I think most political opinions are opinions about priorities of issues, not issues per se. I remember from years ago, before most states had started legalizing same sex marriage, a relative of mine expressing the sentiment “I’m not against legalizing gay marriage, I just don’t want to hear about the topic ever again.” I think this is the attitude that the (admittedly very obnoxious and frustrating) party guest is concerned about. If more people held the opinion of my relative then we’d be stuck in a bad equilibrium, with everyone agreeing that they would be OK with same sex marriage but no one bothering to put in the effort to legalize it.
It doesn’t matter if everyone agrees X is an issue if everyone also believes that solving the much more difficult Y should always take priority over solving X—this has the same consequences as a world in which no one believes X is an issue. Of course that doesn’t mean you should go around yelling at people for not being obsessed with your favorite obsession, but I think “unconscious selfishness” and “mind viruses” are uncharitable explanations for what seems to be the reasonable concern that low priority tasks often never get completed and thus those that claim to support those causes but with low priority are effectively not supporting those causes.
Having said that, I completely agree with your larger point about diversity—I would much prefer a world in which people can obsess over what they want to obsess over even when their obsessions and lack-of-obsessions are contrarian.
I think most political opinions are opinions about priorities of issues, not issues per se. I remember from years ago, before most states had started legalizing same sex marriage, a relative of mine expressing the sentiment “I’m not against legalizing gay marriage, I just don’t want to hear about the topic ever again.” I think this is the attitude that the (admittedly very obnoxious and frustrating) party guest is concerned about. If more people held the opinion of my relative then we’d be stuck in a bad equilibrium, with everyone agreeing that they would be OK with same sex marriage but no one bothering to put in the effort to legalize it.
It doesn’t matter if everyone agrees X is an issue if everyone also believes that solving the much more difficult Y should always take priority over solving X—this has the same consequences as a world in which no one believes X is an issue. Of course that doesn’t mean you should go around yelling at people for not being obsessed with your favorite obsession, but I think “unconscious selfishness” and “mind viruses” are uncharitable explanations for what seems to be the reasonable concern that low priority tasks often never get completed and thus those that claim to support those causes but with low priority are effectively not supporting those causes.
Having said that, I completely agree with your larger point about diversity—I would much prefer a world in which people can obsess over what they want to obsess over even when their obsessions and lack-of-obsessions are contrarian.