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by vharuck
1276 days ago
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>Politics is all about value judgements and arguing about where we are going. In my opinion, politics is about deciding where society should go. It's inherently about directing shared resources and convincing/forcing others to do things. All politics is based on value judgements, but not all value judgements are political. E.g., for prompt #4, I can say my child's school focuses too little on "the classics." I might not want to change the curriculum, just teach him the classics myself at night. That's not really a political discussion, because I'm not involving or intentionally affecting people outside my family. But honestly, if any term reaches the point where "Everything is X," then X is a useless term. |
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#2 goes directly to economics. #3 goes directly to the One Child Policy in China (one of the worlds most intense political policies!) and the intellectual underpinnings of eugenics.
#4 is a firestorm topic in the US that links directly to a current culture war, #5 goes to a major issue in the medical system which is how people die. If I bought up #7 in my family the conversation would veer into veganism as a political statement and probably get ugly because we have a practising vegan at the table.
#1, the Guinness World Records might be safe. Might. Maybe. #6 isn't directly political but I can guarantee that the term "human progress" is a risk of bringing up some very stiff argumentation if people are in a mood to quarrel. What we call "progress" is hardly at a consensus.
For someone who argues from principles, this list is extremely politically charged and is going to obliquely hit a bunch of hot-button topics. It goes to principles that are perennial features of politics at all levels of society.
If the goal is to avoid a big argument that'll need to be negotiated directly. If someone is going to argue, these topics are likely hit-and-miss for being likely to quiet people down. I would not bring up a lot of them when talking to my family, that is for sure.