I dislike politics. I don't like office politics, friend circle politics, home owner association politics, baseball franchise politics, anythign that has to do with certain people having power over other people, but I ESPECIALLY dislike politics now. And right now, 2 days before the Presidential election, is the epitome of all of dislike, when everything anyone does gets politicized, when all of Facebook (besides the Dodgers winning the World Series and the Dwayne Wade statue memes) is just people discussing all the benefits and downsides to either candidate for President; I think it's talked about so much for the same reason there are office politics: people love to gossip, and the race for the highest office in the country as well as arguably the most powerful position in the world is just an excuse for people to gossip on the grandest stage. It's a way for politicans to give ordinary citizens "a chance to participate" even though your one single vote has a statistical value of zero influence on the election results, but gives you the illusion of doing something, perhaps for a good cause. (I know a few co-workers who instead of working this weekend, spent it in Pennsylvania knocking on doors for the Harris campaign, believing it to be "much more important" than their jobs.) Is it though? Setting aside the fact that knocking on doors to solicit votes seems unlikely to change too many minds this late in the election, are you really doing it for a good cause, or just perpetuating an election process that's too long and too costly as it is? Especially this year with the 2 candidates that are available, the talk is much less about policy than what the 2 candidates stand for and personal issues, so it's taking time up from actual fixing anything, more just talking about 2 individual people. Election propaganda will make it sound like my life is going to be drastically different depending on who wins, that it will be a utopia if one candidate wins and a living hell if the other side wins. I don't think it's going to affect me myself that much if either one wins, personally. Eventually it will affect the United States and which direction we go with climate change, immgration policy, use of A.I., etc., but me personally in the next 4 years? I'm not going to be moving out of the country or anything if one candidates wins or the other.
Politics and Prose is a witty name for a bookstore in the D.C. area; I just love bookstores. They have a veritable cornucopia of books I want to read, everything, everywhere, all at once. It's like they have the exact blueprint to my mind's desires of what to absorb, especially on an off day at work, and I could just sit there through a zombie apocalypse or something even if the world goes to hell or (even worse for some people) the Internet for some reason just stopped running. The only downside to a bookstore is that people don't talk each other necessarily, it's a place for reading, not conversations, but that's almost better: often conversations at restaurants, the mall, public places just involve people trying to get you to buy something you don't need (extra dessert, extra hand lotion, squeegees) that you have to politely refuse. Bookstores don't want anything; no obligation to buy, no sales pitch about what book they want you to buy (there are definitely books that bookstores make the most money off of, usually the hot new trendy fiction bestsellers by renowned authors that they can mark up higher instead of the bargain book section that they know hasn't sold for a while and that they need to get rid of before the next batch comes in), and importantly no need to pay tip. It's honestly one of the last public places I can go to and feel comfortable (maybe museums) and not feel gross for contributing to the American capitalistic ways.
Politics and Prose has the right idea, but here's my re-naming based on my preferences:
"Less politics and More Prose!" Have more people read more books rather than get engaged in politics, have an overload of information and noise through the election, and then it suddenly stops and society doesn't care about it anymore. Prose is forever; elections are temporary. (My sister Emily pointed out a similar flyer on the street advocating for tattoos using similar logic: Tattoos are permanent! Politicans are temporary). And what they have in common for me: I don't care for any of them!
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