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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that only stupid people have no interest in politics?

41 replies

sevendwarves · 10/01/2011 15:03

It really winds me up when people say that they don't care about politics, or how dull it is.

If you pay tax, send your DC's to state schools and use the NHS how on earth can you not care about politics?

OP posts:
pinkstinks · 10/01/2011 15:06

I also get annoyed when people aren't bothered about voting etc, bubt I dont think that makes them stupid. Also I am studying politics so am perhaps a bit biased Blush

Ooopsadaisy · 10/01/2011 15:08

I think it is more that people feel so disenfranchised.

I am interested in politics but feel increasingly that my views are ignored, my life is irrelevant to those in power and that there is little credibility left in British (and maybe other countries also - I wouldn't like to say) politics.

The sort of money being talked about in bonuses of the banks, the expenses business etc - it is so detached from my day to day life that it all feels like fairyland.

altinkum · 10/01/2011 15:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FindingStuffToChuckOut · 10/01/2011 15:12

I have a high IQ & an LLB & Post Grad law qualifications - I'm not stupid, but the less I have to do with politics, the happier I am.

I wouldn't say I don't care about politics AT ALL, but it certainly can be very very dull & I understand why people shut down about it. I can be political if I need to be. As for caring about career politicians etc, I care very little about that side of it - and many of them present themselves as people of very little intelligence (though many clearly have brilliant minds). Good luck to them.

I certainly have very little interest in discussing politics with someone who has different view than I do - YAWN!!!!!! If I was invited to a dinner party where politics was main subject of conversation, I wouldn't return the invitation or rush to go there again.

Paying tax, state schooling & use of NHS really isn't an option for most people. Being interested in politics is.

YABU

FabbyChic · 10/01/2011 15:14

I know about politics I follow a lot of the political stories, however I care not for it. I won't discuss it because it is pointless, and I don't vote because every party is basically the same, it's all shit.

They all take. None of them do a good job for their money.

When they do the job for love and not money I might show more of an interest.

southeastastra · 10/01/2011 15:15

i think people are fed up with politics. fed up with the shite hitting the fan all the time. for all their education the country should be fantastic and it's not.

nickelbabyjesus · 10/01/2011 15:17

altinkum "I care about my child's education and schools, I also care about my children's health (member of the trusts), I pay TAX as I dont have a choice/option!"

all of the things you have mentioned rely on politics,Your children wouldn't have an education if it weren't for politics (free schools were brought about by the governemnt and so was national curriculum)
children's health is politics - the NHS is a state health service, and it was brought in by the government.

unless you live on a mountain and are completeley self-sufficient, you have to be interested in politics, because it shapes your everyday life.
It determines everything about how you live.

and Tax is politics too.

frgr · 10/01/2011 15:18

"feel increasingly that my views are ignored, my life is irrelevant to those in power"

hear hear

there is no one that i identify with strongly enough to really get passionate about these days. the issues and problems of politics affects me, but i genuinely don't think any person or party will/can solve them to any level of satisfaction. that's not being "not interested" - that's being disillusioned.

but i get the point, OP, and i do agree with you that it's hard to understand why some people claim (almsot with a smile of pride sometimes!) that they "aren't interested" in politics, as if it doesn't affect them :)

bamboobutton · 10/01/2011 15:21

when i say i'm not interested in politics it's usually because i don't want to get into a boring debate with the asker.

altinkum · 10/01/2011 15:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

southeastastra · 10/01/2011 15:30

thread title is completely up it's own arse

2shoes · 10/01/2011 15:31

stupid thread title.

seeker · 10/01/2011 15:32

People have a social responsibility to care about politics.

whiteflame · 10/01/2011 16:08

well, politics are boring to some people. they bore the pants off me - who cares about a bunch of people having essentially the same petty arguments that you see in playgrounds?

The only reason I am remotely interested is as seeker says, there is a social responsibility to 'care', since it affects all of us. I wish I could just ignore them completely tbh, far more interesting things to my mind. I'm not stupid either, 3 degrees and all that Wink

iwerta · 10/01/2011 16:09

I take an interest in politics but I wouldn't say that anyone who doesn't is stupid.

JoanofArgos · 10/01/2011 16:10

YANBU!

earwicga · 10/01/2011 16:11

YABU.

Everything is political. Do you actually mean party politics?

earwicga · 10/01/2011 16:13

And if everybody was interested in party politics, and in what our government is doing, then the whole system would fall apart. Everyone would all see what a shower of shit is in Westminister (of whatever colour) and who they really represent. It is in politicians best interests that people are badly informed or bored so much they don't pay attention. That's the only reason I can think of Nick Robinson being employed by the BBC anyways Grin

Niecie · 10/01/2011 16:27

I don't think politics and running the country are necessarily the same things. Politics is about ideology and has very little to do with the day to day running of schools or the NHS or anything else come to that. You can argue whether you are left, right or centre in the political spectrum until you are blue in the face but it means very little when it comes to how things are done on a practical level.

All the parties claim to believe different things (the politics bit) but it makes very little difference to us as individuals and so has kind of irrelevant.

So no I don't think that if you don't like politics you aren't interested in where your taxes go, nor do I think you are dull or stupid and really it is a bit of a lazy claim in the first place.

BertieBotts · 10/01/2011 16:30

I think it's more often ignorance than stupidity. I know loads of people who say they aren't interested in politics, but then go on to have a conversation about something which is political, and they just didn't realise.

If you haven't grown up talking about politics in your family it's easy to think "Oh politics is boring, it's just a load of people talking about stuff I don't understand" and not realise that it affects everyday things like taxes, schools, hospitals, jobs, etc etc.

There was a great advert a few years ago which opened my eyes to it and I'd never been interested in politics before. .

higgle · 10/01/2011 16:31

I work in a sector where "Politics" i.e. party politics have considerable bearing on how we deliver our ervices to vulnerable people. It is one of the criteria for accreditation with one of our professional organisations that we are "politically astute". Even with this background colleagues of mine have asked that the local reps of main political parties not be asked to our conference again because they ( the delegates) are not interested in hearing what they have to say !!! I despair.

earthworm · 10/01/2011 16:42

I often wonder why some people, despite admitting that they have little knowledge or interest in politics, will go on to spout their ignorant, misinformed opinions anyway.

Niecie · 10/01/2011 17:07

Reading everybody elses post and my own again and finally getting my head round what I wanted to say a bit more, there are 2 types of politics imo. There is party politics which is a bit dull if you aren't affliated to one party and fairly irrelevant these days when you consider that there isn't actually that much to chose between the parties on a practical level. And then there is political science as the 'art' of running the country which is not the same thing, I don't think. You can be disinterested in party politics and still be interested in how schools and hospitals are run for example.

Not sure which kind the OP is talking about - not sure she sees them as different things as I do.

didldidi · 10/01/2011 17:10

I don't have any interest in it whatsoever.

UnquietDad · 10/01/2011 17:15

Everyone must have an interest in politics, even when they claim they do not. To claim you do not is to have no interest in where your children go to school and the standard of their teaching, the state of your roads and parks, the condition of your local hospital...

What people mean is that they are not interested in party politics. By which they usually mean what they see on Prime Minister's Question Time. In fact, real party politics is a lot more complex and interesting than this.