The term "politicize" is probably key to look at, since that's synonymous with "making things political." According to this it started gaining steam was in the 60's, gaining a lot of use by 1980 and peaking around 2000. Politicization followed a similar trend, except it's still rising in use.
I suspect given the dates that it was being used in the context of "politicizing Vietnam" (as ridiculous as that sounds). The implication being that once the country goes to war everyone should be expected to support it, and that critics of the war are just trying to smear their political opponents to advance their own careers, to the detriment of a common cause. This morphed slightly into the modern gamer use of "politicizing games," with the implication that the common cause should be to entertain the audience, and that advancing any other agenda detracts from that (somehow)
Hmm, I was thinking it may have been something to do with the separating the economic sphere from the political, and that politicians that were doing anything other than being efficient stewards of "the economy" were doing it for "political" reasons.
Your one reminds me of the response to school shootings where republicans accused anyone talking about the outcomes or prevention of school shootings in their immediate aftermath were "politicising" the event.
I think there might also be the related form of "virtue signalling", like politics as something duplicitious (like... saying you're gonna do stuff and then not doing it once elected).
I feel like "office politics" has retained the better version of meaning, in that it reflects ass kissing and being disingenuous i.e. approaching your workplace with power in mind rather than just doing your job.
The term "politicize" is probably key to look at, since that's synonymous with "making things political." According to this it started gaining steam was in the 60's, gaining a lot of use by 1980 and peaking around 2000. Politicization followed a similar trend, except it's still rising in use.
I suspect given the dates that it was being used in the context of "politicizing Vietnam" (as ridiculous as that sounds). The implication being that once the country goes to war everyone should be expected to support it, and that critics of the war are just trying to smear their political opponents to advance their own careers, to the detriment of a common cause. This morphed slightly into the modern gamer use of "politicizing games," with the implication that the common cause should be to entertain the audience, and that advancing any other agenda detracts from that (somehow)
Hmm, I was thinking it may have been something to do with the separating the economic sphere from the political, and that politicians that were doing anything other than being efficient stewards of "the economy" were doing it for "political" reasons.
Your one reminds me of the response to school shootings where republicans accused anyone talking about the outcomes or prevention of school shootings in their immediate aftermath were "politicising" the event.
I think there might also be the related form of "virtue signalling", like politics as something duplicitious (like... saying you're gonna do stuff and then not doing it once elected).
I feel like "office politics" has retained the better version of meaning, in that it reflects ass kissing and being disingenuous i.e. approaching your workplace with power in mind rather than just doing your job.