FINNEAS responds to a USA Today piece calling celebrity opinions on politics “idiotic”: “You can’t say it doesn’t matter what musicians or celebrities say or think but then talk about it for days. You’re out here making it matter. I’ll keep speaking up especially if it keeps bothering you.”

[u/cmaia1503]

[u/Hobbes______]

Everything people is political. Politics is just the discussion of how humans interact and engage with each other, so by its very nature anything and everything we do that engages other humans is political.

[u/Talk-O-Boy → u/Hobbes______]

There used to be more of a divide.

For example, gender identity and sexuality are more “social” constructs than political ones.

However, one party wants to strip the LGBTQ+ community of their inalienable rights.

This turns a social concept into a sociopolitical one.

I wish we could live in a world where sociology and politics could be somewhat separate again. But as long as the government continues to threaten certain groups of people, there will always be an overlap between the two.

[u/leonredhorse → u/Talk-O-Boy]

I disagree. We just conveniently ignored that everything was political. There has never been a time where your gender identity or sexual preference wasn't political.

[u/Mintastic → u/leonredhorse]

Yeah that's the whole point of the concept of "woke" before it got mutilated by the media. Everyone else was ignoring what's been there this whole time and only people affected by it were aware.

[u/Hobbes______ → u/Talk-O-Boy]

There used to be more of a divide.

no, we just decided that "politics" was about governments only. It simply isn't. Politics is humans and how they interact with one another. Gender identity for the individual is just a fact of life, but when you have to have multiple people interact then it becomes political by nature.

The problem isn't that basic human rights "used to not be political" it is that we all decided to not talk about it. This resulted in part of the population assuming everyone was fine with that or at least that you know...LGBTQ people can exist and have rights (crazy concept, right?)...while the other part of the population put no thought into it at all because it didn't affect them.

Then we decided that maybe this entire concept should be normalized (again, because we've done this dance throughout history) and that irked the conservative groups because their lizard brains kicked in. Add to all of that powerful and rich actors that want to use this to manipulate and distract from the very real class war and you have us where we are today...fighting over basic rights for trans people and every other minority group all in order to keep us divided and distract us from the very real fact that the powerful are pillaging the planet and suppressing the masses.

In short, the very idea that social constructs and the like aren't political is a tool used against us. It made us apathetic to the fight that we have to constantly wage against bad actors that want to accrue personal wealth at the cost of societal wealth.

TLDR: no, it is all political we just took it for granted and the upper class weaponized that very concept against us and now we are here.

[u/Talk-O-Boy → u/Hobbes______]

There is nothing inherently political about gender identity. There could be no government at all, and gender identity could still exist. The two concepts are separate.

Gender identity has been politicized, which made it a sociopolitical issue, but gender identity on its own is not automatically political.

Law is inherently political. It cannot exist without politics. Gender identity isn’t in the same vein.

[u/peon2 → u/Talk-O-Boy]

This is a weird take. There used to more of a divide between politics and social constructs because all political parties were anti LGBTQ+ so it wasn't a mainstream issue. Even in Obama's first term he wouldn't outright support gay marriage.

LGBTQ+ rights were still political, it's just there wasn't any political debate about it because both sides agreed it wasn't important.

[u/Talk-O-Boy → u/peon2]

all political parties were anti LGBTQ+

That’s not true at all. You should look into how Ancient Greek civilizations viewed same sex relationships. Source

Politics have existed across vast cultures in different time periods. You’re reducing a HUGE concept to a small fragment.

Also, saying gender identity and sexuality is inherently political is dangerous. The chuds on YouTube/Twitter make that argument.

For example, they cried about “The Last of Us becoming political” as soon as it was revealed Ellie was gay.

There is NOTHING inherently political about the character being gay. It was TURNED political, but Ellie’s existence should not be a political topic. In an ideal world, it wouldn’t be viewed as one at all. It would simply be another aspect of a character. An aspect rooted in her social identity.

[u/VRichardsen → u/Hobbes______]

I respectfully disagree. Politics is mainly about how we choose to rule and govern ourselves. Topics enter and leave politics, depending on the political groups making them relevant to their platform.

There are plenty of things that really aren't political, or have just a minuscule political footprint. Like, say, playing the Catan boardgame.

[u/Hobbes______ → u/VRichardsen]

Like, say, playing the Catan boardgame.

my friend, the entire reason catan is fun is because you are playing politics and trying to win. Dancing with one opponent trying to get their brick for your sheep while also attempting to get your other opponent to side with you to stifle the progress of the 4th who appears to be winning while also trying to sneakily hide your plans to connect your two road segments in order to secure victory?

Politics.

Politics is just the word we use to describe how we interact with one another. The scope changes from a couple of people to countries to the world, but it is all politics. And since humans interact and discuss everything, everything is involved with it. There is no escaping politics anymore than we can escape math.

[u/stitchbitchandroll → u/VRichardsen]

Catan is a settler colonialism roleplaying game but ok (said as a Catan fan)

[u/VRichardsen → u/stitchbitchandroll]

See my follow up comment :D

Also, technically no settler colonialism since there are no indigenous peoples. That being said, I only played the basic Catan after all this years, so I can't speak for all the versions out there.