By Kiki Arochas, Staff Writer
My journey in politics began on a simple day in the sixth grade. A friend of mine was smirking and poking my other friend, laughing at a tie my teacher was wearing. I looked up: it was a red tie, emblazoned with an elephant. I asked him what was so funny. “It means he’s a Republican, Kiki,” he explained. “And Republicans are stupid.” I understood now – that was funny. Sure, I had no idea what a “Republican” was, but if my friend said they were stupid, it was probably true, so I laughed along. But I was curious: why were “Republicans” so stupid? It didn’t really make sense because I knew our teacher wasn’t stupid. So that night, I took a break from my usual Club Penguin and Raft Wars playing to get to the bottom of it. I searched: “why are Republicans so…” and aha! Much to my satisfaction, the first autofill was “stupid.” My friends were right! But something was off. I had noticed something else on the search options: “Democrats.” From what little I knew, Democrats, whatever they were, were the opposites of Republicans. And Obama, who was President, was a Democrat. Well, if Republicans were stupid, naturally Democrats had to be smart! But that’s what confused me: another option that I could have selected was “Why are Democrats so stupid?” I was floored. How could both Democrats and Republicans be stupid? What was going on here?
That was my first introduction to the idea that two things can be true at once. That in the canvas of life, not everything is quite black and white. In a word, nuanced. Now, I hadn’t quite internalized that lesson yet. I went through all the phases: First, my liberal phase. I only read my paper, the Daily News, and learned that all the things going bad in the world was the fault of Donald Trump. Then, in 9th to the middle of tenth grade, like all modern orthodox teenagers my age, I went through the Ben Shapiro phase. We had never seen anything like him before: an Orthodox Jew, in the media? And popular? It was wild, and I was swept up in the wave. Although I didn’t buy into everything that was sold, I did think most liberals were dumb; all of them were snowflakes, who crumpled under the weight of simple things like “facts” and “logic.” Then the summer came. And I met one of these “liberals.” She didn’t even believe abortion was murder! I was so ready to teach her a lesson. But it was interesting. She wasn’t dumb. She gave me pause and had me reconsidering my views. It wound up being a really cool discussion. Afterwards I reflected, I was confused. I had been fed a lie. Liberals weren’t all stupid, with viewpoints all sourced in emotions and therefore no ability to argue against basic facts. The very basic facts were now in question! I remembered back to that initial confusion in sixth grade. I had, finally, internalized the lesson. There were no grand statements that were completely true. No one had all the answers. I’d have to find them for myself.
But what was I, a liberal or a conservative? I felt both had some good points, but felt also that both had some points that missed the boat. But the one thing they had in common? Consistent, ever present hypocrisy. As a sports fan, I saw Conservatives tell athletes and celebrities they didn’t care about their opinions. And then watched as they celebrated when Kanye ‘schooled the left’ (long before the Jewish tweets). I saw liberals celebrate athletes like Lebron James promoting their political beliefs. And then watched as many called upon quarterback Drew Brees to retire over his beliefs. I was done believing I could fit into either of these molds. It felt as though any and all truth could be distorted based on whatever suited the agenda of the day best.
So I stopped giving myself titles. I told people I was a “centrist” but I’m not sure if that’s true either. In truth, I just took it policy by policy. But now, I’ve just given up on politics. It’s too toxic, too divisive. Too many are interested in debates rather than discussions. Too many would rather have talking points than uncover the truth together. Too many care for the welfare of their narrative rather than the welfare of their nation. So I’m done pretending. No more politics. Just learning about the world, meeting new people, and perspectives. Adding more nuance. Taking that canvas of black and white and finding more gray within the lines with every painting.