On issues that matter to the country like climate change, healthcare, education, taxes, womens & minority rights - sure there's plenty.
If you're talking about hot button social issues of the week that right wing commentators care/talk about 1000x more than anyone else, I don't know because I don't care about that at all.
The same type of argument can be made about any specific issue. For instance, labor rights is incredibly broad. I don't think it's a realistic requirement for someone to care about every possible labor-rights issue. It's fine if people want to be selective.
You must be pretty asleep to not be aware of the hot button topics now.
How about statements like:
- people should have body autonomy when it comes to vaccines
- the US does not owe entry to illegal immigrants
- there are two biological genders
- the US is not structurally racist
- cops don't kill blacks at higher rates than whites
- young children shouldn't be taught controversial topics (sex, etc.)
- math is not racist
I fail to see why it's ever appropriate to suggest we only discuss one issue at once. Neither society nor government are monolithic entities. If you're genuinely concerned about a topic and think it should be a higher priority, solicit attention for it on its own rather than derailing discussions of other topics.
Is the political flamebait really necessary? It is possible for reasonable people to disagree on the fundamental rights the USA recognizes its citizens have, but that is not a great topic for HN.
I will not push back on soap-box issues because, unfortunately, too many folks have uttered the line, "x issue is life and death for me and cannot be debated". I get that feeling, because my groups issues are like that for me, however my groups issues aren't of such popularity that I don't have to witness people doing exactly that. It's quite a frustrating paradigm, especially when your political allegiances land you among folks who have quite rich opinions about people of said group and the institutions around them (at times.)
All in all, I don't miss the news or politics. I hear about important things and am still "informed" just by the virtue of having a pretty eclectic group of friends. For instance, I heard about the rocket attacks on Israel because part of my team is in Israel. That prompted me to read the entire wikipedia article on this topic, which was illuminating in giving me a fact-based understanding; however what I lack is an opinion. What I don't get is the every day reminders of issues x, y, or z while seeing my groups issues ignored or deprioritized and when friends do this (probably inadvertently) I'm able to tolerate it because I hear it less.
Sure, because those things are trendy in this space. It's a real shame - I wish we as a subsection of society decided we had more interesting things to talk about than gender and racial equality, but that is the dominant topic for the day.
Yes, it is bothersome. You mentioned race issues, but you could have easily mentioned climate change: “is it really so unreasonable that people want to talk about keeping the planet hospitable?” Or abortion “is it really so unreasonable women want to talk about having control of their own bodies?” Or the war in Ukraine: “is it really so unreasonable people want to talk about their own political self determination?”
There will always be important political considerations that affect groups in disproportionate ways. That doesn’t mean we need to talk about politics all the time or that there is something wrong with not wanting to talk about politics. And yes, if someone expresses a desire to avoid political discussion, I think it’s a dick move to violate that desire and subtly imply they don’t care about race issues.
Fair point, and perhaps poorly worded on my behalf.
You may disagree with me, but I think there is some political, social-economical, geo-political or even local-government topics that effect everyone. Or rather, there is at least one topic that effects every single person, whether they think it or not.
Why are those the extremely important topics that need discussion? What about the people who are actually being hurt every day in America (drug addicts, prisoners, trans people, poor people...)?
No but it comes off as disingenuous because people talk about a lot of ill in the US without getting the level of outrage that this topic brings, rampant inequality, corporate stranglehold of the government and horrible work conditions for many people, regardless of the color of their skin. So when someone says, lets talk about more than this problem, they get sidelined and everything else is pushed further to the back burner.
The problems that are at the center of the divides in our population. They are discussed/argued endlessly, and by intention are not discussed a lot here. The rules say if it's something that you would see on television news, it's probably off-topic here.
We don't need this place to turn into another typical comment section on the internet. Go to one of those places if you want to shout at other people who are not there with open minds.
Wait, this is a right vs left wing issue in USA? Explains the very low quality and very tribal discussions here. I thought this was about privacy and government overreach and in those threads the discussions are much better, but apparently all of that goes out the window when you add tribal conflicts...
If you're talking about hot button social issues of the week that right wing commentators care/talk about 1000x more than anyone else, I don't know because I don't care about that at all.
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