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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 19, 2022

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It all depends on what we mean by politics. Sense 1 is the "soap opera", the sport, the thing on TV, ie you may disagree on which talking head you like when watching TV together. That's the trivial sense, where differences don't matter so much, and you can make do by just not watching the political soap opera together.

Sense 2 is politics as it applies to everyday decisions and behavior. But this would be better called a cultural clash, similar to people from different cultural/national backgrounds marrying,and having to negotiate a common way of life both can agree to. But such differences could also (perhaps more commonly) arise due to personality and temperamental differences.

Sure. Political differences are like cultural clashes. In which case, same answer: yeah, you can make it work, but it's sure a lot easier to not have to.