, the same disregard that helps distance you from political concerns may or may not be compatible with the “personal interests and professional responsibilities” that you seem to have as the reason for seeking that. OTOH, if that is genuinely what you value, trying to avoid political affiliations or agendas may not actually be what you want; personal and professional interests are generally where people’s political affiliations and agendas are rooted, rather than being being a competing interest.