My Facebook feed has recently been flooded with posts asking people to "Make Facebook Nice Again" or to stop being so negative. These posts specifically refer to the amount of political talk on Facebook and other social media sites.
But what the people sharing these posts do not realize is that not caring about politics or seeing politics as inherently negative is a sign of privilege. Millions of people in the United States are personally affected by political affairs every moment of every day.
Millions of people will be losing health care.
Thousands of people are unable to enter this country despite having visas and green cards.
Every single person in this country who pays taxes will be paying for a wall the majority of Americans do not want to build.
People with uteri are going to lose life-saving health services.
Our public education system is going to be dismantled.
Oil pipelines are being built on the sacred land of Native Americans'.
Climate change is real, and our new administration is only going exacerbate it.
I am so happy if none of this affects you. I am so glad you do not have to deal with the "negativity" of real life. I am jealous of you, truly. I wish I could ignore the problems of others. I wish I could ignore my own problems. I wish I could stop paying attention to politics, stop protesting, stop fighting against a system which continues to hurt me. I wish I had the privilege you do. I wish all people had the privilege you do.
But we do not.
So please, before you ask people to stop talking about politics, evaluate why you do not care about them. Is it because you are unaffected? Probably. And that is the epitome of privilege.
