More to the point, politics in America is, perhaps more than some other nations, suffused into daily life in almost every public interaction in some way, shape, or form. And presuming to have an understanding of that while never participating in that public life - and furthermore judging such aspects based on one’s non-involvement with the assuredness of a wise veteran participant - is bullshit.

I don't accept this epistemology at all. The idea that the only way to meaningfully know about a thing is to live the thing itself is complete nonsense. "Oh you think light behaves simultaneously as a wave and as a particle? Well have you ever been a particle?" Such a joke