I definitely don't participate there to the same extent, either. Back in the day when I was single and had nothing but time on my hands, the arguments were entertaining. Now they're just draining and pointless. Ain't nobody got time for that. It all accomplishes nothing but to sour your mood.
Thing is, you can consume Purdue sports without becoming outraged. It's just entertainment. While Fox News/CNN/et. al. are also just vying for entertainment eyeballs, people have a very tough time seperating the content from emotion. Those places and those evening shows feed on that outrage. They don't care about your well-being. They just want you to make an emotional attachment to what they're saying and tune in again tomorrow.
Unfortunately, my in-laws and other people I know are susceptible to it, and its made them markedly less enjoyable to be around. In the case of my in-laws, they've become basically hermits because they can't turn the stuff off.
We have to live with government (taxes, laws, etc.) as a fact of life - government will never go away, though less of it is good (IMO). Elimination of government is not the goal of either party, regardless of the name of the politician you elect. The idea that Trump (or any elected official) was going to "get government out of our lives" is patently absurd.
But we choose whether or not we pay attention to politics.
I agree with you. Reading this board, a lot of times is people getting outraged at something that a politician (that they don't like) says.
But it's rather silly. Many times, people get outraged without knowing the full context. Their predetermined position made them fill in the blanks and assumed they could mind-read what the politician intended. So they get outraged and make a big deal out of it. Then being in an echo chamber, their buddies who are doing the same mind-reading now find a convenient target to beat up, and feel righteous in the process.
I never want to live in such an echo chamber. Whenever I find myself in an echo chamber in which my view is the dominant view, I walk away (the exception is, of course, when it comes to fandom, which is by definition tribal). It's similar to "If you find yourself the best player at your park, find a new park."
Government will be part of our lives. The alternative is anarchy, which I don't think is a good idea. The real question we should ask is, "What level of government involvement is optimal for me and for society?" And then we can discuss the merits of government, what it should be doing and what we want it to provide, and what we do NOT want from the government. I tried to do it in a socialism thread, so that people can shift from just b!tching about their own version of socialism (usually some crazy monster they've created in their mind), to a more productive discussion on what kind of future we want to co-create.
Unfortunately, people in the echo chamber just wanna b!tch. They'll question my motive, act as if they can read my mind, and label me as a utopian Marxist who has some hidden agenda.
The only thing I disagree with you is that you can get away from politics. That is true only in a free society and it stays free. Again, I've lived in Hong Kong in the past, and I still pay attention to what's going on there. It used to be a free city. People had free speech and freedom to NOT speak. That has gone after China enacted a National Security Law. So now not only is free speech gone (their most popular newspaper was forced to shut down after the government charged them (i.e., not even trialed in court) for violating national security because they were outspoken against the government), but people lose the right to NOT speak. Government employees now have to swear about loyalty. School teachers will now have to teach alternative history or else they might lose their employment. You have to pledge your loyalty to support the government (in the name of patriotism). So in some country, it isn't your choice to stay away from politics. Politics is imposed on you and you can't run away.
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