or, "Trying to discuss radical politics with your well-off parents"

April 21, 2025

It can be very difficult to explain the intensity of the crisis the world is facing to people who actively choose to ignore it for mental health reasons and such. For many people, the whole world situation is simply not something they think about. Isn't that crazy? For those who are struggling to make ends meet, I completely understand not having enough time to be informed, but lower-income working class people are often if not always more informed about political issues than wealthier people, because they are experiencing the effects of this political reality every second of every day. For those of us with more time and more leisure, as many have in Canada, it is simply a choice as to whether or not to engage with "politics." I use air quotes because there is nothing that happens any day that is not politics. Every time someone dies from a drug overdose, every child that goes hungry or that is killed in war, every person who loses their job is political. These are things that happened because of choices we have made as a species.

Many of us who choose to be informed on what is happening to our brothers and sisters around the world and here at home, find ourselves frequently in distress. This is because the world is very bad and evil, and has been rapidly deteriorating before our eyes recently. Donald Trump is president of the United States, and he might invade Canada?! What the fuck? As a young person I have never experienced a goddamn moment of normalcy. The world is being destroyed, and we can feel the weather change in real time over lifetimes. Our neighbours are struggling to make ends meet, and it seems to be getting worse. They are forced to live in tents, and sometimes "liberal" politicians have them roughed up or arrested for the crime of living. We witness countless human lives being ended indiscriminately in Gaza, with the occupying IDF attempting to commit genocide while the soldiers post TikToks bragging about the war crimes they were performing. People are being arrested in the US for exercizing their promised free speech to speak out against Israel's genocide, and even though the vast majority of people are critical of the genocide, all our institutions continue to support it and attack us as racists. While far too many of us are suffering around the world, a very small group of people are profiting like never before. It seems like there's nothing we can do to stop them. At the very least it looks like not enough people care yet.

I digress.

The point is, there's a lot of really really horrible shit going on. Personally, it really gets to me. It makes me upset, I worry about it. I find myself thinking about it regularly. That's not to say I am always unhappy, because I try to accept what I can't control and feel good about the stuff I do control. But I don't know how someone could possibly just stick their head in the sand and not think about the suffering of other humans. I don't think people who don't think about politics are bad people, but for those who have the time and ability to think about politics and choose not to, it suggests something about their character.

It can be frustrating to talk with people like this, because what is there to talk about? They do not want to hear about anything that is happening, and they will downplay it if you mention it. They, on the other hand, will make as many political comments as they want, frequently many, and simply deny the politicalness of their speech when you call them out on it, arguing they're just talking about "human nature" or "religion" or "morals" or some shit. I think it's important to build community and relationships with people who see the world in the same way as you. That is not necessarily to say people who hold the same views, but they should at least understand the reality we live in. I think that's a fairly low bar. I'll always make exceptions to this rule, because there are many wonderful people out there with just this one issue, but I find myself starting to feel crazy when surrounded by people who disregard or downplay our political reality. All in all, just find people who get you. That's what I think.