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Politics Are Ruining Me

User Profile: HorrendousHexapod
HorrendousHexapod December 4th, 2025

As the title suggests I don't particularly care for politics. I hate talking about them, I hate thinking about them, yet for some reason I force myself to hyper fixate on them. For the last few years, it feels like not a week has gone by where I haven't worried about something political. In a lot of ways, it's starting to feel like politics are designed to trap people like me in this never ending cycle of fear and anxiety, where they constantly guilt me for forming opinions against them.

For example, I kept looking up these articles about the difference between liberals and conservatives, looking up which was smarter, happier, more compassionate, more successful, etc. I don't know why I started, maybe I hyper fixated on the idea of myself or people with my political views being horrible people, so I'll find articles saying that they're is inherently miserable, unintelligent, have less empathy for people on the other side, and that any expression of empathy they express at all is purely performative. Sometimes they just speak from their personal experiences, which aren't attributable to everyone, but are spoken with such venom that it's like I have to think like them.

Recently I came across this website, apparently written by a therapist, who said that using pronouns was now akin to narcissism. Apparently asking someone to refer to you as he, she, or they is akin to some kind of narcissistic level of control where people force others to cater to their beliefs about themselves and or face retribution, apparently using others as a mirror to affirm their sense of self worth and build up their self image by referring to them by preferred pronouns. The guy also insinuated that having problems with the whole “Sticks and Stones” saying, like thinking that words can in fact hurt you, is part of some culture of victimhood where people now lack resilience.

Sometimes they use legitimate scientific sources to back up what they say, for example, liberals are less likely to befriend or show empathy to conservatives and are more openly hostile towards them, but are seemingly contradicted by other sources saying that conservatives hate liberals more or that they view them as more morally bankrupt.

Am I going crazy? Am I allowed to think that all of this is stupid? I don't know which sources are more accurate, but sometimes I believe that the ones that cause me more anxiety are the ones closer to the truth. I'm always hyper critical of sources that don't cause me anxiety, but then when one does it feels like I have to believe it immediately. I also get worried when a source is like 70+ pages in length, guilting myself if I choose to not read it and saying I’m just trying to deny reality, when really, I just don’t want to waste hours looking through something I don’t even know is true.

I even worry that I'm stupid for being so anxious or worrying a lot, since a large number of studies apparently demonstrate a link between lower IQ and unhappiness or anxiety, albeit quite a small one. It feels like I can't have any opinion about any specific topic without worrying that whatever I think of is wrong or immoral. I don't know how many of these studies and sources are accurate or well constructed, I just want it all to stop. I'm sick of constantly debating my political positions to myself, I'm sick of searching up my opinions on google to check whether or not some study says they're accurate or not or some Schrödinger’s *** says they’re dumb and immoral, I'm sick of being talked down to by smug *** who act like they're so sane, rational, and compassionate fighting back against the evil guys on the other side when to me everything they say and do just feels so fake and calculated despite them telling me that the guys over on the other side are just that. I can’t even write this out without worrying that I’m misrepresenting or misunderstanding them no matter how hard I try.

I know I haven't specifically stated what my political beliefs are but I really don't want to start a flame war in the comments.

2
User Profile: toughTiger6481
toughTiger6481 December 4th, 2025

@HorrendousHexapod

it is designed to inflame people headlines social media post etc too short to give real information just inflammatory rhetoric.   Many people seem overly upset and fixated on it. same with statistics they are biased and you can make stats support every view. 

once people see it is designed to irritate you it becomes easier to step back from the new outrage mode every day.  this is also fueled by click bait no matter if article is completely made up or false  # of clicks is how many are paid. so sensationalism creates clicks. 

User Profile: PaulShipmanSmith
PaulShipmanSmith January 25th
It's certainly true that the state of our political systems are of great concern to us all, especially in these very dark, uncertain and volatile times.
Political upheaval dominates the news and is now so much a part of everyday conversation, with political opinions being expressed openly.
Why all this interest in politics?
Our world is now so much smaller through the use of digital devices, with information available at the touch of a button.
Years ago, people acquired their news via the television, radio and newspapers, which meant they received a set amount of news each day.
Political and current affairs news was considered a deep, intelligent subject for the more discerning viewer, listener or reader and their needs were satisfied via debate programmes, political commentaries and broadsheet newspapers.  
Of course, the media companies knew how to communicate their news to a broad spectrum of people in such a way they could speak to everyone as if an individual.  Hence the importance of the tabloid newspapers bringing the information in a way and at a level to appeal directly to the masses of working class people.
For it was the working class public who would ask the mighty question...  "What will this new party do for me when elected?"
The answer of course...  Nothing of great benefit to the working class people.
Yet the journey between that important question and the answer was one of great excitement, suspense, expectation and argument as the people became embroiled with twists and turns of election time.
For the media companies (by taking sides) worked hand in hand with the governments and prospective parties to help incite, infuriate and stir the emotions of the masses as they argued and even came to physical blows over who would benefit the working people and lift them out of their turmoil.
Contrary to the saying... "Don't believe what the papers tell you."  The people over the land genuinely believed in what the media provided and that information was the foundation for their political beliefs and actions.
Just like today... Wages, cost of living, housing, finances, law, crime, punishment and other rules affecting how their country was governed all evoked pure emotion within a people who were becoming more angry each day as they knew that nothing ever seemed to get better.
Political discussion was avoided because there would be some idiot in the middle of the group, consistently stirring up the volatile tempers of those who wanted to express contempt at their country's state of affairs.
What always happened in the end?  
After all the drama, excitement, tension, suspense, promises, rhetoric and hyperbolic presentations - followed by the fireworks, music and crowds cheering...
Life returned to normal and the people found themselves back to the reality of having to struggle on with their everyday lives.
Media manipulation has always played a massive part within the political spectrum and of course it still does today.
What has changed?  Nothing really.  
However.  Our world is changing at a rapid and dramatic pace.
It seems we are all being made to become anxious, nervous wrecks when it comes to being informed about world-wide events.
Whereas in the past, the news was updated at set times to a point the news was out-dated when you received it.
Even on the television and radio, significant news would come as a 'newsflash' and even then, the news updates were delivered as and when the television or radio would broadcast it...  Leaving the people in suspense (and possible extreme worry).
Today.  The media plays the same role, yet in more advanced, manipulative ways because technology advances by the day.
A social media post can be seized by the reporters and a story created, twisted and contorted is published immediately online for viewing by a public consisting of so many vulnerable people, prone to anxiety.
When a society - a whole country in fact - of working class people are being worn down each day through attrition, a productive way to speed up the process now lies at the heart of those using technology to deliver the news and other propaganda.
The news is delivered every few seconds via constant streams and updates, fanning the flames of anxiety, depression, disillusionment and anger until they burn brighter and hotter, evoking the emotions within.
Not only do you have the newspapers, radio and television in digital, constantly updated format and 'live', you have conspiracy theorists, video bloggers, podcasts and everything else to help stir and twist the information so as to create further panic.
Even the serious broadsheet newspapers are used to incite the aggression of those who wish express themselves violently on the streets...  They do via the next political revolutionaries, who use these 'serious' papers as sources in order to inflame their followers.
A political activist will pick up a broadsheet and relay the information via their video streams, picking out the stories they know will incite their followers into action, such as crime being linked to foreign nationals. 
Every opportunity is used to direct a disillusioned public into conflict, chaos and division which in itself becomes a part of everyone's newsfeeds.
There's no denying it.  What's happening in the world around us is cause for great worry.
How can we deal with it?
Unfortunately.  We can't hide from the reality of what is inflicting our societies and our countries worldwide, as the entire population faces one crisis after another.
Perhaps a different approach may be needed, in which we all continue to use our devices to connect with the world and make ourselves even more knowledgeable to what is going on.
Studies about levels of intelligence being connected to how happy we are don't give a true reflection of life, because there can be many different reasons for how someone feels at a particular point in time or even all the time.
We don't need to read complex academic studies to understand the reality of how people really feel because quite frankly, many of these so-called studies can be used (with media manipulation) to scare us into a state of even more panic. 
Just go out into the street and see the people struggling with their everyday lives, trying to financially make ends meet, discussing health issues, mobility issues, trying to get a doctors appointment and whatever other struggles they have.
It doesn't matter what happens at election time because whoever governs the country, the working class people just don't seem to benefit and if anything, they end up worse off.
Although all of this depressing news keeps being streamed to our news feeds every minute, it must be borne in mind that whatever happens, be it wars, crime, financial crisis news, disasters, political and societal upheaval and so on...  
There are those who are wealthy and in positions of power who will financially profit whilst so many will suffer.  It is the poorer people who will feel the negative effects of these devastating events - not just those living where the events take place, but those living far away will feel the consequences as well because the price of everything goes up - and even vital, community services/local businesses can be restricted as a result of international supply issues and so on.
Throughout the entire world, whether you live in a capitalist democracy or an authoritarian regime, each country in the world and their people all seem to share one important, significant trait - being run for benefit of a wealthy few whilst their people get poorer and find themselves having to fight for the services they desperately need.
At present, we are all being divided, herded like cattle into pens, told to put our own country first and forsake others, only to encourage more conflict.
There are many concerns we all need to acknowledge and eventually face head first, yet at the same time, all the scaremongering we experience everyday doesn't help. 
A unification of thought by everyone (wherever they live in the world) is needed in order to fully understand what is happening to the people and it's important to visualise the barriers that separate everyone coming down so we all can share the experience of deceit.
Everyone has their own thoughts, feelings and values with regard to all aspects of life.  However there are times when everyone needs to unify and think as one force when it comes to facing and accepting the challenges ahead.


Paul...























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