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to set the stage here I organized as a college student/adjacent to a political cult (was never 100% brainwashed and pulled in) so this answer is going to diverge from many other answers. I’ll say in my opinion that trying to divide or merge person and politic is a zero sum game or detrimental for my personal life and political consequences at large
I don’t allow myself to get into situations where this would be remotely possible and that either comes off as extremely myopic or cushioned from reality but I’m choosing to accept that. In my friendships or making new friends I try to be a remotely ok judge of character to determine if political beliefs will inflame the friendship
no amount of brain power would make me consider changing someone’s mind on politics in a friendship but its likely im on the same page of people who are moderate or political disengaged to discuss freely about it
Hannah Arendt once observed that the personal and political spheres merging creates this space where we can no longer ”act” in politics but we behave as economic actors or consumers. I think she’s on the money about this to this day - politics on the whole are very much boiled down to a market choice for me and not visible in my personal life much

@aidanaguirre

Jul 14, 2024

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@marxinista

omg wait im so curious how you got to this point as a soc/gs student

Jul 14, 2024

@aidanaguirre

marxinista I could honestly write an entire book about this but I can summarize in a few points: - I picked this major at a very pivotal moment of my development of political consciousness, erroneously assumed that college was a way to gain knowledge and skills. It’s more of a networking tool and gateway to jump through socioeconomic status - working with impotent student groups that could not truly speak with working people. schisms and splintering over cultural issues, crackpots and demagoguery, truly neutered leadership who did crash dummy behavior or excessive handwringing. I have sampled all 31 flavors of politics and economy and I’ve concluded they all taste fairly rotten - politics made me psychotic and I lost several years of what could’ve been a very productive life to political derangement or delusions in varying order I’m fully checked out and live a life that’s incredible different, I wanted to study what I did to help people and to be a leader in some capacity but none of that happened and tbh I’m fine that it did, makes for a great story, maybe I’ll publish a book someday

Jul 14, 2024

@aidanaguirre

marxinista in my program for school I am sure there were so many great people who went on to make stellar contributions to society but I’m blithely resigned to it and I’m lowkey a business student in a sociologist‘s body

Jul 14, 2024

@marxinista

aidanaguirre ahhh ok. maybe it was partially an environment thing? at my school i found a lot of my peers in my soc program were actually the most down to earth because we studied social issues better and most of us were personally impacted by them so we were able to relate more to the social groups we “talked about” (ie working class people). i feel like at my school those for whom education was a privilege (and not a given) tended to be more likely to view it as an opportunity to use it “for good” rather than just themselves. there were definitely some out of touch people but i think that comes with those who try to view things more objectively or theoretically. like the College Dems were a lot of poli sci students who came from privileged backgrounds so had little grounding in wtf they were talking about 😭 but this is just the school i went to tho and i know each college has a different culture. i’m sure at ivy leagues it’s the most insane lol

Jul 14, 2024

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can we escape it?

I love talking about politics with my friends! I will say that my friend group is full of likeminded people. If there is a disagreement within the group I feel that because we have a similar mindset we are able to see where the other is coming from even if we don’t agree(?) if that makes sense. Ofc identity politics plays a big role which might create an idea of community or make others feel left out.
I think where we are in society today politics cant be avoided. Politics and policy is everywhere that even a simple conversation can be tied to so many aspects of it. I think discussing it with friends, people you trust and know have similar perspectives or ideas allows for a safe conversation (at least in my case).

@m_gamino

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“personal vs political”

people loveee to say that they don’t let their politics interfere with their personal life, but the fact of the matter is that there is no disentangling them from each other. your political beliefs are influenced by your personal beliefs and vice versa. there is no separating them.

@conedsmj

Jul 14, 2024

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no, you can’t separate someone from their politics

lots of other thoughtful responses here but simply put, no. if someone supports a harmful political figure, they likely believe that figure’s beliefs or they at least don’t care enough about each impact of that politician’s whole platform. we can’t only think about how things impact ourselves; being kind to others is the bare minimum. and there is nuance, like if someone believes we can’t abolish the police but thinks the current system is bad, so they support a politician who increases social services (that prevent crime), that’s different from someone who supports a politician that justifies police violence. the latter is highly, highly ignorant; but the former acknowledges social issues, which indicates space for further dialogue and growth from an organizing perspective, i do believe in educating and calling in etc but those are learned skills and also a totally different thing from friendship and dating. you probably can’t just “fix” the views of friends or partners, and should not just leave that as a caveat of your relationship nor put up with their beliefs because you think you might be able to educate them. article linked is specifically about dating but it’s a good, brief essay