You may or may not be familiar with this saying. Here at the 5Cs, many embrace the sentiment that politics is the determining factor behind every social phenomenon. Not only is politics one of the most popular majors across these campuses, but it also comes up in everyday conversation more often than ever before in recent memory. We are at a point where everyone is overly concerned with seeming political, but I argue this limits more earnest attempts to engage with political topics.
It may seem harmless to stake a claim in every political conversation around you, but it’s not. No one human can be educated on everything, but creating a culture that expects everyone to be sets a dangerous precedent. The social pressure to have an opinion for every political discussion at the 5Cs dilutes these conversations, putting students at risk of conformity or political fatigue.
In no way am I claiming that people should disengage from politics entirely. However, it shouldn’t feel taboo to abstain from a political conversation in settings like a classroom, for example. Sometimes, abstaining simply means listening and learning something new — stepping aside to understand an issue could eventually lead to a more nuanced take on it.
The 5Cs have a deeply political culture, which makes it nearly impossible to avoid political conversations. The culture of always feeling the need to speak out on every topic that gets brought up in conversation is worse than the possibility of students staying silent. When we treat political topics like this, we treat them as casually as discussions on our favorite television shows, as if these real-world topics don’t exist outside our conversational opinions.
The reflexive need to express political opinion also risks political fatigue. A study from the Pew Research Center found that around 65% to 77% of Americans feel politically overwhelmed, which can lead them to disengage from politics and voting altogether. Political fatigue goes hand-in-hand with universal politicization and actively limits how much change one can concretely make.
The impulse to always chime in often comes from good intentions; many of us want to be perceived as involved citizens and contribute meaningfully to an issue at stake. However, jumping in with an opinion on something you are not necessarily well-informed on muddies the message and can make people want to disengage from further education. I am not saying people should only have opinions on political discussions they are directly impacted by, or that they should ignore others’ needs. Rather, if someone doesn’t feel they know enough about certain issues, they shouldn’t feel pressure to chime in — and we shouldn’t press presumptions onto someone for playing a more passive role in a given political conversation.
The harm in people not being educated on a topic is partly that they don’t feel comfortable admitting it. Instead of admitting ignorance or a lack of education, they latch onto the most popular or most readily available opinion. As a consequence, that opinion becomes largely unsubstantiated. Whether it be about abortion, the economy or education, I encourage everyone to resist the pressure to immediately take a stance on one side or the other.
The pressure to agree is made more demanding when people agree with statements that are not only ill-informed but straight-up false. In the Asch conformity experiment, a series of tests carried out in the 1950s, participants were shown a series of simple lines and asked to match them by length. The correct answer was obvious, but 75% went along with a clearly incorrect answer because of group consensus.
This group mentality is also supported by the NIH; a 2018 study noted that in group settings, people often change their stances to socially conform. People modify their political opinions, or lack thereof, because they want to feel more socially accepted.
It’s better for people to have deeper, more knowledgeable takes on subjects they care about than to talk a little bit about every topic because they feel like they have to. This informed, selective participation reduces the risk of group mentality, and consequentially when people let false information spread because they feel a social stigma around speaking up.
If we build a culture where politics are elective rather than expected, we will reduce political fatigue, as well as allow people to express greater humility when talking about politics and address their lack of education on political issues. Hopefully, this mindset shift will facilitate deeper, more productive conversations, so at the end of the day we can work toward real societal change.
Makayla Tracy PZ ’30 just wants to disconnect from the internet for a week to cry about her latest test.
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