There is no such thing as “apolitical”, and claiming otherwise is dangerous

“Get your rainbow flags out of here, this place is meant to be apolitical” says the homophobe. “Stop talking about black lives matter, I’m sick of hearing about politics” says the racist. “Why do you have to bring up politics? It’s just a word”, says the ableist who used the R word, the misogynist who used the C word, and the racist who used the N word. “This is a place for queer people to get away from politics” says the queer community leader who is letting down queer people of colour, disabled queer people, and nonbinary queer people. “Syscourse has no place here” say the traumagenic system who are excluding endogenic systems from their community.

It is taken for granted in our society that politics is bad. Or in more active groups, that it should not be spoken of in polite company. Or at the very very least, that it should be opt-in. That it requires consent to be spoken of. Because speaking of politics when it is unwanted is a form of violence in some kind.

Let’s start from that initial assertion and ask: why? You ask 10,000 people if society should have some method of preventing crimes, and 9,999 will say yes. Most of them enjoy the idea of laws and prisons. A great many of those also enjoy the structures of civil laws such as copyright. Most people vote, and in some countries it’s compulsory, and while there may be plenty of groaning come election time, most people living under democracy prefer it to the alternative. And most people living under monarchy such as in the United Kingdom prefer this state of affairs to lawlessness.

So why is politics “bad”?

Let’s use the Latin method cui bono — who benefits? Why, the people who stand to lose from the common people discussing politics. Or in other words, the people who gain from political obfuscation. How many people have you heard vote conservative because that’s what their parents did? How many of them would have their minds changed if they actually knew the policies they were voting for? And how about bosses who gain a market benefit from preventing their workers from discussing pay? And there are a LOT of companies destroying the environment that greatly benefit from the death of investigative journalism.

And these are the kinds of people who control our political media, which in turn influences mass opinions and what our society finds acceptable to say in polite company. They can make politics into a dirty word, they have that power of propangda. And fucking hell, it works! Even in queer spaces where people should know better.

Let’s get into the meat of this — what is a “politics”?

Wikipedia says:
the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals

Merriam-Webster (My personal favourite) says:
competition between competing interest groups or individuals for power and leadership (as in a government)
and:
the total complex of relations between people living in society

Collins says:
the actions or activities concerned with achieving and using power in a country or society.
and:
the ways that power is shared in an organization and the ways it is affected by personal relationships between people who work together

So, anything having to do with power or decision making within a group of people is politics. When you and your mates decide which takeout place to order from, the decision follows a political process. When your parents told you it was bed time, they used political power. When you come to trust someone’s opinion in guiding your personal decisions (like whether you should really include the chapter on bird mating calls in your work in progress fantasy novel), you’re engaging in politics.

Politics is all around us. It’s ridiculous to have a negative opinion of it. If there were no politics, there would be no societies, no families, no friendships, and no romantic relationships, because there would exist not a single mechanism for any group to have unified purpose or choice.

Unless you misdefine politics. That’s the trick. And it’s a very easy trick, you can do it without noticing. All you have to do is think in the back of your mind “politics is anything I disagree with”.

Boom. So long as you have the rhetorical skill or the social power to defend this assertion, you can take advantage of the propaganda of the ruling class for your own ends, and attack any goddamned idea in the world you want. You have an intrinsic claim to legitimacy in proportion with your ability to normalise your own opinions, and anyone who disagrees with you is committing “violence”. You have a terrible and destructive power to silence any and all dissent. What you say will go. Nobody can stop you.

What I have described just now is the worst extent of the power of belief in apolitics. Most people who believe in apolitics won’t act this way… if you don’t push them. If you keep agreeing with what they say in a vague sense, or phrase your disagreements charismatically, they won’t use this power. But it’s still there. And there is no sense at all in leaving around terrible powers that reinforce hierarchies of norms. Especially not if you are queer, neurodivergent, disabled, of colour, otherkin, or anything else that goes against the status quo. Because in a battle to attack the political, that which can claim legitimacy through normalcy will always win.

And what benefit is there to gain from calling that which one disagrees with political? As we established above, it’s obviously a bogus claim. Or more accurately, a truism attached to an irrational moral condemnation. If your problem is people disagreeing with you, just say “This is a safe space for people who agree with me, and dissent isn’t allowed.” And if that sounds icky to say, then maybe you need to evaluate whether the goal accomplished by attacking the political is a good thing in the first place.

If there is a valid reason not to talk about something, then there will always be a valid reasoning not to talk about it. But if you have to resort to taking advantage of lying propaganda to push your agenda, then your agenda probably isn’t justified. And even if it is, there is a moral component to legitimising this viewpoint which does so much harm to the so-called political.

Gay people deserve better than to have anti-politicism legitimised. Trans people deserve better. Nonbinary people deserve better. Intersex people deserve better. Black people deserve better. Asian people deserve better. Indigenous people deserve better. Mixed race people deserve better. Physically disabled people deserve better. Autistic people deserve better. Schizospectrum people deserve better. Personality disordered people deserve better. Plural people deserve better. Alterhuman people deserve better. Jewish people deserve better. Every minority under the sun whose identity has been turned into a matter of politics deserves better.

And if there is a good reason for your cause, then your cause deserves better than to be represented by a dirty trick. Apoliticism is a dirty trick. It is a lie, it is propaganda, it is harmful. The belief in apolitical anything is a political belief, and by its own logic, it should be destroyed. The time to stop calling things apolitical is now. There is no excuse.