“Knowledge is power!”

Oh man, too many childhood Saturday mornings were spent hearing that phrase on the Schoolhouse Rock cartoon.

The more I think about it, though, the more I understand it. If you peel back the layers of the phrase “knowledge is power,” you start to realize that it’s a subtle statement but also one that is very dangerous.

If I were to say “put a word in front of power,” the first thing that pops into my head is political power.

All too often these days I look around at the world, and I go home and try and find ways to relax: maybe go eat a meal, call my girlfriend or just read a book.

It seems logical, but to a certain extent, even when partaking in those activities, I can’t get away from political issues. Politics today are like a literal cloud that follows me around.

Spoiler alert: I’m a biology major, but even in the sciences — no wait, especially in the sciences — all the data somehow gets remolded from statistical data into political data.

It’s simply aggravating.

Just think: we’ve tested renewable energy sources and determined that humans are a threat to the ozone. People still deny this, though, and base their political stance off of it, often in the pursuit of monetary gains.

Now, I’m not going to point fingers and say one party is worse than the other because, to me, all political parties are equally guilty.

You want to talk about climate change? Fine, as a conservative, I understand it has a presence.

But global warming does not exist because the planet fluctuates between heating and cooling in what is now a net change toward warming.

If you want to deny this statement, please provide undisputed evidence by multiple credible sources. The data should be re-testable.

Look at this issue, though: big oil is willing to lie to the public about its safety to save face and have a presence in politics through monetary contributions.

What about celebrities who support politics? Equally bad in my opinion, and last time I checked, being Hollywood famous didn’t make you a political science major.

Let’s look at some major players here: Bill Cosby, Bill O’Reilly and even the president (I actually heard a cheer from all the liberals on campus as I wrote that) all have sexual harassment claims made against them.

One thing I don’t understand is why it takes 20-plus years for someone to make a sexual harassment claim, often when the accused is trying to make a political stance.

Democrats, your cheer is over, though, because you are equally guilty! Don’t think this is a one-sided issue where I’m going after Republicans only; I’m here to step on everyone’s toes.

Let’s look here. Most recently, Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein and none other than your presidential candidate’s husband, no. 42 himself, Bill Clinton have been linked to sexual harassment claims.

The worst part is every Democrat I’ve talked to is weirdly okay with all three of these examples. Yet, they have an undisputed dislike for the aforementioned Republicans in question. A double-edged sword cuts both ways, don’t forget.

Both sides always try to discredit each other on topics like this, and we end up in a silly loop. As far as I’m concerned, once you’ve done wrong to a certain extent, I don’t care what your race, gender or (here’s the touchy one) political stance is.

A pervert is a pervert — why do we have to make it so political? Politics have turned into a playground fight amongst two kids blaming the other for throwing the first handful of rocks. Nobody wins, and you both end up in trouble anyway.

Even the gun issue in America — yes, I am a conservative who hunts and owns guns and supports gun owners, but even I know guns should be restricted more.

After the shootings in Las Vegas and Texas, every single one of my liberal friends in my Facebook newsfeed posted, “This is the face of what terrorism looks like America.”

Oh, really? Why didn’t you post the face of what the man looked like who drove a truck into pedestrians in Manhattan? I didn’t even see any of my liberal friends mention that terrorist attack.

I try and piece this all together like some sort of child’s 12-piece puzzle, and all I can say is apparently we pick and choose what we defend, not based on facts anymore, but based on our political beliefs.

I saw a quote by Kellyanne Conway on Twitter that said, “It took Hillary [about] 5 minutes to blame NRA for madman’s rampage, but 5 days to sorta-kinda blame Harvey Weinstein 4 his sexually [sic] assaults.”

This is the goldmine of Twitter quotes to put in this paper; it just shows that sadly we have come as a nation to engage in petty political Twitter fights, instead of looking at cold, hard facts.