There are no ethical choices under first-past-the-post voting. We must instead make a decision that reduces the most harm.
this post was submitted on 05 May 2024
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Okay what about the other things I just said?
The other things are not related to voting. Do all those things you want to do, but voting takes 30m and almost zero effort. If you can manage to do those other things, you can and should vote as well. The effort to outcome ratio is much higher, even though the outcome is fairly small. The effort is essentially zero.
Voting for someone who supports genocide is understandably something people don't want to do. Or have you forgotten the point of this conversation?
I have not forgotten. Like I said, it's like a version of the trolley problem. The trolley is going to run over 100 people, but you can pull the lever and it'll only hit 1. Not pulling the lever is a choice and you're complicit in that choice. It doesn't matter if you took action or not, the choice is made. Not voting against the person who said he wants the genocide to be scaled up makes you complicit if they get elected.
Peoples feeling are being manipulated and they're being told not voting makes them not complicit. It does not though. It does not remove the fact they made a choice to not take an action they could have taken. They should be made to feel like not voting is the choice that it is and they should use their choice to ensure as good a possible outcomes happens as they can. The trolls from the right are ensuring they are made to feel bad about preventing them from gaining power, so they can take over. This will not be a good outcome, and people should be afraid and ashamed if they allow that.
Also it's not 30 minutes. It requires registering to vote whenever you move address, and for you to actually be in the country. Then there is setting reminders it's election day, which requires watching the news to know there is an election.
Being in the country doesn't take effort. It's only true or not. (Also, mail in voting is allowed for people outside the country I believe. I know military personnel stationed outside the US still vote.)
Sure, you need to register, but you can do that at the DMV when you get/renew your drivers license. Yeah, if you don't drive then it's extra effort, though still not much.
Updating your location when you move can be done online or through the mail I believe.
Also obviously you need to know an election is happening. How the hell would you not know that though? Either you're politically motivated and actually want change, in which case you almost certainly know when an election is happening even if you're not participating for whatever stupid reason, or you aren't politically motivated, in which case I'm not talking about them.
I am not an American. We don't have a DMV. Why the heck would vehicles and elections be organised in the same place? It takes actual time to register here (up to several months).
Unless it's a general election people don't take that much notice, and it's hard to find out about one when people only talk about American elections online and you also aren't always in the country.
For most people, your main form of government issue ID is your drivers license. Since they're a government agency, and they have all your information, they let you register at the same time. Its actually pretty convenient, though the DMV itself is very slow and inconvenient.
That's true. Most people only pay attention to the general. Even still, when there's a local election you'll almost always see political things around town, so if you care it's not hard to keep track of.