That's why I like public debates like this; the foaming, the fury, the furious tweets ... it's a riot of passion. And that's why I'm always amazed it doesn't translate into politics.
Whenever I ask one of my friends about the election, I get an apologetic shrug; "I'm just not that political, sorry."
This response would be okay if it was true. But I've just listened to you give me a half-hour rant on why Jennifer Lawrence is perfectly entitled to brandish her boobs around the internet.
This is a political issue. Not just because revenge porn laws are ripping through political discourse everywhere from England to Japan. But because "political issues" is a poncy way of saying "stuff that happens in everyday life".
Politics is everything from how many rural buses make it to your house, to when your off-licence shuts, to whether your ex should be prosecuted for posting nude photos of you online.
It's just the normal stuff that makes up the fug of boredom, eating and laughing that is our lives.
The problem is that politics isn't packaged this way. Our society insists on branding politics as something boring, complicated and serious. It's for men with heavy glasses and heavier frowns, who wave briefcases and say "well, parenthetically ... "
And because we associate "being political" with understanding fiscal drag, we don't think we are political.
Because if you admit to "being political", you're basically saying you think you understand a lot of long-winded, fancy-sounding ideas.
It's incredibly intimidating.
You have to have a lot of self-confidence to say, "yes, I understand why the theoretical formulation of squiggly wiggly line equals the square root of the red axis thingy."
The problem is how it's explained; the language and delivery used for political issues creates this obscure image which separates "politics" from "stuff I care about".
If I say, "discuss and evaluate a comprehensive argument on the merits of the discourse of subsidised tertiary educational models," you think, "holy shit, was that even English?" But if I say, "do you think university should be free?" you probably have an opinion.
And that's how I know young people aren't apathetic societal leeches.
We're bursting with opinions on whether university should be free, or whether buses should be cheaper. It's just hard to know what politics is asking us.
And because we're unsure, and it seems really intimidating, we just give the immortal apology, "I'm just not that political, sorry".
Which isn't just bad because it's wrong. It's bad because politics is supposed to be about the voice of the people. But if we package it to attract the rarefied few, the minority who feel entitled enough to Understand Politics, then we're shutting out everyone else.
It's also encourages us not to try to change things.
The political system is not the only way of creating change; it's not even my favourite way. But legislation has enormous power. And isolating people who care from a powerful organ for change is discouraging.
It makes you think you can never change anything, because the authorities don't care.
That's why I follow political matters, meaning the mechanics of daily living, because the Government does deal with those.
And when you know the issues the Government actually deals with, you can campaign for those issues externally, gather momentum and pressure the Government into change.
But for that, we need to equate political issues with everyday concerns, not some dusty foreign realm. That's how to engage people.
