Engaging in things such as āfan warsā āshipsā āfan gossipā is essentially engaging in politics without some of the ethical strain so long as youāre not actively harming anyone and just having discourse about something. It also tells me a lot about what a persons actual politics probably are.
to set the stage here I organized as a college student/adjacent to a political cult (was never 100% brainwashed and pulled in) so this answer is going to diverge from many other answers. Iāll say in my opinion that trying to divide or merge person and politic is a zero sum game or detrimental for my personal life and political consequences at large I donāt allow myself to get into situations where this would be remotely possible and that either comes off as extremely myopic or cushioned from reality but Iām choosing to accept that. In my friendships or making new friends I try to be a remotely ok judge of character to determine if political beliefs will inflame the friendship no amount of brain power would make me consider changing someoneās mind on politics in a friendship but its likely im on the same page of people who are moderate or political disengaged to discuss freely about it Hannah Arendt once observed that the personal and political spheres merging creates this space where we can no longer āactā in politics but we behave as economic actors or consumers. I think sheās on the money about this to this day - politics on the whole are very much boiled down to a market choice for me and not visible in my personal life much
I love talking about politics with my friends! I will say that my friend group is full of likeminded people. If there is a disagreement within the group I feel that because we have a similar mindset we are able to see where the other is coming from even if we donāt agree(?) if that makes sense. Ofc identity politics plays a big role which might create an idea of community or make others feel left out. I think where we are in society today politics cant be avoided. Politics and policy is everywhere that even a simple conversation can be tied to so many aspects of it. I think discussing it with friends, people you trust and know have similar perspectives or ideas allows for a safe conversation (at least in my case).
I think it has a lot to do with problem-solving mindsets, and with my friend circles tbh we are all of the notion that disagreement is inevitable but also a learning process and involves basic respect for each others' opinions. Also we kind of all sense that everything is political/connected as-is. I do think there's a lot of avoidance in society lately but if you want to get along better and understand each others' contexts aka build that friendship, you gotta have that space to debate.
