Are Young People Being ‘Too Political’?

What to take away from the uptick in young adults and teens getting involved in politics

Picture by Angiola Harry, courtesy of Unsplash

Online, there is undoubtedly a stream of young people using social media and other platforms, however big or small, to talk about what matters to them. These days, what matters has started to veer more into the belly of the political beast. However, especially following the 2024 election, more and more people have been responding by telling content creators that not everything ‘has to be political.’

Even offline we see this trend of telling young people they’re becoming too political, or—conversely—praising young people who ‘avoid becoming politicized.’ This is generally in response to a young person challenging the beliefs of those around them, particularly in reference to something that might not necessarily be deemed ‘political.’

Most, though certainly not all, of this criticism seems to come from right-leaning people towards those who are more left-leaning—which serves to create the idea that the left is politicizing things that ‘aren’t political.’ One of the popular manifestations of this came from the side of TikTok referred to as ‘BookTok,’ an online space for readers and authors to share book recommendations and opinions. Several ‘BookTok’ creators started to face backlash for posting political content on their pages, with their critics arguing reading ‘isn’t political.’ In fact, almost all of BookTok fell apart at the seams, arguing over whether or not reading and literature should be political, circulating ‘red-lists’ of creators and authors that couldn’t be supported because of their alignments or views, and vocal expression that politics was ‘ruining’ BookTok. In response, however, several creators turned to pointing out that reading and literature were inherently political—from the fact that certain marginalized groups of people had been forced out of education and literacy, to reminding people that several important pieces of literature had opinions on sociopolitical issues crafted into their narratives. Additionally, many people pointed out that in an environment where the government is pushing to censor books, extending bans to anything deemed ‘inappropriate,’ reading is something that has to be political. When the voices of diverse authors and their characters are systematically being silenced for being different, what is the responsibility of those who use their platforms to discuss books to uplift those voices?

This problem is not unique to ‘BookTok.’ In 2024, Scientific American endorsed Kamala Harris for President—only the second political endorsement the publication has ever made—on the basis that her platform valued truth and science more than her opponents, to such a level that choosing Trump might prove disastrous to advancements in health and science. This garnered a lot of criticism from people arguing that they should have remained neutral, arguing that once science becomes politicized, it is no longer science. But, once again, the truth is that science is—and always has been—political. The relationship between science and politics is not one that emerged suddenly in the 2024 election, but rather one that is entrenched in history. From the Scopes trial in 1925 to current views on climate change. Perhaps there is an argument to be made that science should be ideologically neutral, but to really believe that might require an interrogation into why science seems to fall on one side of the ideological divide. One of the tenets of scientific advancement is a willingness to move away from what might have previously been thought to be true and to take discoveries as they come, regardless of what they might disprove.

In the same vein, there have started to be more and more claims that education has become too politicized. From previously mentioned book bans to curricula that sanitize periods of history, what is happening in classrooms seems to be of great interest to politicians, who often aggrandize the scale of these issues and put buzzwords like “Critical Race Theory” at the forefront of their arguments. It serves to create a misleading picture of the lessons being censored. For instance, the argument that elementary and middle schools are teaching children “Critical Race Theory” fails to say that what politicians are referring to as CRT is not, in fact, the college-level theory about how intricately race and racism are woven into American history and society, but rather basic American history without erasing BIPOC voices from the narratives. In Texas, for example, the state-mandated curriculum emphasizes sectionalism and states’ rights as key causes of the Civil War in the United States, minimizing the importance of slavery as a cause. Aside from the clear politicization of education today, the same argument for both reading and science rings true: education has always been political. Education has only ever been guaranteed for white males, every other group of people has had to fight for their place in the classroom.

In this era, it seems like everything is political. Not just books, science, or education, but even the very state of being for some groups is being debated—as if it is something that is up for debate. In the first two weeks of Trump’s presidency, there have been sweeping executive orders targeting the agency of individuals to simply exist in the United States. In such an environment, how can we not be political?

Calling people, particularly young people, too political for (rightly) recognizing the role that politics plays in nearly every facet of American life serves to minimize righteous indignation for the way that people and ideas are being treated if they don’t align with the party in power. Young people, now more than ever, are becoming civically engaged because they’re seeing how everything is political. They have their ears to the ground, seeking to understand proactively how policies will affect everything—from books to science, to their classrooms. This label of “too political” shames young people for being involved and being invested in the wellbeing of their communities. When we become disengaged from the political goings-on around us, we lose sight of how politics is affecting our day-to-day lives. Throughout history, there has been a trend of young people joining social movements, and often, it is when young people join these movements that they start to gain more awareness. Young adults and teenagers are aware of injustice, and even when they’re not yet old enough to vote, there is a fervor with which they speak out about what is and is not just.

The kids will tell us if they are alright. It is our responsibility to listen.