what I am trying to ask is whether there is any benefit to having accurate views about politics
I think it depends on how widely do you understand “politics” and how closely do you interact with power structures. Small businesses, for example, care a lot about local politics. On a certain level “Are cops my friends?” is a political question. If you have a choice of states or countries to live in, politics often matter. If you are in academia, politics matter.
On the other hand, yes, in the first world you can probably live a successful life without caring a whit about politics. I wouldn’t recommend this in the third world (including everything east of Germany).
thinking about politics is no more useful than watching TV
Thinking about something is always more useful than consuming content :-/
I think it depends on how widely do you understand “politics” and how closely do you interact with power structures.
I was more thinking about the ideological level, as opposed to office politics, for instance. The two are not entirely distinct—social justice movements are concerned with office politics, for instance. But I think to find out more about office politics I would want to think more about something like ‘the 48 laws of power’ rather than knowing more about ideology.
Thinking about something is always more useful than consuming content :-/
I think I would make an exception for really good content, but generally, yes this is a good point, and since politics is so hard to think about clearly, perhaps it is especially good for rationality training.
I think it depends on how widely do you understand “politics” and how closely do you interact with power structures. Small businesses, for example, care a lot about local politics. On a certain level “Are cops my friends?” is a political question. If you have a choice of states or countries to live in, politics often matter. If you are in academia, politics matter.
On the other hand, yes, in the first world you can probably live a successful life without caring a whit about politics. I wouldn’t recommend this in the third world (including everything east of Germany).
Thinking about something is always more useful than consuming content :-/
I was more thinking about the ideological level, as opposed to office politics, for instance. The two are not entirely distinct—social justice movements are concerned with office politics, for instance. But I think to find out more about office politics I would want to think more about something like ‘the 48 laws of power’ rather than knowing more about ideology.
I think I would make an exception for really good content, but generally, yes this is a good point, and since politics is so hard to think about clearly, perhaps it is especially good for rationality training.