Not P but DFW: politically indifferent

[Mike Weaver]

I'd say apathetic isn't quite correct - I'd say it means it doesn't care 
about/ not concerned with politics - which maybe is the same as 
apathetic and of an individual I'd agree but to describe a publication 
as apathetic doesn't seem right. You wouldn't describe a mag dedicated 
to fashion as apathetic about a subject beyond its remit.

Clearly in a hairsplitting mood today.
Cheers
Mike

On 10/02/2026 14:24, Mike Jing wrote:
> The following excerpt is from David Foster Wallace's *Up, Simba*:
>
> The far-Right *National Review*, for example, calls McCain “a crook and a
> showboat,” while the old-Left *New York Review of Books* feels that “McCain
> isn’t the anti-Clinton … McCain is more like the unClinton, in the way 7Up
> was the unCola: different flavor, same sugar content,” and the politically
> indifferent *Vanity Fair* quotes Washington insiders of unknown affiliation
> saying “People should never underestimate [McCain’s] shrewdness. His
> positions, in many instances, are very calculated in terms of media appeal.”
>
> Does the word "indifferent" here mean "neutral" or "apathetic"? I'm pretty
> sure it's the latter since the first meaning is labelled as "archaic" by
> the OED, and the fact that *Vanity Fair* is not known for its political
> leanings.
> --
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