Member-only story
How Politics Drove Me Away From Social Media
And I’ve never been happier.
In America, you can’t afford not to think about politics. Well, that’s not completely true. If you’re a cis white male, I guess you can. But for the rest of us, politics are something we have to consider whether we want to or not. And I’ll be 100 percent truthful, I would rather not. I grew up being told what a lot of us were — If it’s political or religious, don’t discuss it in polite company.
Well I’m sorry, but that just doesn’t work any longer, not that it ever did. When how my body works is being policed by people who don’t even know how it functions, when cops are allowed to beat and murder people for simply existing, and when people can’t be who they are without worrying about dying or even having their children taken from them, we don’t get to not discuss politics.
But I will say, I do get to choose who I want to listen to when it comes to politics. And when I’m on social media, especially my personal pages where, admittedly, I just want to watch cat videos and look at photos of my nieces and nephews, I really don’t want to see or hear about how you support Trump or anyone else who thinks people like me shouldn’t exist.
People I’m related to, people who know I’m a queer woman with children who also identify as queer, were posting things about how there are only two genders. These same people share memes and status updates about how what’s going on in Texas (overturning abortion laws and how parents of transgender children are now required to be reported for helping their kids transition) is the way it should be everywhere.
Really? So, my non-binary child who is quite possibly transgender shouldn’t get to decide how to live? My child who was assigned female at birth, if they ever require an abortion for any reason, shouldn’t be allowed to have one? Their bodies are your business, why?
They aren’t. And I’ve had more than enough. So, I removed myself from the equation because to be quite frank, I know these people aren’t going to change their minds and neither am I.
Of course, this means I am living in a proverbial echo-chamber now, right? Sure, if you say so. I do choose to surround myself as much as possible with people who think the way I do…
