[a9dhalaan]

Until you have reform in the sense of replacing the First-past-the-post voting with a more representative system that allows the survival of more than 2 centrist parties, or have a system where there are meaningful referendums at a meaningful frequency, then where is the value of being "politically informed" on new/current politics?

Democracy in many western nations, at least in the US, is more or less an illusion of choice. Being sucked into the liberal/republican squabbling, drama and even the occasional political issue is nothing more than mere entertainment for the peasant class. For lobbies and corporations, who actually have much more leverage into governance, then yea being politically informed for them is prudent.