this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
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Being nonpolitical is a privilege
"I don't get into politics" is a fancy way of saying, "My rights aren't up for debate every few years."
For those that don’t know how they’re privileged.
As a Trans person I don't have the privilege of being apolitical, my very life has been politicized and I therefore must be political as a result.
Even having the state talk about doing bad things to you or those you love is incredibly oppressive.
"That law didn't even get passed. Why are you upset?"
"Well Mom, your grandchild deserves to grow up in a place where his existence isn't publicly challenged on a daily basis."
It's worse than that, you have been politicized against your will.
I have been politicized from the very moment I was born, first I was made political for being Jewish, then for having divorced parents, afterwards my Autism made me fundementally political, and now the simple act of understanding myself as a women has made me a political statement. Nearly every aspect of my life from my gender, my sexuality, my ethnicity, my religion, my background, where I live, and who my parents are have been used against me in the name of politics. Yet after everything my political views are fundementally shaped by me wishing to be left alone and wanting others to hold that same freedom (AnSynd).
For people with money to spare maybe, but being apolitical is the default state of working class people (aka the majority of voters). You don't have time to get involved in activism when it's taking all you can do to just put food on the table.
Fascism is just authoritarian capitalism, and then as now its main base of support is the middle class, meaning people with something to lose. Like, the main electoral constituency of Donald Trump is not disgruntled rust belt workers but small business owners- car dealerships, construction companies, realtors. Just like in Germany back in the day.
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/family-capitalism-and-the-small-business-insurrection/