With close to 100,000 users, DailyKos is the top political blog. Gaia Online, however, the largest english-speaking forum on the internet, has 4.2 million users. Gaia is a place for (mostly) teenagers to talk about everything under the sun. I am 15 years old and an active Gaian.
Just like every other large community, Gaia has a wide range of subcultures. Each topic-related 'subforum' attracts a certain type of person. I found my niche in the brainy Writer's Forum. "WF regs" have zero tolerance for bullshit (We're writers, we've got real good at detecting it), and a penchant for snark. We apply our razor wit to everything, be it current events or insanity from the depths of the internet.
For some reason, though, politics is a taboo subject. If someone tries to bring it up, the post is ignored, or maybe greeted with stale Bush jokes. There's none of the discussion that crops up everywhere else, and this surprised me. The WF regs aren't your typical bunch of unconcerned teenagers. So I asked the group some questions, and uncovered a startling reason why the most intelligent people I know are shutting out politics.
I spent a day on the Eleventyone (the nexus of the Writer's Forum and the only chat thread allowed - think an eternal Open Thread permanently at C&J snark level), asking each person to arrive for a simple summary of his or her political views and/or view of current US politics. People were willing enough to respond, though not necessarily to elaborate. Here are some of the comments that I got:
We need to ... get politicians on the Hill who make decisions as individuals and real representatives, not as a big group of crazy Republicans and whiny Democrats who all decide the same thing.
I can't be bothered to read political blogs... I would count down the days until Bush leaves office, but I fear it would raise my blood pressure even more.
Every time I read the newspaper, I feel like I'm in "1984".
I can't decide between voting for somebody or just vomiting on the ballot in total disgust of the system.
I'm a card carrying member of the Doesn't Give a Shit Unless it is an Alternating Tuesday Party.
'a politician is an arse upon
which everyone has sat except a man'
-- ee cummings
I mock politics... because you just can't be sad while laughing.
I've been in the WF on Gaia for over eight months now. I know that my friends there are extremely bright, and concerned about global affairs. The only thing I've seen them apathetic about is typical teenage celebrity gossip, so I know that it isn't apathy keeping them from political activism. As I saw these comments, I was beginning to understand what was, but two subsequent reactions made it especially clear:
Well, my political stance right now is basically that if people want to complain about what the government's doing they'd better actually do something about it, you know? It's not much use saying "you suck" without contributing ideas on how to improve.
This was a comment from a very good friend of mine, and I wrote her a response that yes, Democrats in general have been rather weak and vague, but there are plenty of flourishing liberal communities ((insert my 23,947th link to Daily Kos here)) that thrive on the "actually doing something" part. To this, another 111er responded,
I think we would agree on many things political. But the current world situation just inspires so much frustration and/or despair.
Despair. This is what's preventing the brightest minds I know from going out and making a difference. Despair is keeping these young people from volunteering, from helping local campaigns, from trying to extricate the country they care about from the mess they know it's in. These people, for all their liberal beliefs, don't see a Democratic presence strong enough to garner their support, and so they despair.
I know that diaries calling for a stronger Democratic stance are perennial favorites here at Daily Kos. But I'm fifteen, and I don't see lost votes and elections. I see my friends grow frustrated. I see astonishingly intelligent young people turning their backs on politics. I see the teens who could very well be the future of politics giving up on the system.
And I see despair.