>"just another political position itself - complicity with the status quo." / "To think otherwise is just an expression of privilege. There is no being apolitical."

The challenge I have with this line of thinking is that you can literally apply it to any and all issues. The number of problems in the world are effectively infinite but our ability to take a meaningful position is finite and extremely limited. The default state of being is to not have taken a position on something.

To insinuate that someone is privileged for not getting involved is a cudgel and a guilt-tripping tool being used against someone who doesn't share the same priorities as you do. It strikes me as "if you're not with us, you're against us", a sentiment that used to be loathed in the early 2000's but is now accepted and expected.

Just because someone doesn't agree with your priorities doesn't mean you have to pay any attention to what they think.

Like you prioritize not hearing activists talk about their priorities, and they don't care about your priorities and thus talk about theirs.

Is griping about this going to change anything? Of course not.

> The challenge I have with this line of thinking is that you can literally apply it to any and all issues.

That's not a challenge to this line of thinking, it's just another way of wording the exact same thing.

I suppose I could have said "The problem I have with..." instead.

I mean yes and no. Yes there are infinite problems and there will always be worse of people who I could do things for. Guilt tripping someone into addressing all of them is unprodictive.

On the other hand, the fact that I can choose which struggles I engage with, and am able to avoid ones I don't want to involve myself in is absolutely a privilege. Someone who may need an abortion may not be able to avoid caring about that issue. Someone less economically secure may not be able to avoid worrying about unemployment or healthcare policy. There's countless similar examples.

You can absolutely acknowledge that you don't have the spoons/time/interest to deeply invest yourself in every social cause or issue. But you should also recognize that there are tons of people who also don't have the spoons/time/interest either, but have to anyway because the issue affects them and they can't afford to ignore it either.

Nonsense.

Silence means just that, silence. It could mean anything: I don't know. I don't care. I might care but don't have time to look into it. I care but it's not in my top 10 issues.

None of these options support the status quo.

I doubt quoting MLK will change your mind, but considering what the Black community in America went through for 100’s of years; it’s worth consideration…

>Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

>Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

>The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.

>The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

>The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

>We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

>Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one’s soul.

>Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

>The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But… the good Samaritan reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

>In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

>He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

>History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

>Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Change my mind about what? I was merely explaining how you can't draw strong conclusions based on silence.

But I do love MLK quotes:

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

It occurs to me that the content of one's character includes one's propensity for not being silent!

Always making things about politics is sign of a privilege, unprivileged people don't have the time and energy to constantly care about politics.

You can see this that the more privileged you are the more likely you are to vote, to petition and engage yourself etc.

Maybe I don’t have the privilege of time/resources/position to get involved. I have to keep my head down and GSD, not looking to rock the boat, endanger my position, or forgo income by spending time on such issues.