you don't hate politics
The game feels gross. But the game still matters.
“I don’t do politics.”
You’ve heard it. Maybe even said it.
As a longtime student of the political game, I understand. What once inspired me as a bright-eyed pupil eventually gave way to fatigue — a chronic disappointment in the people, platforms, and policy that define modern governance.
Today, we unpack why the political experience feels so off-putting — and look for ways to appreciate the idea of it, if not its current form.
This goes out to all those who care about our direction but can’t always find their place in the discourse. Who are exhausted by the vibe, the charged language, and the spectacle of it all.
You don’t hate politics. You hate what politics has become.
what politics is, really
What we call politics today is a warped version of what it actually is. We've drifted so far from its original purpose that remembering what it's for feels almost radical. But that's exactly where we need to start.
Politics is the original group project:
How do we live together?
Who gets what?
What do we protect, prioritize, build, and repair?
Beneath the performance and the hot takes, politics is simply the process of figuring out how we coexist in relative peace. It’s how we decide the rules and structures that hold society together. It’s an arena for managing disagreements, distributing resources, and coordinating action. Aristotle called us “political animals” for a reason — we’re wired to shape our collective future, together.
Politics takes the messy desires of millions and turns them into bike paths, schools, energy investments, and food regulations. It’s quite literally in the air we breathe. It's also in the laughs we share at bars, the love we find on park benches, and the connection we feel at music festivals and sports games.
It isn't just debate stages and dramatic headlines — it's the infrastructure of civilization itself.
politics at its best
At its best, politics may be the most brilliant social invention we’ve ever created. It’s the only system that allows millions of people with wildly different values and interests to coexist, solve problems, and shape the future — without collapsing into chaos. It helps calibrate our morals, translate shared values into law, and create space for disagreement without everything falling apart. Every major civilization has it, because no society can function without some version of it.
So, here’s what politics really can be:
A mechanism for solving problems together
A stage for steady, grounded leadership
A forum for representation and disagreement
A system for peaceful change
A tool for envisioning futures worth striving for
But of course, that’s not how it feels right now.
The modern political experience can be disorienting — a swirl of headlines, conflict, and hollow theatrics that make it hard to know what’s real, what matters, and what we can actually do to make things better.
what’s next: a new political literacy
You don’t need to love politics. You don’t even need to participate in the usual ways.
But there’s value in understanding how the system operates and how that influences your life.
That’s where political literacy comes in.
It’s not about becoming a policy expert. It’s about developing a stable lens — a way to understand why the system behaves the way it does, and to stop being surprised by it.
Because without a core framework, it’s hard to know what’s structural and what’s just noise.
Here are five key forces shaping how the political system actually works. These dynamics don’t excuse dysfunction, but they do explain it. And they offer a clearer, calmer vantage point for how you want to engage (or not).
five pillars of political literacy
follow the money, not the noise
Lobbying and campaign donations shape policy long before a bill hits the floor. If you want to understand our political trajectory, look at who’s funding it.
the binary is baked in
The two-party system creates artificial polarization, forces complex people into oversimplified camps, and limits new ideas.
the permanent campaign
Politicians are always running — for money, airtime, relevance, the next election. Governing becomes secondary to fundraising and messaging.
media runs on conflict
The media ecosystem rewards outrage more than solutions. Politicians get airtime for fighting, not governing — and division drives the business model.
‘safe districts’ kill compromise
Geographic sorting means most politicians face bigger threats from their own party's primary than the general election. This rewards ideological purity over problem-solving.
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Political literacy is about pattern recognition — seeing the difference between fundraising and governing, or spotting outrage designed to drive engagement. Most importantly, it makes the chaos feel less overwhelming and more predictable.
so what now?
Politics, at its core, is deeply human.
When you see the gap between what is and what could be, your relationship to it starts to shift. Reclaiming it doesn't mean joining the game; it means remembering why it matters in the first place.
You're already engaged, whether you realize it or not — every time you pay taxes, send your kids to school, or breathe the air. The question is the space you engage from.
With this lens, you begin to separate politics from political spectacle. Between governing and grandstanding. Between real disagreement and engineered controversy.
The circus will continue.
Don't mistake it for the real thing.
If not us, who?
j