Is Paying Attention to Politics Rational?
Is it a mistake? A hobby? A style? Or something else?
I don’t remember where I first heard this argument, but it goes something like this.
Humans evolved in small societies of kin of less than 150 (Dunbar’s Number). Because of this, we’re hardwired to pay inordinate amounts of our attention to “politics”, which back then was the decision making and leadership structure of the tribe. Back in those days, politics was 1) life or death for you personally and 2) small enough in scale for you to affect.
But for most people living today, this isn’t the case. Politics isn’t personally a matter of life and death for most people. What justifies this strange behavior of spending hours a day reading, talking, and listening to people talk about things we can’t affect and rarely affect us?
Is it altruism? It is not. Unless you’re a professional politician, pundit, or activist by far the most important thing you do politically is vote. And most people who spend lots of time paying attention to politics have long since decided who to vote for.
Is it economically rational? No. Unless you’re an aforementioned professional, you aren’t making money from it.
Is it enjoyable for its own sake? No. People mostly get more agitated and angry with the world the more they read the news.
Is it “being informed about the world”? Sure, maybe. But its hard to see why being informed about the world involves having an opinion on gun control, abortion, people on the internet getting angry about casting choices, and Supreme Court picks, as opposed to metamorphic rocks, the restaurant industry of Buenos Aires, and the San Diego Zoo.
The best justification I can think of is some kind of social game where everyone has some stuff they can talk about, they know what they identify with, etc. But even that seems like an impulse that should curtailed.