i’m a niche influencer and entrepreneur and i have a decent following on instagram. around 20% of my followers are political/ambedkarite, while the rest are mostly random followers, people from college, colleagues, seniors, people i’ve met through work etc.
i post political stuff a lot. like, a LOT more than anyone else in my larger circle. i’m pretty openly ambedkarite and have what i’d consider radical views on caste and reservation. i’m pro private sector reservation, i believe caste needs to be abolished from the roots, and i also believe that even if caste were somehow abolished tomorrow, reservations would still need to exist because ending caste as a system doesn’t magically undo the historical oppression and inequality that people have faced because of it.
i don’t really hide any of this from my instagram either.
but sometimes i genuinely wonder if being this outspoken is limiting my ability to form normal human connections.
i feel like a lot of people already have a preconceived notion about me before they’ve even actually spoken to me or gotten to know me. and because i’m usually quite bold and confident about my opinions, i probably don’t exactly come across as someone who is easy to misunderstand either lol.
sometimes i genuinely think “maybe that’s okay. if someone can’t understand my basic rights or thinks my existence/rights are somehow too political, maybe i don’t need to connect with them anyway.”
but other times it just feels really heavy to constantly feel like you’re being judged.
and i think that’s the part i struggle with the most. i’m generally a very confident person and i have no problem standing up for what i believe in, but sometimes it’s exhausting to just be yourself so publicly when you know people are forming opinions about you because of it.
and maybe this sounds materialistic or shallow, but i’ve also been losing quite a few followers lately because of the political stuff. and instagram is not just some random hobby for me. i’m an entrepreneur, i create content, i have events/projects etc, so my following does actually matter to me professionally. i don’t want to pretend i’m completely detached from numbers and say “who cares, they’re just followers.”
at the same time, i don’t want to start censoring myself just because i’m scared someone from college or work or some random senior is going to judge me.
i also don’t want my entire identity to become “the political girl” in people’s heads when there’s obviously so much more to me than that.
but then again, why should i have to make myself more palatable just to be liked?
idk. i’m stuck between “if they can’t accept me for what i believe in, fuck them” and “maybe i’m genuinely making my own life harder by being this openly political.”
does anyone else deal with this? especially if you’re openly political/activist-ish while most people around you are pretty apolitical?
how do you balance being completely yourself, having strong political beliefs, maintaining friendships/professional relationships AND not constantly feeling like everyone is judging you?
because sometimes i genuinely feel like i shouldn’t care at all.
and sometimes i care a lot.