Unit 1 - Essay 123

Luz 1
Mariana Luz
Mark Brockway
M001- Option B
Word Count: 682
Unit 1 Reflective Essay: Political Apathy and Polarization
In today's day and age, we see citizens of the United States having more apathy and
uninterest in politics, there's also increasingly more polarization across the board in terms of
political parties, especially Democrats and Republicans. Polarity in of itself is the state in
which someone has conjured contradictory opinions towards a topic compared to other
candidates, whereas apathy is the feeling of being indifferent or lacking emotion which in this
context is the feeling of lacking motivation to be a part of democracy
A major reason for apathy in current-day politics is the proportional representation
that American politics offers, many people feel as though they do not coincide with one of
the major political parties that is offered on a ballot. Karl Popper explains that many people
can no longer trust a person in a political party that could truly represent themselves, he
explains how political parties have ideologies but that may not coincide directly with a
human being's opinion on policy and democracy (Popper,10). Many people also understand
the impact of how minority rule could influence more citizens to be involved with their
country's politics system, this would better represent the will of the people rather than the will
of political parties. There may also be lots of apathy in terms of the underrepresentation of
groups that once were pronounced as subjects rather than humans, the government was unjust
and unproductive so for many people the 4th of July did not mean freedom and liberation in
Frederick Douglass’s speech he explains how the 4th of July to a slave represents that
injustice and cruelty in which he was the constant victim too, so to many being apathetic all
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in the political system means that they were once underrepresented and it is very apparent
that the government doesn't work fairly (Douglas,1).
The polarization of our politics has increased over the years, some of the reasons
being disinformation in truth. Beliefs such as the 2020 presidential election being stolen,
Barack Obama not being born in the United States, and conspiracy theories about COVID-19
all lead to the people becoming more polarized. This is increasingly shown in media
platforms such as Twitter in which people spread mass misinformation and conspiracy
theories. It has been documented that trust has declined in the working-age population in the
United States since the 1970s. Even our Daily News channels such as CNN and Fox News
have increasingly become polarized throughout the years, with CNN taking a more liberal
stand on issues whereas Fox News taking a more conservative stance, and this also leads
people on either side of the spectrum of politics to gravitate towards a news channel that
feeds out news correlating with their beliefs. Polarization is very hard to suppress because of
the mass amounts of extremists of the left and the right, and with the platform of social media
and how it is increasing every day in people's daily routines polarization will be even harder
to suppress.
Censorship is an initiative that could lessen our political polarization. Ezra Klein
mentions how as individuals should not be the ones responsible for changing our political
system and the way it was made, we are the ones who are being changed by it. (Klein,261).
Indeed, the people that we are around, and our environment could lead to activate some ideas
and identities based on what we are surrounded by, a good practice is to separate your world
and what people believe, and with you morally believe. We also need to be aware that media
and politicians continuously manipulate us in our beliefs, there are many instances where
fake media is spread on platforms such as X, Instagram, and TikTok where censorship could
filter the fake news and conspiracies that easily may feel like a reality to everyday citizens. It
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is normal to feel uninterested in politics in 2024 however to move forward with implementing
things such as censorship and awareness, American citizens may hopefully develop more
trust within our democracy.

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Unit 1 - Essay 123

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Luz 1

Word Count: 682

Unit 1 Reflective Essay: Political Apathy and Polarization

context is the feeling of lacking motivation to be a part of democracy

A major reason for apathy in current-day politics is the proportional representation

that the government doesn't work fairly (Douglas,1).

trust within our democracy.

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