I appreciate your thoughtful reply to my hasty comment.
I don't think it's about educating other people. It's about educating yourself and being an informed citizen. I think it would be better to engage with your friends on at least some level, instead of smiling along, because even if you're not educating them per se, it helps people feel like their struggle is shared and understood.
The other useful thing that I don't consider educating is pushing back to some extent on things they're reciting if they're wrong or lacking context. That's obviously a huge minefield, but can be helpful with many individuals if you know them.
Maybe we have different definitions of educating, maybe you don't know anyone where what I've said is an option, maybe you're already doing this and I never asked because my initial comment was thoughtless.
I will not push back on soap-box issues because, unfortunately, too many folks have uttered the line, "x issue is life and death for me and cannot be debated". I get that feeling, because my groups issues are like that for me, however my groups issues aren't of such popularity that I don't have to witness people doing exactly that. It's quite a frustrating paradigm, especially when your political allegiances land you among folks who have quite rich opinions about people of said group and the institutions around them (at times.)
All in all, I don't miss the news or politics. I hear about important things and am still "informed" just by the virtue of having a pretty eclectic group of friends. For instance, I heard about the rocket attacks on Israel because part of my team is in Israel. That prompted me to read the entire wikipedia article on this topic, which was illuminating in giving me a fact-based understanding; however what I lack is an opinion. What I don't get is the every day reminders of issues x, y, or z while seeing my groups issues ignored or deprioritized and when friends do this (probably inadvertently) I'm able to tolerate it because I hear it less.
I don't think it's about educating other people. It's about educating yourself and being an informed citizen. I think it would be better to engage with your friends on at least some level, instead of smiling along, because even if you're not educating them per se, it helps people feel like their struggle is shared and understood.
The other useful thing that I don't consider educating is pushing back to some extent on things they're reciting if they're wrong or lacking context. That's obviously a huge minefield, but can be helpful with many individuals if you know them.
Maybe we have different definitions of educating, maybe you don't know anyone where what I've said is an option, maybe you're already doing this and I never asked because my initial comment was thoughtless.