Free speech absolutism is also a certain political agenda. At some point, everything is political and if you don't like it, you'll need to go off grid and definitely stay offline.
No. Football is a-political. Thanksgiving dinner is a-political. My javascript library is a-political. My silicon design is a-political.
What's happened is an extremely small subset of people have decided to push politics where it doesn't belong. Everything must become a political weapon, because everything must serve the goal of some arbitrary progress. Merely existing without putting on badges in support of The Latest Thing(TM) is offensive -- because you have implicitly not taken a side, which explicitly means you are supporting the enemy. And if that goal requires sacrifice of thanksgiving dinner and family, than so be it.
It's done wonders to improve society's polarization problem, I tell you.
Football is apolitical? Not even close. My school had a rival school, and yelling "go [rival team]!" or even wearing the wrong color during playoffs would invite physical violence, especially after folks had a few beers. The "do we build/upgrade a stadium" question is hotly contested in every city I've lived in during such a referendum. Some people, it turns out, hate football and don't want it to be in their city. That's politics. Hell, when I grew up, even mentioning football would get you booed out of any respectable nerdspace. Thanksgiving is, depending who you ask, a celebration of genocide, try again. Are you still using JavaScript? Typescript, my friend, is the way. Does your silicon design use variable names? Politics entered the chat!
No, everything is political. If you're offended, you're welcome to not participate. Polarization sucks, yes, but pretending it doesn't exist typically means you see one side as right and the other as wrong. Not helpful.
I dunno, you seem to be conflating culture and politics. Politics implies it's about power in some kind of hierarchy, culture doesn't necessarily imply that, it just implies a state of being. Is 'being vegetarian' political to a Buddhist, for example? Does anything think Buddhists are being political when they refuse meat?
I mean, everything is political just because humans do it is a funny perspective but so general that it really loses all meaning.
No. Football is a-political. Thanksgiving dinner is a-political. My javascript library is a-political. My silicon design is a-political.
What's happened is an extremely small subset of people have decided to push politics where it doesn't belong. Everything must become a political weapon, because everything must serve the goal of some arbitrary progress. Merely existing without putting on badges in support of The Latest Thing(TM) is offensive -- because you have implicitly not taken a side, which explicitly means you are supporting the enemy. And if that goal requires sacrifice of thanksgiving dinner and family, than so be it.
It's done wonders to improve society's polarization problem, I tell you.