Pumped-Up Politics at the Greater Scranton YMCA

“All politics is local” is a political cliché at this point, used by politicians, pundits, and journalists, among other hacks, to mean something like “I don’t quite understand what I’m talking about but here’s a phrase that can mean pretty much anything and also fills some space.” 

All of which doesn’t mean that some politics aren’t local, like, for example, local politics, or, in the case of the Greater Scranton YMCA in eastern Pennsylvania, the tenor of conversations one has at the local gym.

That’s because, this week, the gym—after a series of political disputes between members that gym authorities feared might turned violent—blocked 24-hour news channels from its televisions, according to WBRE. 

The gym is hoping that might calm the political discourse, or at least move it outside the walls of the YMCA, itself not usually thought of as a home for political argument, though we live in special times. 

Even so, members told the station that the hottest political moments at the gym might have already passed. 

“I think it is probably an overreaction,” YMCA member David Dimmick told WBRE. “There was a lot of arguing going on during the election, protesting, that type of thing. But I think it’s all gone now.”