to really despise people who won't let others talk politics

[UnderHisEyeBall]

I have come across the phrase "it's turning into the House of Commons in here!", cue eyerolls, scoffing and lots of huffing about people daring to talk about politics. Usually by women sadly.

First, where did that godawful phrase come from? I didn't hear it until the EU referendum and then this election campaign, and secondly, why do the people who do this consider their position of political apathy politically superior? Yet also try to impose it on others? And are surprised when this doesn't go down well?

if you feel unable to discuss or defend your political choices, maybe you are making the wrong ones for you?

Or maybe I feel it's my business and nobody else's? I'm not obliged to discuss anything about my life that I choose to keep private.

YANBU. I've never heard that phrase, but sounds irritating. Politics underpins everything we do every day of our lives, to ignore it is to be unreasonable!

I don’t want to talk politics.

I’m not ill informed. I just happen to believe that “politics” is a lot of bluster, lies and manipulation. I don’t want to talk about it because I don’t want to analyse lies.

people who make stupid comments like "eeeh it's like the house of commons" etc tend to be people who are quite ignorant

No, I imagine they're just thoroughly bored and sick of the political arguments dominating a social occasion but are too polite to just shout 'FGS STFU!' They've probably already tried moving the conversation on to something else, and been ignored.

Each to their own and all and I know it's something people in England especially IME don't like to divulge or discuss, even among friends.

But, it isn't something I think of as private and I feel many people really benefit from discussing it. I think it's actually a really detrimental thing that people feel they aren't able to voice their views on politics; within reason obviously. Nobody wants hate speech or a total bun fight, but respectful discussion can be really enlightening.

But I appreciate it's because of the disrespectful few that some people are hesitant to speak their minds. I still think people who want to discuss it shouldn't be shut down though. Obviously if it's a one sided monologue, nobody is going to enjoy that other than the one person droning on. But when people try to shut down a decent conversation about politics I do think .

Part of the problem is that we don’t do much discuss politics as just shout at each other these days, and MPs set the example - Ruth Davidson has given a quote to one of the Scottish papers that voters call Nicola Sturgeon ‘that fucking woman ‘. Even if they do, what kind of example is that to set?

Someone posted online recently a debate between Tony Benn and Roy Jenkins from the 70s or early 80s about the EU - it was o different from today. They spoke with each other, not at each other, discussed ideas, and it was genuinely interesting. We’ve lost that now. The media think the public only wants shouty soundbites.

And if you find you frequently go to social occasions and everyone wants to discuss something you don't, surely moving on with new friends, who don't enjoy discussing that subject, makes more sense than getting angry with your current group of friends for having an interest which you do not share with them.

I think the vast majority of people are fed up with hearing about it. There's so much spite, so much vitriol. People can be so obnoxious abut politics (people who's views I agree with, as well as those I don't), making others feel stupid and inferior for not agreeing with them. It's so divisive and doesn't really change anything.

I do my research and base my vote on which party's policies closed match my values and beliefs. I try and demonstrate those values through my behaviours and actions. If you really care about homelessness, education, NHS, etc do something about it yourself. Get involved, volunteer. Or join a political party yourself. Spouting sound bites at social events or on social media isn't going to change anything.

In my experience the people who don’t want to talk politics generally have unpopular views or are ill informed

Or they think you are a pompous, know it all who has already dismissed their views as they aren't the same as yours.

No, I imagine they're just thoroughly bored and sick of the political arguments dominating a social occasion but are too polite to just shout 'FGS STFU!' They've probably already tried moving the conversation on to something else, and been ignored.
Fair enough. I've generally found conversations move on when people are bored of a topic and if the majority are happy talking politics then there's no need for stupid digs, just don't get involved.

We have a family friend who loves to bring politics up but they never manage to dominate the conversation because the rest of us don't want to talk about it with them because they're a soapbox ranter.

I still tend to find the people making stupid digs come across as ignorant, just let others who are happy debating debate and leave the conversation if it's not to your taste. Otherwise it's a case of "I don't care about this so you should all shut up".

But politics is not just about action. Debate and discussion are incredibly important. This is whg we have the HoC. They don't all go there to volunteer.

Lots of people find it useful to discuss it among friends. If you really care about homelessness etc, politics is huge. As important, maybe even more so in some ways, as volunteering, which is also wonderful of course and can make a wonderful difference to a group of people. But if you can change politics, you potentially help many more.

It's actually, and I may be misreading, perhaps a little dismissive to say "volunteer if you care so much about the homeless". Both volunteering and political activism have their place in trying to solve issues like this.

If we look at something like Climate Change as an example, it seems to me that activism has done more for that cause than anything else has recently.

I don't talk politics with people. Firstly because GE are bit frustrating for me anyway since I am not voting (can't) and secondly because people went crazy in last month!
I get that it's important elections but if I hear few of my friends talk about "the tory idiot from next office" who by the way never argued about anything, is a lovely guy, but made the mistake of saying he votes tories, I will lose it too.

I was even told that I should have gotten British passport knowing how important these GE are! Obviously my answer was for them to fuck off and check the waiting times and cost for it🤷

Somehow though, and I am not a tory, nor a labour, labour voters turned into nasty little things. The belittling of others for their choice of vote... That wasn't here before on such a level.

Hahaha, I reckon I'm one of those "women" you "despise" OP. And it has nothing to do with political apathy. More an understanding that the issues are nuanced and having someone bang on preaching like they have a monopoly on the right answers and everyone else is stupid when they're just parroting their echo chamber is just fucking irritating.

If you just want to lecture and are not prepared to listen and engage and understand, if you think you have all the answers, and if people avoid sharing with you because your attitude is entrenched and hostile, then you're the problem.

It's very rude to talk politics in social settings unless you know that the person you are talking with is up for a political debate.

Obviously, all of that^^ is incredibly ignorant of these people to dismiss someone entirely because of how he votes etc. However, I personally find it difficult to understand how it is that otherwise reasonable people with opinions on important matters seek to deliberately exclude themselves from any sort of conversation on the topic.

If anyone makes thick headed statements about people based purely on them voting Tory or whatever, they would get short shrift from me. However, just because someone says something like that, it does not mean I, being more reasonable and open to sensible discussion, even with people I don't agree with, should then deliberately exclude myself.

The worst thing is that people do exclude themselves as they hate the tone of the discussion, to the point where they will not engage and they say they won't bother voting (not talking about people who abstain for good reason, or people for whom voting would be extremely inconvenient because they don't have a passport or whatever btw. I mean British passport holders who just don't want to engage because they've had enough of the arguing).

This means all the power is handed over to someone else, which is a shame.

fpurplea
We share the same approach.
I've no interest in soap box ranters.
I do agree with OP on the stupid comments though.

I've never felt the need to make silly digs when others are quite happy discussing politics. If I have something to add, I will. If I don't, I keep quiet.

I also agree that if a particular person is lecturing, monologuing and will not listen to what anyone else has to say, disengaging with that person while they're off on one makes sense. But to say "I will not discuss politics full stop", I find more difficult to understand and I think it is to the detriment of our society, if people, who consider themselves the reasonable ones, deliberately disengage entirely.

You don’t want to discuss politics, OP . You want to talk at people, to try and get them to agree with you or to enjoy agreement with others of a similar mind I;an echo chamber.

They may have no interest, they may have thought about things deeply and have come to their own conclusion - not wanting to rehash things with you is not an indication of their own apathy or lack of engagement but an aversion to being lectured.

The notable thing about Brexit and its fallout is the entire concept of’ agree to disagree’ has now fallen out of favour - which is a great loss to civilised behaviour. Beyond a certain point, keeping on at people tends to cause them to dig their heels in on their position or even strengthen their opinion.

Self preservation isn't it... It was never this bad before. I've never before seen someone go near hysterical a loudly keep repeating "How can you vote for them?! They are literally k.i.l.l.i.n.g. people". Or "But that's wasted vote? Can't you see that? Why dong you just give it to them then? Eh? Just vote for that tories, that's what you are essentially doing!" when being Lib dem supporter.
These all are NOT from only one person.
I have to admit that even if I was able to vote, I would not engage in discussion at this time. It was much safer to do during previous elections.

There are more posts on my local Facebook groups whinging about people posting about politics than there are actual posts about politics. It is pathetic. Scroll past if you aren't interested but please don't try and make out that those who do want to talk politics in the run up to GE are somehow weird. It's a hangover from schooldays, the same people who thought reading a book rather than watching a film was desperately uncool.

I’m with you all the way OP - drives me nuts! Politics affects all our lives, it’s massively important yet there’s always some who seem to want to shy away from political discussion.

It varies. It's not unreasonable, if you are hosting a gathering, to ban political talk if you know perfectly well that one or more of your guests is extremely aggressive about their opinions and you don't want a fight to start.
It's also a little unreasonable to insist on shutting down talk of politics, though, when the people who want to talk are those who are upset and frightened for their own wellbeing and that of the people they care about. Sure, you may simply not have the time to comfort or even just listen to a distressed friend; you may well have your own troubles but (just as you should if it was someone wanting to talk about their difficult family relationships or workplace bullying) try to be kind about saying that you can't engage in the discussion right now.

And there are some people who 'aren't interested in politics' because they don't have to be - they are generally white British people with either good jobs or family wealth behind them, and they are likely to be all right whatever happens. Such people can be annoyingly low on empathy.

And, yes, there are also some people who absolutely cannot leave other people alone and will continue nagging and lecturing them about The Danger We Are All In, despite people trying to defuse the conversation, disengage and get away.

Basically, try not to be knobs to each other, eh?

It's a hangover from schooldays, the same people who thought reading a book rather than watching a film was desperately uncool.
It is!
Sandra shares photos of her dinner, selfies, articles about Love Island, find out your porn name by giving you birthday and the first street you lived in, and shares a range of posts from scam pages where you can win a holiday to Disney.
Sandra also shares things about why they're so fed up with politics and people sharing political things because nobody cares.

Most people don't care about Sandra's tea but manage to scroll past posts we aren't interested in.

Yeah, it's weird. I'm in my early 20s, and one of my friends in our group chat asked who I was voting for, as she knows I am very interested in Politics. I told her. My best friend said that I was the only person she knew voting Labour, and she was voting Conservative because Corbyn was crazy.

I wrote a little about the policies, and my reasons for voting Labour. I was v respectful, and was mostly speaking to our other friend who asked for my thoughts! This friend said she was definitely going to vote Labour.

My best friend then said I was only giving one side of the story, and left the group chat.

None of them really follow politics. I know my best friend's family and DP are voting Tory, but I wasn't saying that they weren't entitled to their views. I was just giving my own, as I was asked to. Would have been more than happy to listen to the other 'side of the story' if she'd wanted to.

All so silly to fall out over.