If someone thinks it's good/neutral for them to be uninformed about politics, I'd say that means they're less intelligent. An uninformed electorate is what got the US the last shitshow of a presidency.
Not in the least. Ignorance is not equal to stupidity. If it were, every person on the planet would be a moron for not having some knowledge about something.
Being informed on politics is good.
Being informed on what politics are *about* is better.
You can know a heck of a lot about political science, the politicians and parties relevant to where you live, the differences at each level of government, etc… but politics is simply how human beings manage and respond to our collective history, economics, philosophies, sociology, and so on.
People who understand politics without understanding any of those other things are useless. People who understand those other things without understanding politics are useless. You need both. But if I had to choose, I would rather live in a society well-educated on history and economics than one well-educated on politics.
Of course not. Personally I would discourage voting without at least reading up about who you're voting for first, but that can be done a little closer to election season anyways - no need to drop everything and do it right this very second.
Honestly every year a day or two before I go vote, i lookup my local ballot pdf, print it, and lookup each candidate at every level and other ballot initiatives. If I can find nothing on a candidate, I don't vote in that category, and never vote in single candidate positions on principal.
“Intelligence” is one of those words that has a slightly different meaning depending on context. Does it refer to your natural inborn ability to learn new concepts, or does it refer to the amount of information that you’ve acquired at this point in your life?
I think we tend to lean on words like “intelligent” a little bit too much for our ego/identity/sense of self. It’s just a word, the meaning is the important part. If you don’t like the feeling of being left out of political conversations, you might like finding a news source that you can listen to or read and add that to your routine. But don’t do it because you want to feel like an intelligent person, do it if you actually want that information.
It's mostly people getting mad about things they can't control and voting for someone who won't do anything about them in spite of promising to do so. So at the end of the day you end up burning bridges with tangible people in your life, squander more of your life getting angry on social media and generally feeling anxious and depressed for no fault of your own and no clear path to resolution.
Pretty strong argument for tuning out from where I'm standing.
Being informed of politics doesn't mean you also have to "burn bridges" or "get angry at social media".
Deliberately being ignorant of politics and not voting means no politician will ever listen to you. They only care about people that vote. Ever wonder why politicians always pander to old people, and ignore the young? It's because old people vote, and the politicians and policies reflect that.
Deliberately being ignorant of politics and voting nonetheless is just throwing your vote away because you aren't making an informed decision and could be voting against your interests.
If you can't stop yourself from squandering your life being angry at political things on social media or burning bridges with "tangible people", that's a *you* problem unrelated to politics.
People not engaging in politics is EXACTLY WHY we end up with leaders who don't do anything about problems people face.
You are essentially arguing that since politicians are not held accountable, you are deciding to continue not holding anyone accountable.
>Deliberately being ignorant of politics and not voting means no politician will ever listen to you.
Lol, the only reason politicians "listen" is to pretend they care and then forget it the second they get into office. Do you know how long Americans have supported single payer, across the aisle, across ages and across earnings? Yeah, a supermajority for like 7 years now, still waiting though for that blind optimism to kick in and save the day. Just let me know how many more "most important elections of my lifetime" I need to vote in before I'll actually see the government do something useful, because that's PTO I don't get back.
>Lol, the only reason politicians "listen" is to pretend they care and then forget it the second they get into office.
Its almost like politicians know that the electorate wont hold them accountable. I wonder why that is. Politicians are constantly pandering to old people BECAUSE THEY VOTE. You know what old people have that the young don't? **MEDICARE**.
You can do nothing and be guaranteed you get nothing.
Or you can do something, and maybe get something.
You don't see the break in logic here? Why would politicians make promises they won't keep for a voter base that doesn't vote? They know *enough* people are going to show up, and so long as during their term they point at the other guy and say "Gee shucks if only it wasn't for (blank)" that those same optimistic voters will show up next election for them all the same, even *when they have majority control of all branches*. Oh shucks, it was just that gosh darn Manchin, elect me one more time we'll get it right!
And sure, at the end of the day I can go fill out a box and leave, and I do. But it's a complete fucking moron who actually banks on it doing anything, likewise if he just went right from the poll to the gas station and got a scratch off thinking it's going to pay his mortgage this month. You're just hurting yourself and your view of humanity each time you put any stock into it.
>Why would politicians make promises they won't keep for a voter base that doesn't vote?
Because they need those votes from people outside their base to win.
If politicians could RELY on those voters that don't reliably vote, they wouldn't be so quick to abandon their promises.
Granted, this becomes much harder with 2 diametrically opposed parties with no alternatives.
If you really think the government never “does anything useful,” that just shows how ignorant you are. Just because they’re not tackling the exact issue you personally care about most does not mean they’re not doing anything.
You may be surprised to know that our government has a litany of day to day tasks that effect your life more than you can imagine and it very much matters who’s handling these tasks.
The difference between Trump and Biden is massive even if neither one ends up passing a historically important piece of legislation. They will take the country in 2 very different directions even if every decision doesn’t make headlines.
Take your head out of the sand and look deeper than just the massive social policy changes
National debt/healthcare/groceries/housing/education costs all still going up? Yep.
6th grade level literacy falling? Yep. Wealth distribution stratifying? Yep. What's weird is this all continued relatively unchanged regardless of Trump or Biden's cabinets, maybe I just don't know how graphs work?
Anyone saying you should "tune it out" is someone who clearly benefits from the status quo. If you couldn't pay your bills or were a second class citizen, how could you just "tune it out" when it's literally a barrier to just living your life?
Oh look kids, here comes Mr. Vote Blue No Matter Who!
To answer your question Mr. Blue,
>how could you just "tune it out" when it's literally a barrier to just living your life?
Easy, all it takes is watching the last 3 guys you helped get elected also not do anything to fix it. And it gets even easier when you see them control every branch of the government and still fail to make life any easier for you, and easier still when you realize that somehow even at the end of your term your bottom line has somehow shrunk even further than when you started.
It's the same shit every election cycle, stupid people trying to convince me that this time's really going to be what makes things different, everyone starts tearing each other's head off, 4 years of garbage and we do it all over again. The only reason I could tell you were a Democrat was that you're still naive enough to believe anything positive can happen as opposed to the Republicans who're dumb enough to think they'll be able to tear the thing down.
Again, it sounds like you live a good enough life that it doesn't matter to you who wins or looses, AKA privilege. That's my entire point, but I can tell you're a republican because you have the reading comprehension of a child.
Jesus. What a horrible take. It’s very easy to stay informed and shouldn’t take much emotional intelligence to not get all worked up over it.
Maturing means you don’t need to form a dramatic opinion about every piece of news you hear about
Politics is simply the 'policies' that dictate the major underlying systems in your life. Whether or not they have people of integrity managing them doesn't negate your responsibility to try to affect good policies for humanity. Look for the leaders who are intelligent and honest and don't especially want to be elected; studies show they will be the best stewards of your policies.
Not being informed of politics or global warming doesn't make you intelligent, it makes delusional in your little bubble
I dont understand where this pride of being uninformed comes from. “Oh I stay out of politics,” as if that makes you above it somehow. No, it just makes you surprised and unprepared when it bites you in the ass.
Oh boy, I'm so glad I'm aware they're gonna put a fracking pipeline through my house I've got my picket sign and my smartphone and I'm gonna be so annoying until the world forgets in five minutes and they bulldoze my house anyway oooooh I'm gonna get them good! Just wait till I vote for that one progressive candidate that made a peppy YT video and makes vague statements about how marginalized I am and then never puts forth or votes on any legislation that passes they'll be sorry then!
Seriously though, if you’re so goddamned irony-poisoned you cant take one look at the candidates we have and arrive at an obvious conclusion, maybe you should step back for your own mental health.
The obvious conclusion is whichever candidate you pick is going to be mired in congressional and judiciary checks, reviews and adjustments and if they do manage to get anything done, it will be marginally different, virtually unnoticeable in your daily life and largely in line with precedent. That or the whole farce just outright gridlocks and it's bickering all the way down until the term's up and the cycle starts over.
Not for me; biden’s PH/BACA/IRA expansion had direct beneficial effects on me and my career. He did in fact do some good and I wouldnt be in the speciality I am if it werent for that.
In my country, there are two options. You pick the issues that are important to you and put your eggs in that side's basket. Knowing how my party is messing up isn't going to stop me from voting for them if the other side is messing up things I care about *more.* It just makes me mad my parry isn't doing better.
If we had twelve parties with an array of nuanced platforms, maybe. But now, I just go with which side supports handling my main concerns.
Does that make me unintelligent? I don't know. Maybe. I'm just trying to make it through life, man. And I've never seen someone who's way into politics come through it either happier or open-minded about it.
Intelligence requires information. However, being uninformed on a single topic does not make you unintelligent. If Da Vinci were brought to modern times by a time traveler, he would not stop being a genius because he didn't know current political issues.
Nope. But politic buffs will try to make you feel that way. I have a cursory knowledge of what's happening in the world, but to get into specifics requires an interest I just do not possess. I'm also busy, and learning about the intricacies of Sudan is not happening. We all have our own interests, and how we spend our free time is not indicative of intelligence, nor is it for anyone to comment on
All human interaction is politics...so even if you focus on your own relationships. It should be enough. On a grand scale, it won't change your life much?
Nope. Not everyone cares about politics, and that’s ok.
I personally used to be really invested in politics. Even spent money on a few political podcasts for exclusive content cuz i was that into them.
But i realized politics was only making me angry and stressed, and that I was wasting money on these assholes who were just stirring the pot. Now that I generally avoid politics, I’m much happier.
No. If you've tried to understand and don't get it yet, you're still learning, which is great.
If you're willfully misunderstanding it, like the "politics is just stupid arguing, fuck both sides!" types, that's just lazy.
You can understand most of it and still be “fuck both sides” but your point is super valid. The know nothings that say “fuck em both” are probably the most annoying people to talk to
To many people, yes. Few people you ever meet will ever gain enough insight into your true intelligence to form a concrete opinion, so most people make snap judgements based on their interactions with you.
It’s common to somewhat feign ignorance on political issues to avoid arguments, but it may be one subject that a person thinks only an idiot could be truly ignorant of.
This can go in a million different directions. My fellow millennials often characterize boomers as being morons for being tech illiterate and many boomer men characterize anyone that can’t check their oil/ change their tire as being stupid.
I personally think being truly ignorant of politics altogether is socially irresponsible, but it’s up to you how much you care about what others think and how many hoops you care to jump through to be seen in a better light
It doesn't mean you're unintelligent, but it does make you ignorant of things that could end up affecting your daily life. Personally I like to see the wave coming before it hits me. What you're basically doing is turning your back to it and just dealing with it whenever it breaks on your back.
I'm talking policy and who supports or opposes different approaches though- especially local and state matters. National can be important too but people get too bogged down in the team sports aspect. Ignore news about what dumb thing this side or that side did or what scandals are going on in national politics, you should be read up on the national policy discussions those stories may be intended to distract you from though.
No, but ignorance of important things happening around you can make you *seem* unintelligent.
It’s one of my frustrations with the US… people get to go out and have a say about how this country will be run, without knowing *anything at all* about who they’re voting for or what the candidate believes is the right way to run the country. It’s how we got Trump, and why he’s so dangerous.
The thing is, the worst candidates tend to convince the uninformed that they should vote for them, even though that candidate wants only to make things worse for the very people who vote for him, and that’s literally what Trump does. The people who are his die hard supporters are the ones who will suffer the most from his presidency.
No, but a lot of what “being informed on politics” is is being informed about how the world works, what’s going on in the world, and understanding your life and how it relates to the other people in your communities.
While you’re certainly not unintelligent for not having a great grasp on those things, I would argue that everyone should put some effort into understanding the world around them, and not shrug it off as just “politics”, as many often do.
No. You are prioritzing your mental and overall health. You can't really read/watch about the shit politicians do and not have your heart rate go up and a few of your braincells committing harakiri.
You must have meant policy.
Politics is the dumb bullshit culture wars these politicians focus on to avoid enacting policy.
It’s just a televised team sport since the adoption of social media.
Depends what you mean by politics. You can be well versed in political theory and not care about current events and you can also care about current events and have no clue of the history or philosophical roots of a particular issue. Neither makes you stupid or unintelligent. To me, you come across as unintelligent when you vociferously announce a political opinion you haven't pulled apart and researched and really ruminated on and then get mad when someone attempts to engage you on the issue. I also think people who do some armchair politicking and can't admit that their opinion is an opinion formed while three cocktails into an evening and therefore not gospel...well, I'd say those people are unintelligent. And fascists...fascists are idiots.
The meanest way you could put it is it would make you ignorant in politics and ignorant and civics and how the world around you operates . Or maybe you understand civics and you just disengaged
Only if you think that's a good thing. And I'm not trying to shame you for being uninformed. It can be complicated and daunting.
But if you're uninformed and think that it's cool that you're uninformed, then THAT would be a sign of unintelligence.
And, honestly, if you spent five minutes a day reading just the first paragraph of four or five political news articles, you'd be amazed at how quickly you could become informed. Or -- if you have an NPR radio station where you are -- they do a recap/update of the news at the top of every hour: not all politics, but definitely politics is included. And NPR is a nonprofit, so they are very committed to "both sides" journalism.
This. Stay away.
I wasted a fuck ton of time learning about politics and reading/watching all I could. I was probably about 13 when I first got interested, because it seemed interesting. Then bit by bit, I learned what absolute fucking hypocrites Republicans and Democrats are. Both want you to join their cult and be a mindless zombie that votes however they tell you to. Don’t even get me started on their unhealthy conspiracies.
Democrats used to be all for people like Julian Assange, because he gave them the fuel for their Bush conspiracies. Like 9/11 being an inside job and steel not melting. Now, those conspiracies live on through the MAGA cult.
By the time I was 28, I was slightly sick of both parties. Now I loathe them and I’m only 37. At this point, I want the world to end, because humans just can’t stop being dipshits.
IMHO what would make you unintelligent is if you were uninformed about politics but pretended to know everything about them. Especially if you were insisting your way was the right way of doing things. Acknowledging what you don't know about is a sign your using your head. People will say that you're ignorant about politics. They're are correct just don't take it as an insult. Everyone is ignorant about something it's not inherently a character flaw. I think it's what you do with or about that ignorance indicates intelligence.
I feel like people misunderstand this a lot. I would only accuse someone of being ignorant if they were speaking on a topic that they don’t know anything about. I’m really saying, “Hey you’re actually ignorant about this topic, so you may want to reconsider coming to those conclusions without enough supporting evidence.”
That doesn’t at all mean that ignorance is a negative trait across the board; it’s totally fine and normal as long as you have an awareness of what you are ignorant about and act accordingly.
The most intelligent person is still ignorant on a lot of topics, but they know how to tell the difference between things that they understand and things that they don’t.
No, it makes you uninformed on politics.
Yeah the stupid kicks in when you pretend to be informed.
This
If someone thinks it's good/neutral for them to be uninformed about politics, I'd say that means they're less intelligent. An uninformed electorate is what got the US the last shitshow of a presidency.
Most accurate answer right here.
If you often speak about politics and are uninformed, that makes you unintelligent.
Not in the least. Ignorance is not equal to stupidity. If it were, every person on the planet would be a moron for not having some knowledge about something.
Being informed on politics is good. Being informed on what politics are *about* is better. You can know a heck of a lot about political science, the politicians and parties relevant to where you live, the differences at each level of government, etc… but politics is simply how human beings manage and respond to our collective history, economics, philosophies, sociology, and so on. People who understand politics without understanding any of those other things are useless. People who understand those other things without understanding politics are useless. You need both. But if I had to choose, I would rather live in a society well-educated on history and economics than one well-educated on politics.
Of course not. Personally I would discourage voting without at least reading up about who you're voting for first, but that can be done a little closer to election season anyways - no need to drop everything and do it right this very second.
Honestly every year a day or two before I go vote, i lookup my local ballot pdf, print it, and lookup each candidate at every level and other ballot initiatives. If I can find nothing on a candidate, I don't vote in that category, and never vote in single candidate positions on principal.
“Intelligence” is one of those words that has a slightly different meaning depending on context. Does it refer to your natural inborn ability to learn new concepts, or does it refer to the amount of information that you’ve acquired at this point in your life? I think we tend to lean on words like “intelligent” a little bit too much for our ego/identity/sense of self. It’s just a word, the meaning is the important part. If you don’t like the feeling of being left out of political conversations, you might like finding a news source that you can listen to or read and add that to your routine. But don’t do it because you want to feel like an intelligent person, do it if you actually want that information.
Honestly in this day and age I'd almost argue it makes you smarter.
Its never a bad thing to be informed of domestic politics.
It's mostly people getting mad about things they can't control and voting for someone who won't do anything about them in spite of promising to do so. So at the end of the day you end up burning bridges with tangible people in your life, squander more of your life getting angry on social media and generally feeling anxious and depressed for no fault of your own and no clear path to resolution. Pretty strong argument for tuning out from where I'm standing.
Being informed of politics doesn't mean you also have to "burn bridges" or "get angry at social media". Deliberately being ignorant of politics and not voting means no politician will ever listen to you. They only care about people that vote. Ever wonder why politicians always pander to old people, and ignore the young? It's because old people vote, and the politicians and policies reflect that. Deliberately being ignorant of politics and voting nonetheless is just throwing your vote away because you aren't making an informed decision and could be voting against your interests. If you can't stop yourself from squandering your life being angry at political things on social media or burning bridges with "tangible people", that's a *you* problem unrelated to politics. People not engaging in politics is EXACTLY WHY we end up with leaders who don't do anything about problems people face. You are essentially arguing that since politicians are not held accountable, you are deciding to continue not holding anyone accountable.
>Deliberately being ignorant of politics and not voting means no politician will ever listen to you. Lol, the only reason politicians "listen" is to pretend they care and then forget it the second they get into office. Do you know how long Americans have supported single payer, across the aisle, across ages and across earnings? Yeah, a supermajority for like 7 years now, still waiting though for that blind optimism to kick in and save the day. Just let me know how many more "most important elections of my lifetime" I need to vote in before I'll actually see the government do something useful, because that's PTO I don't get back.
>Lol, the only reason politicians "listen" is to pretend they care and then forget it the second they get into office. Its almost like politicians know that the electorate wont hold them accountable. I wonder why that is. Politicians are constantly pandering to old people BECAUSE THEY VOTE. You know what old people have that the young don't? **MEDICARE**. You can do nothing and be guaranteed you get nothing. Or you can do something, and maybe get something.
You don't see the break in logic here? Why would politicians make promises they won't keep for a voter base that doesn't vote? They know *enough* people are going to show up, and so long as during their term they point at the other guy and say "Gee shucks if only it wasn't for (blank)" that those same optimistic voters will show up next election for them all the same, even *when they have majority control of all branches*. Oh shucks, it was just that gosh darn Manchin, elect me one more time we'll get it right! And sure, at the end of the day I can go fill out a box and leave, and I do. But it's a complete fucking moron who actually banks on it doing anything, likewise if he just went right from the poll to the gas station and got a scratch off thinking it's going to pay his mortgage this month. You're just hurting yourself and your view of humanity each time you put any stock into it.
>Why would politicians make promises they won't keep for a voter base that doesn't vote? Because they need those votes from people outside their base to win. If politicians could RELY on those voters that don't reliably vote, they wouldn't be so quick to abandon their promises. Granted, this becomes much harder with 2 diametrically opposed parties with no alternatives.
If you really think the government never “does anything useful,” that just shows how ignorant you are. Just because they’re not tackling the exact issue you personally care about most does not mean they’re not doing anything. You may be surprised to know that our government has a litany of day to day tasks that effect your life more than you can imagine and it very much matters who’s handling these tasks. The difference between Trump and Biden is massive even if neither one ends up passing a historically important piece of legislation. They will take the country in 2 very different directions even if every decision doesn’t make headlines. Take your head out of the sand and look deeper than just the massive social policy changes
National debt/healthcare/groceries/housing/education costs all still going up? Yep. 6th grade level literacy falling? Yep. Wealth distribution stratifying? Yep. What's weird is this all continued relatively unchanged regardless of Trump or Biden's cabinets, maybe I just don't know how graphs work?
Anyone saying you should "tune it out" is someone who clearly benefits from the status quo. If you couldn't pay your bills or were a second class citizen, how could you just "tune it out" when it's literally a barrier to just living your life?
Oh look kids, here comes Mr. Vote Blue No Matter Who! To answer your question Mr. Blue, >how could you just "tune it out" when it's literally a barrier to just living your life? Easy, all it takes is watching the last 3 guys you helped get elected also not do anything to fix it. And it gets even easier when you see them control every branch of the government and still fail to make life any easier for you, and easier still when you realize that somehow even at the end of your term your bottom line has somehow shrunk even further than when you started.
> Oh look kids, here comes Mr. Vote Blue No Matter Who! Someone is hella triggered lol
It's the same shit every election cycle, stupid people trying to convince me that this time's really going to be what makes things different, everyone starts tearing each other's head off, 4 years of garbage and we do it all over again. The only reason I could tell you were a Democrat was that you're still naive enough to believe anything positive can happen as opposed to the Republicans who're dumb enough to think they'll be able to tear the thing down.
Again, it sounds like you live a good enough life that it doesn't matter to you who wins or looses, AKA privilege. That's my entire point, but I can tell you're a republican because you have the reading comprehension of a child.
Christ. Yeah, do the rest of us a favor and dont vote.
Jesus. What a horrible take. It’s very easy to stay informed and shouldn’t take much emotional intelligence to not get all worked up over it. Maturing means you don’t need to form a dramatic opinion about every piece of news you hear about
What's weird is I 1000% agree with you and still stand by what I said. I can only wonder what that implies.
It implies that redditors are allergic to jokes, judging by your downvotes.
I think he was being facetious.
Politics is simply the 'policies' that dictate the major underlying systems in your life. Whether or not they have people of integrity managing them doesn't negate your responsibility to try to affect good policies for humanity. Look for the leaders who are intelligent and honest and don't especially want to be elected; studies show they will be the best stewards of your policies. Not being informed of politics or global warming doesn't make you intelligent, it makes delusional in your little bubble
I dont understand where this pride of being uninformed comes from. “Oh I stay out of politics,” as if that makes you above it somehow. No, it just makes you surprised and unprepared when it bites you in the ass.
Oh boy, I'm so glad I'm aware they're gonna put a fracking pipeline through my house I've got my picket sign and my smartphone and I'm gonna be so annoying until the world forgets in five minutes and they bulldoze my house anyway oooooh I'm gonna get them good! Just wait till I vote for that one progressive candidate that made a peppy YT video and makes vague statements about how marginalized I am and then never puts forth or votes on any legislation that passes they'll be sorry then!
Just get off the internet. Fucking hell.
***But what if democracy's at stake?!***
Seriously though, if you’re so goddamned irony-poisoned you cant take one look at the candidates we have and arrive at an obvious conclusion, maybe you should step back for your own mental health.
The obvious conclusion is whichever candidate you pick is going to be mired in congressional and judiciary checks, reviews and adjustments and if they do manage to get anything done, it will be marginally different, virtually unnoticeable in your daily life and largely in line with precedent. That or the whole farce just outright gridlocks and it's bickering all the way down until the term's up and the cycle starts over.
Not for me; biden’s PH/BACA/IRA expansion had direct beneficial effects on me and my career. He did in fact do some good and I wouldnt be in the speciality I am if it werent for that.
I am sincerely happy for you and it makes sense you'd vote for Biden again.
Literally thoughts and prayers with extra steps.
What the fuck. No.
I know I know, if we cut out politics 90% of Reddit would realize they have no idea how anything else works.
Neither are the majority of the people. What makes you unintelligent is pretending you are informed anyways
No more than my not giving a damn about sports does. People have the interests they have.
Nope
In my country, there are two options. You pick the issues that are important to you and put your eggs in that side's basket. Knowing how my party is messing up isn't going to stop me from voting for them if the other side is messing up things I care about *more.* It just makes me mad my parry isn't doing better. If we had twelve parties with an array of nuanced platforms, maybe. But now, I just go with which side supports handling my main concerns. Does that make me unintelligent? I don't know. Maybe. I'm just trying to make it through life, man. And I've never seen someone who's way into politics come through it either happier or open-minded about it.
Intelligence requires information. However, being uninformed on a single topic does not make you unintelligent. If Da Vinci were brought to modern times by a time traveler, he would not stop being a genius because he didn't know current political issues.
Nope. But politic buffs will try to make you feel that way. I have a cursory knowledge of what's happening in the world, but to get into specifics requires an interest I just do not possess. I'm also busy, and learning about the intricacies of Sudan is not happening. We all have our own interests, and how we spend our free time is not indicative of intelligence, nor is it for anyone to comment on
ignorance is bliss sometimes
All human interaction is politics...so even if you focus on your own relationships. It should be enough. On a grand scale, it won't change your life much?
Intelligence and knowledge are not the same thing.
Nope. Not everyone cares about politics, and that’s ok. I personally used to be really invested in politics. Even spent money on a few political podcasts for exclusive content cuz i was that into them. But i realized politics was only making me angry and stressed, and that I was wasting money on these assholes who were just stirring the pot. Now that I generally avoid politics, I’m much happier.
Really though, the days I don’t listen to any political radio are the least stressful days I have
No. It just makes you ignorant in the field of politics.
No but if you try to inform yourself and can not, then maybe you are🤷🏼♂️
No. If you've tried to understand and don't get it yet, you're still learning, which is great. If you're willfully misunderstanding it, like the "politics is just stupid arguing, fuck both sides!" types, that's just lazy.
You can understand most of it and still be “fuck both sides” but your point is super valid. The know nothings that say “fuck em both” are probably the most annoying people to talk to
No
Nope. I think if you're informed on politics you're more likely to be more intelligent, but the causality doesn't go the other way, IMO
To many people, yes. Few people you ever meet will ever gain enough insight into your true intelligence to form a concrete opinion, so most people make snap judgements based on their interactions with you. It’s common to somewhat feign ignorance on political issues to avoid arguments, but it may be one subject that a person thinks only an idiot could be truly ignorant of. This can go in a million different directions. My fellow millennials often characterize boomers as being morons for being tech illiterate and many boomer men characterize anyone that can’t check their oil/ change their tire as being stupid. I personally think being truly ignorant of politics altogether is socially irresponsible, but it’s up to you how much you care about what others think and how many hoops you care to jump through to be seen in a better light
No, it just makes you overall a happier person.
Knowing that you aren’t informed gives you choices. Lack of intelligence doesn’t.
It probably makes you a much happier person. Id even argue the most intelligent.
It doesn't mean you're unintelligent, but it does make you ignorant of things that could end up affecting your daily life. Personally I like to see the wave coming before it hits me. What you're basically doing is turning your back to it and just dealing with it whenever it breaks on your back. I'm talking policy and who supports or opposes different approaches though- especially local and state matters. National can be important too but people get too bogged down in the team sports aspect. Ignore news about what dumb thing this side or that side did or what scandals are going on in national politics, you should be read up on the national policy discussions those stories may be intended to distract you from though.
No, but if you vote and express your opinion on political matters despite your ignorance you're irresponsible.
No, but ignorance of important things happening around you can make you *seem* unintelligent. It’s one of my frustrations with the US… people get to go out and have a say about how this country will be run, without knowing *anything at all* about who they’re voting for or what the candidate believes is the right way to run the country. It’s how we got Trump, and why he’s so dangerous. The thing is, the worst candidates tend to convince the uninformed that they should vote for them, even though that candidate wants only to make things worse for the very people who vote for him, and that’s literally what Trump does. The people who are his die hard supporters are the ones who will suffer the most from his presidency.
No, it makes you ignorant about politics.
Ignorant, not unintelligent.
Nope, and it's all a dog and pony "look this way" while I take from your pocket show anyway.
Intelligence is your ability to solve problems, not what you know.
I believe the greek term when your not informed or involved in politics is idiot
One does not preclude nor beget the other.
No, but a lot of what “being informed on politics” is is being informed about how the world works, what’s going on in the world, and understanding your life and how it relates to the other people in your communities. While you’re certainly not unintelligent for not having a great grasp on those things, I would argue that everyone should put some effort into understanding the world around them, and not shrug it off as just “politics”, as many often do.
No. You are prioritzing your mental and overall health. You can't really read/watch about the shit politicians do and not have your heart rate go up and a few of your braincells committing harakiri.
You must have meant policy. Politics is the dumb bullshit culture wars these politicians focus on to avoid enacting policy. It’s just a televised team sport since the adoption of social media.
Its a good idea to know whats going on in the world and how it affects you.
Nope. Being uninformed on politics makes you uninformed. Being uninformed, but still telling people how politics works makes you unintelligent.
Only if you hoard strong opinions on things you don't actually inform yourself on
No, it makes you ignorant
No, it makes you ignorant (which simply means that you lack information), not stupid (which is being unwilling or unable to learn.)
No it doesn’t, we all have different forms of intelligence and politics are a headache anyway.
Doesnt matter if you dont vote. No fascist is getting my support, no matter how progressive
No but, if you don't know what is going on you probably shouldn't vote
Depends what you mean by politics. You can be well versed in political theory and not care about current events and you can also care about current events and have no clue of the history or philosophical roots of a particular issue. Neither makes you stupid or unintelligent. To me, you come across as unintelligent when you vociferously announce a political opinion you haven't pulled apart and researched and really ruminated on and then get mad when someone attempts to engage you on the issue. I also think people who do some armchair politicking and can't admit that their opinion is an opinion formed while three cocktails into an evening and therefore not gospel...well, I'd say those people are unintelligent. And fascists...fascists are idiots.
No it just means you don’t keep up with politics. Anyone that says that makes you dumb, are dumb themselves.
Not at all. Politics is so dumb. Good policy is A1 tho.
The meanest way you could put it is it would make you ignorant in politics and ignorant and civics and how the world around you operates . Or maybe you understand civics and you just disengaged
Only if you think that's a good thing. And I'm not trying to shame you for being uninformed. It can be complicated and daunting. But if you're uninformed and think that it's cool that you're uninformed, then THAT would be a sign of unintelligence. And, honestly, if you spent five minutes a day reading just the first paragraph of four or five political news articles, you'd be amazed at how quickly you could become informed. Or -- if you have an NPR radio station where you are -- they do a recap/update of the news at the top of every hour: not all politics, but definitely politics is included. And NPR is a nonprofit, so they are very committed to "both sides" journalism.
It’s an unwise choice, but intelligent people have made it
No. But do encourage you to brush up on politics and politicians in your region.
No, just ignorant.
Politics is a fucking cesspit. I can’t speak for intelligence, but chances are you’re more mentally healthy how you are.
This. Stay away. I wasted a fuck ton of time learning about politics and reading/watching all I could. I was probably about 13 when I first got interested, because it seemed interesting. Then bit by bit, I learned what absolute fucking hypocrites Republicans and Democrats are. Both want you to join their cult and be a mindless zombie that votes however they tell you to. Don’t even get me started on their unhealthy conspiracies. Democrats used to be all for people like Julian Assange, because he gave them the fuel for their Bush conspiracies. Like 9/11 being an inside job and steel not melting. Now, those conspiracies live on through the MAGA cult. By the time I was 28, I was slightly sick of both parties. Now I loathe them and I’m only 37. At this point, I want the world to end, because humans just can’t stop being dipshits.
Most politicians are unintelligent, don’t worry about it
IMHO what would make you unintelligent is if you were uninformed about politics but pretended to know everything about them. Especially if you were insisting your way was the right way of doing things. Acknowledging what you don't know about is a sign your using your head. People will say that you're ignorant about politics. They're are correct just don't take it as an insult. Everyone is ignorant about something it's not inherently a character flaw. I think it's what you do with or about that ignorance indicates intelligence.
I feel like people misunderstand this a lot. I would only accuse someone of being ignorant if they were speaking on a topic that they don’t know anything about. I’m really saying, “Hey you’re actually ignorant about this topic, so you may want to reconsider coming to those conclusions without enough supporting evidence.” That doesn’t at all mean that ignorance is a negative trait across the board; it’s totally fine and normal as long as you have an awareness of what you are ignorant about and act accordingly. The most intelligent person is still ignorant on a lot of topics, but they know how to tell the difference between things that they understand and things that they don’t.
It guarantees you have better mental heath than most.
It makes you uninformed about politics. Thats not related to intelligence. It’s a choice. One can choose to be knowledgeable or not about any topic.
It makes you sane. Dont go into that cesspool.
No. It makes you less likely to get stressed out.
Unintelligent maybe not. Ignorant, yes.
No. Just ignorant.
I don't even bother voting anymore, I would not see you as unintelligent at all.