(Pandemic Diary - day 248)

From my journal: 1 November 2020 (Sunday)

I listened to an episode of Hidden Brain while I had lunch, and it started me thinking about the role of politics in my life and the possibility that I might be too deeply involved in it (without really being involved at all), and also that my instinct to assess someone’s character based on their party affiliation might be flawed. It’s worth some examination.

The beginning of the show centered on the idea that our polarization is not as deep as we think it is. They used a survey to illustrate the idea that we aren’t really as worried about a person’s political orientation as we’re worried that they will want to talk to us about it.

They asked people how they’d feel if their child were to marry someone of the other political party, and of course this was objectionable to a certain percentage of people. Then they asked the same question with the caveat that the future spouse would almost never talk about politics. The percentage of objections went down.

Then they talked about differences in level of engagement, that there are people who Care Deeply, and those who don’t. The people who Care Deeply tend to follow politics on a very regular basis (like me). And the idea is that those people are not representative of the general population, but they drive our political discussions, and also our conclusions about polarization within our society.

That makes sense, but it might lead to a conflict in my understanding of things.

I tend to view a person’s choice of political alignment as shorthand for their beliefs in general. I automatically use it as an indicator of their principles and basic morality, their ability to think clearly, and their judgment. And it seems like a valid indicator regardless of their level of engagement with politics or their interest in it. Whether they Care Deeply of not, if they are able to express an orientation, that means they’ve chosen one, and that choice indicates all of those things to me.

But it might not be so, and I’d like to get past the stereotypes and my tendency to judge people (at least solely) on their political alignment. How do I manage that?

The first thing might be to realize that the part of their judgment it might most accurately reflect is not their choice of party, but their decision about whether or not that choice deserves much of their time or effort. And that takes me back to my old conclusion that, at least for a lot of people, there’s not much difference sports and politics (especially when it comes to people who do — or don’t — Care Deeply).

If a person isn’t interested in a sport, and you ask them who their team is, they might give you an answer without thinking or caring much about it, and that might be exactly what goes on with politics. Pressed into giving an answer, they take the answer lightly. They might look at the general persona of the choices (and more likely the alignment of their friends, and what’s most prevalent in their community) and then they choose a team.

If you were to ask me who my football team is, of course I’d say it’s the Steelers, and I might caveat that by saying that I don’t really follow the NFL or watch much football anymore, but you would still come away from the discussion thinking of me as a Steeler Fan. And if you were the Cares-Deeply person who would ask me that question for any reason other than just small-talk, that would mean a lot more to you than it does to me.

Of course my allegiance is not superficial or arbitrary — I’m aligned with the party that matches more of the basic beliefs I hold, and I’ve arrived at those beliefs consciously. But the outward appearance is the same, and my impact on the game is the same (there really is none). And I could possibly appear as ridiculous in my advocacy as the dedicated fan of a particular sports team appears to me.

I don’t want to be that person.