AT a watering hole near your village this weekend, jokes would be cracked, go down to everyday compliments like you always do and conversations would begin to brew.
You may have conceived a preliminary script in your head while getting prepped up. It could involve an array of questions: the things happening at work seen while scrolling through his social-media account, how she thought that tomato was really a fruit and not a vegetable or if he really liked a pomeranian dog instead of a chow chow. The latter makes you think what to get for his birthday.
Would some talk about a proposed law on divorce, same-sex marriage, gun control and death penalty spark something? Unlikely.
In an election year, politics are more often discussed on average by citizens, especially here in the Philippines than other years.
Why? Let’s chalk this one up to the idiocy of some of the candidates up for office, the party debates that have blown up in social media and the hypocrisy that ensues between same-party candidates on a frequent basis. True: every day is filled with notes from a bunch of political junkies, you keep wondering when will these run dry.
But when it comes to dating, should we address our political views and values over character compatibility and physical chemistry during the first round? No.
Though I’m biased in my choice to lay low and not discuss my political views openly, in the way some Millennials do, it’s important not to let the views and values one may have about our government get in the way of an opportunity to learn more about another person in an intimate setting. Society has generated a common stereotype about political junkies, pinning them as boring and narrow-minded about hotbed topics.
Unless chatting about the progress (or lack thereof) Congress is making gets you all hot and bothered, is it really worth mentioning on a date?
I commonly tend to date individuals who have significantly differing opinions about who and how our nation’s government should be led. So, maybe opposites attract?
News and political projections are claiming that if Millennials come out in full force to vote later this year, we may have a significant sway on who takes over the palace come early 2016. This tells us one thing for sure: Millennials tend to not give a sh*t about the process of political campaigns and matters.
Still, this year’s first debate made a lot of Millennials look over the polls, which I really think is good.
Politics have long been associated with heated arguments, professional backstabbing, guttural jabs, lying and cheating. Dates tie closely with new opportunities, fresh starts and prospects of long-term love.
The two, when combined, prove inconsistent and may cancel out one another’s defining qualities.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people who find politics to be deal-breakers when they’re choosing a potential partner.
A study by an anonymous researcher online revealed politics has a 3-percent effect on matching individuals, swaying subjects to choose or dispose of other potential partners based on shared political ideas and values.
But I wouldn’t dare strike up a conversation on the matter of political interest or issues simply because I want to avoid offending my date. Similar to many Gen-Yers, the taste I leave in someone’s mouth after an interaction matters, even if I don’t see a possibility for a future relationship down the line.
Your words and thoughts are reflective of who you are as a person, disregarding the values and opinions that involve the country’s executive branch or cabinet members. This doesn’t go to show, though, that those of us who don’t involve ourselves in political matters don’t have opinions, as well.
Just as much as I hope not to displease or insult someone whose company I am enjoying for the first time or for a long time, I hope he or she would feel the same.
It all goes back to first impressions. Politics should never be included for the sake of everyone’s sanity.
So when you’re beginning chit chat on the first date, avoid politics and what’s happening in Malacañang. But you can allow yourself at least to discuss how damn cute Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte are together.
Leave the debates for the candidates and focus on your date.
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Cyril Razon is currently in love with cheese: cheese omelette, Chipotle cheeseballs, cheese caserole, lasagna and Halloumi cheese finger. Like his story online via the BusinessMirror Millennials Universe (BMMU) Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Millennial-Universe/435594193285671. Follow BMMU on Twitter via @millennial_U or Instagram (type Millennial Universe). E-mail comments or story to millennialuniverse@yahoo.com and the editor at dennis.estopace@gmail.com.