You Can Care and Still Be Political
You Can Care and Still Be Political
I’ve seen a message circulating lately that goes something like this:
I don’t align with either political party.
I don’t participate in politics.
I don’t trust the government or the media.
I care about people, but I try not to let the chaos consume my daily life.
I understand that feeling deeply. Truly.
Many years ago, I could have written those exact words myself.
Where I Was Then
At the time, I had already spent years in the military. I had moved from being an accountant at a Big Four firm into large corporations, working as a cybersecurity professional, and was beginning my transition toward web development and digital marketing consulting.
As an IT security and compliance professional, my job was to protect organizations from real threats, from hackers to systemic vulnerabilities. I took responsibility seriously. I cared about impact, safety, and consequences.
And yet, I used to say, with complete sincerity:
I don’t want to participate in politics.
I was in my early thirties. To me, politics meant political parties, politicians, campaigns, and endless noise. I wanted no part of that. I didn’t trust institutions. I didn’t trust media narratives. I just wanted to do my work well and live with integrity.
A Conversation That Changed Everything
One day, a peer of mine, a psychologist I used to train with at a small fitness studio, asked me a series of questions. He listened carefully. When I finished, he said something that stopped me cold.
In this room, you’re probably the most involved in politics out of anyone here.
There were maybe ten people training at the time.
At first, that didn’t make sense to me.
The people in that room, local TV personalities, corporate lawyers, engineers, business owners, music producers, were going about their routines. They weren’t talking about systems, power, or consequences. They weren’t asking who gets protected and who gets harmed.
I was.
That’s when something clicked.
When I said I wasn’t involved in politics, what I really meant was that I didn’t want to belong to political parties or become a militant for politicians. And that was true. I wasn’t then, and I’m still not.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t political.
What Politics Actually Is
Politics is not just elections or party affiliation.
- Politics is how power is organized.
- Politics is how decisions are made.
- Politics is who benefits and who bears the cost.
It’s the policies that determine whether communities feel safe, whether children go to school without fear,
whether workers have rights, whether healthcare is accessible, and whether the environment is protected.
By that definition, none of us are outside politics.
Even Opting Out Is a Choice
One of the hardest truths I had to accept was this:
Even choosing not to engage is still a political act.
Opting out doesn’t remove us from the system. It simply allows decisions to be made without our input. Silence doesn’t stop harm. Distance doesn’t neutralize impact.
We are all affected by politics whether we like it or not. And in different ways, we are all participating, even when we believe we aren’t.
Care Is Not Neutral
When someone says, People are hurting, and that matters to me, I believe them.
But caring is not separate from politics. Caring is often the very thing that leads us there.
Choosing empathy over indifference.
Choosing community over comfort.
Choosing to ask hard questions instead of looking away.
That isn’t chaos.
That’s responsibility.
A Respectful Disagreement
So I disagree, respectfully and with care, with the idea that someone can truly be unaffected or uninvolved.
We may reject parties.
We may distrust institutions.
We may refuse loyalty to politicians.
But we cannot escape the systems that shape our lives.
Acknowledging that isn’t about surrendering peace. It’s about understanding reality.
Gratitude, Not Judgment
I want to be clear about this.
I respect the people who share messages like the one that inspired this post. I understand the exhaustion. I understand the need to protect mental health in a world that feels deeply unsettled.
And the fact that someone speaks up at all already tells me they are not indifferent.
That matters.
So if you’ve ever said, I don’t do politics, I hear you.
I just want to gently offer this perspective:
You already do.
Un abrazo. There is a lot of work ahead of us. And it matters that we do it with honesty, empathy, and care for one another.
