I’m a 21 yr old male. I was never taught anything about politics in school despite going all the way through year 12, and my Mum knows little because she doesn’t have to vote due to the year she moved here from New Zealand years before I was born, so doesn’t pay attention to the ins and outs of things in politics, and therefore didn’t teach me much throughout child-hood and teenage-hood about it.

I was born here in Australia in 2002, so I do have to vote. But I hate that every time a vote comes around, I am completely uninformed and have to vote based off of the miniscule amount of information I have which may not even be correct. If I try to use the internet to research about it, all I can find is mainstream media pushing towards one view or the other. I don’t appreciate being manipulated by media, and would rather find an unbiased source of information; so the very fact that I have difficulty finding unbiased information (or even just something approachable to a beginner) very much gate-keeps my ability to learn and be informed about what’s even going on in my country and develop an opinion that I’m comfortable with. So does anyone have any advice for me? I don’t even understand much of the basics of how the Australian government works, and what I read online about it, I find confusing, because it constantly uses political terminology it expects me to already know.

Edit: Thanks for the comments everyone, I appreciate the advice you’ve given me

  • beeng@discuss.tchncs.de
    3·
    1 year ago

    I would say learn another countries politics at the same time so you can see the differences and also the similarities. You can then develop a taxonomy of structures and ideas you see in “politics” and see them through different eyes.

    Sure they might be different to Australian, but in order to learn music to you wouldn’t say you knew music if you only listened to rock. To continue the metaphor, you’d want to learn a chorus, a rhythm, 4:4 timing etc.

    Get a broad view and then try get your normal news, some news you disagree with and then some that seems pretty mild.

    Don’t forget that topics get “politicised”, make sure you know what that means. Most topics you don’t need to know “politics” to make a decision, you just make your own decision, nothing is wrong, you’re in a democracy, every vote is equal.