HorrendousHexapod
Active Member
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 was fixating 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.
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. 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 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 it's wrong or immoral. I don't know how many of these studies are accurate or well constructed, I just want it all to stop. I'm sick of 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, I'm sick of being talked down to by smug assholes who at like they're so sane, rational, and compassionate when everything they say and do just feels so scripted and calculation despite them telling me that the guys over on the other side are. And 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.
Please, I can't keep going on like this.
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 was fixating 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.
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. 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 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 it's wrong or immoral. I don't know how many of these studies are accurate or well constructed, I just want it all to stop. I'm sick of 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, I'm sick of being talked down to by smug assholes who at like they're so sane, rational, and compassionate when everything they say and do just feels so scripted and calculation despite them telling me that the guys over on the other side are. And 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.
Please, I can't keep going on like this.
