Ah, new to the no voting scene I see. It's interesting, I've never voted (except once when I was 10 I voted for Reagan for a second term) and over the years I found that the easiest response to people asking "Did you vote?" is to simply smile and say nothing. The question is ultimately rhetorical because everyone just assumes the answer is either "yes" or "not yet".
As far as that last part about, "leave others to theirs", that is the conundrum with voting. Since voting is the ultimate act of public participation (ideally the opinion of every individual being acknowledged and validated by the entire community) the idea that a voter's choice is then a personal and private matter is completely backwards.
So, in the end, I just let people think that I share their opinions regarding such topics as sports, religion, and politics. Helps family visits stay civil and keeps me out of bar fights.
-420
Ha! Wow, I do that too. I'll be at work and someone will rant on about how Obama did this and did that and Romney better win etc. etc. and I'll nod in understanding, say words like "yeah?" and "wow" and generally pretend I care, then turn around and agree with someone ranting about Romney. Same goes for when my line-workers complain about each other, just nod my head and pretend I care. What I really think is "just shut the fuck up and do your job" but telling them won't do any good.
It's something I've always done though, attempting to stay neutral in most situations. On the internet it doesn't matter, so I never saw reason be 'neutral' online. An online arguments can be entertaining, but most people are stubborn an unwilling to re-consider their position on a topic and introducing a counter-argument typically leads to some form or other of conflict and nothing positive results from it, so I keep it online.
The other thing I do, and honestly didn't realize I did until more recently is emulating others. When I'm around someone I emulate them to an extent in order to blend in. I realize it more now that I'm aware of it. I believe to a large extent that this is due to my largely introverted nature, and while I still don't understand people and why they do what they do most of the time, this helps me to blend in on the social level. Normally I'm so busy analyzing everything or over-thinking situations that things like humor and social events are lost on me; emulating helps me look like I understand even if occasionally my laugh at a stupid joke is obviously fake.
On the other hand, I understand people very well in a different way, in that I can usually determine a response based on body language and how people will act, how relationships will end, and these sort of things are all entirely predictable. The funny thing is, while I can determine an accurate outcome or an interaction, I am still lost as to why the people involved took the action in the first place. To me, having analyzed the situation changes my approach, so I guess the logical conclusion is that they did not properly analyze the situation and that is where I don't understand. I don't understand why most people don't "think," it's irritating to me. At the same time, I can't help but occasionally envy people capable of simply taking action, going in head first without the need to consider anything and come out having accomplished what they set out to do.
It's vexing being that I can't help but think about it and believe it is yet another thing with which my understanding will always be limited to a degree. Are you like this as well? Maybe you have some insight?
In other news, I just got told to pick an outfit for my daughter to wear... the purple one! It says "I get my looks from my dad, and my brains from my mom!"
She's talking right now, going on and on incomprehensibly. Cute little bugger.
This turned into a rant I'd say, well, it is in random ranting...
