What worries me is that my abstention will be misinterpreted. The meeja will think it’s apathy.
This is a howling fallacy. If you were to ask Gordon Ramsey whether he preferred McDonalds or Burger King, and he replied “they’re both shit”, would you infer that he was apathetic about food? Why, then, infer that I’m apathetic about politics.
It’s not apathy I feel. It’s contempt.
How grateful I am to Stumbling and Mumbling for encapsulating so forcefully the defense of "apathy". I was going to write a piece (in response to Polly Toynbee) about why abstention is not undemocratic. I don't need to now, since S&M have done it for me.
Political choice:
- does not care about my views
- is a crude means to judge something
- is indivisible
- assumes I should decide how others are governed
- assumes politicians are the solution, not the problem
- tries to supplant ability to pay, with bullying
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