I used to consider myself center-left, but I don’t know. I frankly don’t care about much, the state of the economy, the state of the U.S. despite being American, or what Trump does in office. It’s simply not my problem and I think it’s boring.
I don’t have high empathy to begin with, and I believe that since it doesn’t directly affect me, I don’t care one way or another. For now, I consider myself to be bisexual (or maybe straight but bicurious?). I believe it’s normal (not right, normal) for some bisexual people to be homophobic, especially when their preference leans toward the opposite gender, since bisexuality is still vastly different from homosexuality.
While I respect everyone regardless as they’re all people, I simply don’t care about certain rights one way or another. I believe LGBT, for example, are people who deserve equal treatment, but I don’t particularly care as I never faced homophobia.
I won’t hang out with certain people. I view them as people with rights, they’re just not my cup of tea.
I don’t understand people with disabilities and won’t pretend to, but I also can’t help them much as someone who hasn’t gone through it, doesn’t know many people like that, nor cares enough to research. I don’t hang out with lesbians because I only hang out with people I relate to, and I can’t hang out with a woman who only likes women.
I like getting attention from men, as they’re masculine. I find I can relate to men/women who like men, and help men who like women with dating women/maybe see them as romantic candidates.
While I do believe everyone deserves equal rights, I don’t have much empathy. I don’t know how to help nor do I care much, frankly, and I am certainly no activist.
I am happy people are giving good feedback to you. Empathy is something that you can get more of over time, it’s not static.
Do you feel that the rich deserve all that money and power while you and everyone you know have to work hard for simple necessities? Or does that unfair situation make you a bit angry? It makes me.
You might not personally care about many of these issues emotionally, but you can think rationally.
What happens if the poorest countries in the world becomes uninhabitable due to climate change? Refugees, lots and lots of refugees. No other refugee situation can even closely compare to this.
What happens if you get disabled? A safety net is nice. You don’t have to care about them, but a guaranteed dignified life for them and yourself is to everones benefit.
You might not care about LGBT rights, but that’s exactly why they should get them. Why care, it doesn’t hurt you in any way?
You might not think what the republicans are doing will affect you, but it will. They are cutting the government to the bone at the moment, this will in turn mean the government will provide worse services to you.
They are also implementing tariffs. The new tariff on goods from Europe basically mean that a thing produced in Europe now will cost you 25% more to buy. The same tariffs will be implemented on Canada and Mexico soon. It could surprise you how much is imported from Europe, Canada and Mexico. The thought behind it is that American goods will be priced more competitively. But in the end, you still have to pay more…
This stuff affects you. You don’t have to do much, really. Just vote democrat if this makes sense to you. You don’t have to be politically active. Just go to the booths and vote once in a while.
Just don’t fight against peoples freedom. Feel free to think egotistically though, if you really think about it you probably stand to gain from voting for the left. Unless you are rich of course, then republican might be the way to go. There is a reason the rich love republicans. There are some concepts that might not make immediate sense, which is why you should want higher taxes, the government isnt that ineffective, and that immigration is probably not really that big of a deal. The higher taxes bit is basically that everyone pools their money together, the rich have to pour a lot more into the pool than the average, then the government spends the money on services for all. So you might put in 100$ and someone making twice as much as you 250$. You end up with services which is worth 175$.
When you feel the pull towards the right, consider if what you believe or hear is actually true or makes sense. A lot of the time it is not. The most common “enemy” for the right is immigrants, and now lgbt. Check statistics and do some research yourself when in doubt.
Anyways good luck on your soul searching, and sorry for the long rant/lecture 😉
Allot of sexuality here. Almost nothing about politics.
You lack the ability to imagine future issues for yourself. Work on this. Cause when those rights are gone, they are not comming back. Pay attention, avoid future pain.
If you can’t feel empathy you might be a psychopath or narcisist. As far as I understand, that is a hard thing to live with. Tough luck.
If I had to guess, you might be apolitical.
I don’t understand people with disabilities
???
What is there to “understand”?
Everything else is your views on sexuality, I wouldn’t know how to tell you your political leanings from that.
I mean this as a kind gesture, I think you should seek therapy. A lot of your question posts are quite out there and don’t seem very healthy. I know therapy helped me! :)
I will comment on one point in your post because I think it’s worth saying. Everything is political, so not caring only really shows your own privilege. But on the other hand it’s easy to get overwhelmed but the state of the world especially in the US and be exhausted from consuming depressing political news. There must be a healthy middle ground between knowing what’s right and moral and not allowing it to cause your inner world to become a mess.
I and probably most online leftist certainly struggle with this.
Thanks Ocean! I’m trying to get help :)
Don’t care unless it affects you?
Republican for sure. Maybe not MAGAt, but definitely have the strong ® tendencies.
I think you are underestimating the power of empathy. I mean this constructively, not as an attack. In my opinion, it’s the single most important emotion for leading a fulfilling life, maintaining healthy relationships, and contributing to and living in a healthy society. The cool thing about empathy is that almost everyone can learn how to do it, even if it doesn’t come naturally. Think of it like a muscle you need to exercise. If you don’t use it regularly, your abilities can atrophy.
You’ve already recognized that you’re not great at empathy, which shows that you are capable of self-awareness, which is huge! The next step is just to find a way to turn that awareness inside out and put yourself in other peoples’ shoes.
The fact that you’re wrestling with the issues you bring up, shows me that you do care about these things. So I think it could be valuable to interrogate what specific things you do and don’t care about when it comes to all the things you mentioned. If you do that with empathy for others always in mind, I think most of your concerns will resolve themselves.
and I believe since it doesn’t directly affect me, I don’t care one way or another.
I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I’ve come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.
-G. M. Gilbert
Gustave Mark Gilbert was an American psychologist best known for his writings containing observations of high-ranking Nazi leaders during the Nuremberg trials.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Gilbert
Sounds like you’re the traditional Republican voter. Give this a read:
https://joycearthur.com/abortion/the-only-moral-abortion-is-my-abortion/
“it’s simply not my problem”
Yes it is
How so?
How much you earn, how many hours you work and how much paid time off you have, what your city looks like, what housing looks like and how much it costs, your monthly expenses, the media you consume and the news you watch (or don’t watch cause it’s too dumb), …
EVERYTHING is determined or influenced by political decisions made by people in power.So yes, it is your problem. Cause a lot of your problems are caused by politics.
Ohh. I still think politics are boring though LOL. I’d rather just scroll through TikTok. People keep talking about “climate change” but I don’t care about that either.
I understand now, though.
That’s just called political apathy and self defeatism.
Someday you will care because it will affect you. Best not to wait until that day comes.
Then why is your political affiliation relevant?
There’s an incredibly simple solution to not caring about politics: not caring about politics.
Why do you say you don’t care about climate change, and what would make you care? Climate change is one of those things that’s going to suck for all of us, so even if you have no empathy for anyone else, it’s kinda surprising that you don’t at least care about how it will affect you.
Empathy and intelligence are good proxies for political orientation.
The smarter and/or more empathic people are the more left they tend to skew.
Objectively, you sound ignorant and wholly self centered but still not self interested to the point you need other people to tell you your views because you haven’t thought about them yourself. At this point, your opinion is whatever people tell you to make it.
But if you’re not a straight white man or a tradfem you’re actively disservicing yourself by not understanding what being politically ignorant has on literally every facet of your existence from the water you drink to your validity as an autonomous individual.
Then even if you are a straight white man, racism is largely a misdirection for class warfare via wage theft, wage suppression, and inflation.
Explore this site and take the quiz if you’re curious, but also look at the history of US elections and notice how far right candidates have gone the last 2 decades.
Take note of how far RIGHT candidates portrayed as “left” are.
You could try googling “what is someone with no empathy or political understanding called”
Sounds like MAGA to me.
Why MAGA?
Thanks!
you are probably not center-left. you, to me, sound like either apolitical or one of the lgbt republicans who are “one of the good ones”.
you’re apparently bi/a lesbian too but you don’t hang out with lesbians because you can’t relate to them (you like men)??
genuine question. how are you not a victim of homophobia if you dated a girl in high school and are lgbt? and if no one ever has judged you for that, how do you not feel empathetic to other lgbt people who have?
Weird
What’s weird?
Everything…
Why can’t you hang out with people who have different sexual orientations than you?
Why can’t you understand your shared self interest against homophobia/biphobia with other LGBT individuals?
I’d say it’s very self oriented, but it’s really not, you can’t even recognize your own group self interest.
I think politically disengaged or apolitical is probably the closest I could think of. You didn’t express anarchistic tendencies just ennui and dissociation with politics and people. Not caring isn’t really a position either way.
Someday it’s likely something will happen in your life to guide that path. You can seek it out now based on your morals or what IS important to you, or find that split in the road later on.
Don’t sweat it tho.
Myself, I don’t like people much either interpersonally. But I also want people to be happy and not have to fear for their livelihoods. I consider myself progressive because I’m happy paying taxes to support basic living, fight hunger, keep people warm at a minimum. Will I personally help probably not but that’s a combo of my own life and feelings.
Economic inequality only self-perpetuates. Any person, system, or organization that tries to fight it should be supported. Otherwise we wind up with what we see now - monopolies that can charge what they want, and billionaires that co-opt the media and govt to give themselves more money.
I would put that as apolitical center-left. I would say though, don’t get too hung up on labels in general, they aren’t very important.
Thank you