College is a great time to find out who you are. And by now you may already know that you could not care less about politics. But a lot of people do, especially with a presidential election a year away (is it too far away? Yes, but that’s not going to stop the 24/7 news stations and family members at Thanksgiving dinner from talking about it.) And it’s not just until next November that you’re going to have to hear friends, family, peers, and /or colleagues talk about politics. Nope they’re going to come up a lot in adult life, so you don’t care, might as well pretend you do.
First, know your left from your right! Left is considered liberal and right is conservative. If you mix them up you will probably end up offending someone (unless that’s what you want to do, then in that case, go for it).
Now, you don’t have to pretend to be excited for an upcoming political debate. That’s just one option. You can pretend to be skeptical, disappointed you “have to miss it,” get creative with it.
Mention sources and news outlets in ways you can contribute to conversation but not give away you don’t know poo. Things like “was that from an msnbc report?” “Yeah that was on cnn, right?” “Wasn’t that on huff po?” (If you can abbreviate something, you’ll sound way smarter).
Know at least two candidates and follow at least one of them on twitter. It can even just be the front runners. To be fair, with the dozens of Republicans and the Democrats who aren’t Bernie or Hilary (well, now one other Democrat) running for president, not everyone can keep track.
You don’t have to know everything about “the important issues” just know what they are. Issues like immigration, the economy, education, foreign policy, and the environment. Mention those or anything like it and you’re good to go.
Vines can be surprisingly helpful. Seven second summaries of candidates’ positions on hot button issues and debates are not only kind of educational, but can be really funny (I mean have you seen some of the ones with Jeb Bush?) If you don’t believe me look them up, it’s pretty interesting.
Don’t act like Donald Trump is a real, justifiable candidate. Doesn’t matter if he’s leading in a poll, just please don’t bring him up. Seriously. Don’t.
You still might get some weird looks because people are unsure if you know what you’re talking about, but with enough practice, you’ll master the (almost) art of pretending to care about politics. While, yeah, you could always be honest and say you frankly don’t care about anything related to politics, but that might not over well. Besides, why should you be honest?Â