You Don’t Miss ‘Not Talking About Politics.’ You Miss Not Hating Your Neighbors.
We crave local belonging, yet we treat our cul-de-sacs like battlegrounds for national culture wars. The nostalgia for ‘not talking about politics’ is a misdiagnosis. The real issue is that national politics have metastasized to define personal identity, making neighborly detachment a psychological defense mechanism. It’s time to reclaim the micro.