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How much does your politics affect your personality? Does it affect it at all? Does it influence how you treat people? This is an interesting topic a couple friends and I were having a week or so ago.
Let’s start from home. What are my politics? I support the Labour party because I believe in universal state-funded healthcare, I support immigration (that’s legal), and a secular government. Economically I support social democracy, also known as welfare capitalism or the Nordic Model. High taxation for the wealthy that is used to fund public services, and a sustainable minimum wage. I’m mostly against capital punishment, support equality of opportunity NOT of outcome, and believe that all education including university should be free.
There’s the basics. How does that affect how I view people? I think everyone deserves to be treated equally regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, class and the like. However, I don’t think ‘we’re all equal’, as we all have different talents, intellects, interests and passions. Some professions do deserve a higher wage simply because they require more rigorous training. Anyone can be a street cleaner, but it takes a high intellectual capacity and lots of stamina to become a lawyer.
If I were a communist, my view on that would be different, as communists believes in equality of outcome and that everyone should be paid the same. That would probably shift how I view certain professions and skills. If I were a Nazi, that would radically influence how I treat people, as Nazis are racist and believe in white supremacy, so that would lead to belittling or perhaps refusing to work with or be polite to those who are not white.
I think more extreme politics probably dictates a more extreme change in how you treat people. Radical feminists are more likely to be sexist towards men than liberal or moderate feminists. If you are a feminist you are probably going to often look at things through the lens of female equality and representation. This will vary depending on how ‘extreme’ your feminism is or what strand you follow.
Those that are more identity politics based rather than – shall we say ‘rational’ politics based – are going to look at things from a more irrational setting as that’s how identity politics tends to work. The fact that I can’t stand identity politics and the SJW mentality has already influenced how I worded that sentence. Identity politics is more ‘tribal’ and often has no basis in logic – they tend to believe that there are more than two genders, or that all white men are evil or we should ‘praise’ fat people. This all falls under the line of social politics. Obviously no political party or leader can run a country like that because there are far more important things to think about like the economy, housing, immigration and international affairs.
When it comes to people, I’m not too bothered about what your politics are. I don’t think any of my friends all have the exact same political outlook. I’m not gonna hate you or even care that much if you’re a Tory, a feminist, a Marxist or libertarian. I think unless you had super extreme views – for example being very racist, or putting me down for enjoying meat because you’re a vegetarian, I wouldn’t be able to be around you.
If you’re a good person with a good heart who I can have fun with and be myself around, I’m game. I don’t like people that are constantly putting me down, making fun of me, trying to manipulate me or guilt me into feeling sorry for them; compulsively lying to me, being unreliable when I try to organize things, getting constantly huffy at me or making everything into a huge drama. I’m a quirky, open person and I like making random inappropriate jokes, and when I’m around people I like I’m often talkative and animated. If you’re a weirdo like me who isn’t going to make me feel uncomfortable at being myself, we can be pals, regardless of who you voted for.
