What's the Difference?

[Dad]

Between controversial and political. Explain.

[Snatch Steal]

Controversy is something that is intended to get or inherently gets a rise out of people and causes them to disagree for a long period of time. Politics refers to any individual’s policies in terms of the systems of government and economics they would like in place. They can be subjectively good or bad depending on who you are.

 

This is why a lot of controversy is derived from politics, and is perhaps more inclined to be political than not. In fact, I’d argue that being “Controversial” is inherently political because you’re voicing your policies on a given subject. If no one voiced their policies, then there would be no disagreement.

 

Even a question seemingly innocuous as to whether or not you should have dessert every day can be both controversial and political. One person’s policy may be that we only live once and we should govern ourselves on what we eat. Another person’s policy may be that people cannot be trusted to be allowed to eat dessert every day and they will end up worse than if they had been governed not to do so.

 

Arguably, every controversy is political because controversy is a clash of policy. But when policy doesn’t clash, it can still be a political rally or support group. I would suggest an “all thumbs are fingers but not all fingers are thumbs” rule.

[Simping For Hina]

The biggest thing that is inherently wrong about Isaac's post is that politics isn't about policy. Politics is about how a system is governed and what authority exists. Policies are inductive to politics but not necessarily exclusive to that branch of understanding. Controversy arises when there is something fundamentally disproportionate to beliefs, regardless of being based around policies or not.

It is controversial to some people to not be polite. It isn't based around governmental structure but how society should act around each other, which is something that should never be wholly governed but influenced. That example could lead to another conversation, but I don't want to that conversation so take it as an example and nothing more.

The terms aren't mutual exclusive. Actually, politics has become a more liberal term to discuss the dynamics of relationships in reference to how something is ran. In MtG, there is a format called Commander that is noted to be political because of the amount of people and the set base of hierarchy that is present. This is an instance where the term is used more liberally and acceptably used.

 

You have to note that controversy is used to describe a topic where political is used to describe the relationship of the people discussing the topic. That is one the more liberal use of the word. In professionalism, use political to discuss the government and policies that surround the government. Use controversial to discuss the type of conversation that would reflect the dynamic of the conversation. Political conversations are usually controversial, but not all controversial conversations are political.

 

It isn't arguable by any metric that this is the case unless the parties just want to argue. In that argument, the ones considering that all works that are controversial are also political are the ones who are wrong.

[Thar]

What Dae said. Politics is just a subject describing the way things are governed and who's involved. Controversy is just a result of a mass disagreement amongst those who are either affected by it or those who just want to express their opinion of the matter. This applies to any other subject that could garner the same response. They're not mutually exclusive nor are they comparable.