Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ Rightists have spent the last couple of days freaking out and invoking Orwell’s 1984 in response to something their political enemies are doing in Ameri…
The way I see it, it’s about say, 20% of the population that engages with politics daily, electoral or otherwise.
I don't know how you reached that number. Politics is like the weather. Every time it changes, you can find people talking about it. But also like the weather, people don't see much that they can do about it save taking personal precautions.
Almost all of my friends and family on any side of the spectrum have disengaged with politics to focus entirely on their careers, which is fine, as I have more or less done the same outside of my compulsion to be a nerd about this stuff.
I mean, I spent about a decade trying to engage with the Texas political system. I found it incredibly difficult to penetrate, with a very niche group of people mostly interested in taking your money and sending you on your way. But I never found a shortage of people trying to organize against, engage with, or challenge those in power at one time or another.
As to focusing on one's career, I don't think there's a clear distinction. My wife has made a career out of her political convictions, working for a non-profit legal aid clinic in an effort to help tenants fight eviction. I know a few friends who changed jobs - industries even - to pursue some social or moral conviction. In Texas, in particular, watching people drop out of the O&G industry to pursue something more fulfilling isn't unusual.
I am basing that off of general aggregate numbers of views of political content on the internet. Now, I'm being generous when I talk about 'daily political engagement', along with being generous when I say 20%. I'd say, on average either side, videos with any mainstream clout get about 300K views in a given day. Now, that being said, I guesstimate that that is probably a good tenth of actual political engagement. It likely is less. And I am counting culture war engagement as 'politics' which I probably shouldn't. If we stick strictly to labor, the percentages drop sharply.
Idk. I think things are slightly different in Wisconsin than Texas if you are not within the Madison, Janesville, and Milwaukee areas. It's good to hear, as that area is one huge political battle ground, but since the unions got fucked in the 00's, politics is focused almost entirely in the great lakes area, and everybody else is just trying to survive and suck as much money from large corporations and the state as possible. Not alot of non-profit jobs around here outside of the universities and hospitals. Maybe if I was more in that crowd I would have a different opinion, but I work with and am friends with mostly apolitical people (many of whom were engaged in either right wing or progressive campaigns).
That could change in the future, though you are right.
I don't know how you reached that number. Politics is like the weather. Every time it changes, you can find people talking about it. But also like the weather, people don't see much that they can do about it save taking personal precautions.
I mean, I spent about a decade trying to engage with the Texas political system. I found it incredibly difficult to penetrate, with a very niche group of people mostly interested in taking your money and sending you on your way. But I never found a shortage of people trying to organize against, engage with, or challenge those in power at one time or another.
As to focusing on one's career, I don't think there's a clear distinction. My wife has made a career out of her political convictions, working for a non-profit legal aid clinic in an effort to help tenants fight eviction. I know a few friends who changed jobs - industries even - to pursue some social or moral conviction. In Texas, in particular, watching people drop out of the O&G industry to pursue something more fulfilling isn't unusual.
I am basing that off of general aggregate numbers of views of political content on the internet. Now, I'm being generous when I talk about 'daily political engagement', along with being generous when I say 20%. I'd say, on average either side, videos with any mainstream clout get about 300K views in a given day. Now, that being said, I guesstimate that that is probably a good tenth of actual political engagement. It likely is less. And I am counting culture war engagement as 'politics' which I probably shouldn't. If we stick strictly to labor, the percentages drop sharply.
Idk. I think things are slightly different in Wisconsin than Texas if you are not within the Madison, Janesville, and Milwaukee areas. It's good to hear, as that area is one huge political battle ground, but since the unions got fucked in the 00's, politics is focused almost entirely in the great lakes area, and everybody else is just trying to survive and suck as much money from large corporations and the state as possible. Not alot of non-profit jobs around here outside of the universities and hospitals. Maybe if I was more in that crowd I would have a different opinion, but I work with and am friends with mostly apolitical people (many of whom were engaged in either right wing or progressive campaigns).
That could change in the future, though you are right.