Political commentary is a competitive sport here. Last night at the Christmas party we had two people denying they were communists, an analysis on why Trump won (from a woman on the left, who understood the anger) and various academic political discussions.
There is are two sites for political tragics in New Zealand: Whale Oil and Kiwiblog. (The left sites get much less traffic: the Standard is the official one). I am tempted to spend much time there.
However, The Captain preaches truth. Doing politics is not hard, but necessary. Commenting on politics, and watching the Sunday Current Affairs shows, is a waste of time.
Like sports, politics is something most people wield little-to-no control over. It is purely the domain of trust-fund baby, public service athletes called “politicians.” However, just like sports themselves, the analysis of politics is not complicated, nuanced, or difficult. All of politics can be summed up quite succinctly as a battle between producers and parasites. Producers are hard working people who want freedom, excellence, low taxes, and to be left alone. While parasites are lazy people, deathly afraid of work, who want to live off of the producers and will come up with ANY reason and rationalization as to why they’re entitled to other people’s labor. See if that description does not explain nearly everything you’ve seen in politics since you’ve started paying attention to it.
Ergo, because politics is not complicated, like sports it attracts very mediocre minds who believe it’s some kind of “study” or discipline that requires their “unique” insight to explain it to you commoner plebs. This is perfectly evidenced by the three main types of people who pursue politics as a career, or obsess over it as a hobby:
- Journalists
- Political Science majors
- Activists/SJW’s
And like your pre-pre-post-post-game analysis shows, you see the same low-brow, “View”-level intelligence from these self-anointed political experts.
Since I dislike Political science graduates, mistrust journalists and despise activists, I think it would be better to spend my copious spare time in music practice, fitness and processing photos. I will do less damage, and I may, at times, make something good.