Many years ago, one of my colleagues told me, “if there’s more than two people in the room, there’s politics”.
He’s the same guy who told me to never go into a meeting without a prop (his favorite was a cup of coffee (and sometimes a notebook & pen)).
I think Jim was wrong. There’s politics as soon as one person enters the room – because you can’t even rely on agreeing with yourself consistently (https://byrbyr.ga/10). I am the only person who stands for everything I do – but my stands on some things have changed over time. Which means the me of today would disagree (at least to some extent) with the me of then. And I’ll lay decent odds that future me will disagree in some areas with today me.