K_Kelly wrote:
How do I acquire a new interest? I know one of my interests is in listening to music, but I only know of a few artist/song names. I don't actually "read" it in the same way that some people have a number one favorite song or artist.
Same with politics or philosophy. I can't "read" or understand it even though I like to discuss it sometimes. I guess it gives me no credibility to discuss it.
With both of these subjects, you must not have come across anything that interests you. Waaaay back when I was a young person we had things called mix tapes that people would trade around with their favorite music on it. You'd get to hear a collection of single songs of bands never played on the radio. If you liked it, you'd ask your friend to copy the whole CD for you or you'd go buy it yourself. I don't know what kids do these days.
With politics and philosophy, you could start by picking something you're interested in and looking it up online. That's pretty easy- requires no real time commitment. With both of these subjects, I recommend that you look at both (or multiple) sides of the issue. Let's say you are looking up the idea of post-modernism. I studied "post-modernist thought" in sociology in school, but there is also post-modernist art and literature and all kinds of other things. So to understand the philosophy of "post-modernism" you would have to look up several different things. If you were looking at a political issue- let's say the platform of Hillary Clinton. You should go directly to Hillary Clinton's website (I assume it's still up?) and read what she herself says, but then also read what people opposed to her policies (not her as a person, but her political views) say.