Great article. Considering the turnout and parties that trended in 2019 and my anecdotal experience of the rise of pub convos that lead to brawls I was fully into the fatalism of "Oh Yorkshire is kinda the caricature southerners paint we're coasting on Labour holds not because of knowledge of the issues but blind miners struggle legacy that's at risk of being out hardman-ed by Nigel fucking Farage".
So when I opened your post I was kinda on the "Reeealy hope this isn't a diatribe on how it's actually not the people who trade businesses like pokemon cards it's those polish" crap. I'm pleasantly surprised, great analysis. I've only really come off my apolitical IT career science focused stuff recently like the last few years, prior to stuff like Trump and the annexation of Crimea I just thought globalisation was just chugging along and human progress was pretty much codified.
Anyhow I'm rambling, great article, great points and though "place doesn't matter is a lie" is a bit hyperbolic I think most people operate on "place shouldn't matter" and so steamroll it a bit. Coming from science I'm getting to the details stage, I've formed my politics mostly and I'm trying to move it from theory to take into account global state and nation histories, modern politics, and I'm just getting down to specific UK and then hopefully local details with a view to joining or even starting my own advocacy and local government etc.
I put both lies in their extreme, 'ideal', form for the purposes of analysis, but would agree that in practice it's usually shades of grey. That said, I think certain groups do work on something close to an ideological opposition to the very notion of place. I'd categorise both the messanic silicon valley technophiles and the sort of globalists who are opposed to all borders (but don't have a plan for what that looks like in the real world) as essentially opposed to place. Both groups are fairly marginal, but not entirely so. The tendency to think that social and political systems are generally place-neutral and easily 'exportable' is far more widespread, though: Afghanistan being an extreme recent example.
Your development from apolitical to extremely engaged feels like a sign of the times. It will be interesting to see where it takes you.
Great article. Considering the turnout and parties that trended in 2019 and my anecdotal experience of the rise of pub convos that lead to brawls I was fully into the fatalism of "Oh Yorkshire is kinda the caricature southerners paint we're coasting on Labour holds not because of knowledge of the issues but blind miners struggle legacy that's at risk of being out hardman-ed by Nigel fucking Farage".
So when I opened your post I was kinda on the "Reeealy hope this isn't a diatribe on how it's actually not the people who trade businesses like pokemon cards it's those polish" crap. I'm pleasantly surprised, great analysis. I've only really come off my apolitical IT career science focused stuff recently like the last few years, prior to stuff like Trump and the annexation of Crimea I just thought globalisation was just chugging along and human progress was pretty much codified.
Anyhow I'm rambling, great article, great points and though "place doesn't matter is a lie" is a bit hyperbolic I think most people operate on "place shouldn't matter" and so steamroll it a bit. Coming from science I'm getting to the details stage, I've formed my politics mostly and I'm trying to move it from theory to take into account global state and nation histories, modern politics, and I'm just getting down to specific UK and then hopefully local details with a view to joining or even starting my own advocacy and local government etc.
Will be reading your stuff for sure.
Thanks for the feedback!
I put both lies in their extreme, 'ideal', form for the purposes of analysis, but would agree that in practice it's usually shades of grey. That said, I think certain groups do work on something close to an ideological opposition to the very notion of place. I'd categorise both the messanic silicon valley technophiles and the sort of globalists who are opposed to all borders (but don't have a plan for what that looks like in the real world) as essentially opposed to place. Both groups are fairly marginal, but not entirely so. The tendency to think that social and political systems are generally place-neutral and easily 'exportable' is far more widespread, though: Afghanistan being an extreme recent example.
Your development from apolitical to extremely engaged feels like a sign of the times. It will be interesting to see where it takes you.