this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
315 points (86.2% liked)
Political Memes
5075 readers
3903 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
And you think that is evidence of something? The exit polling was crystal clear. Bernie supporters overwhelmingly voted for Hillary in 2016 and for Biden in 2020. Who the fuck cares what online trolls say?
In the case where leftists might say they won't vote for Biden, odds are that they are venting or pushing for a better candidate. When it's Trump or Biden, most will come around unless some idiot causes them to harden their position. That's pretty much the standard human reaction to this kind of post.
If you are really concerned that the left won't show for Biden, there are ways of approaching the topic that aren't designed to alienate. You are far more likely to push people away than convince them to vote for Biden with your tone-deaf chastisements.
You might have fooled yourself that this is about helping Biden win, but that's bullshit. You are scratching an itch to declare your moral and intellectual superiority to the Internet. You don't give a flying fuck about the election, you just want to be smug. If you really cared about the election then you would find a better approach.
Me. Obviously. Since I'm bitching about it.
After 2016, I'm very wary of ignoring the influence of trolls on discourse.
It's funny, then, that it always seems to come along with lots of voter suppression. Spreading right-wing talking points, saying both sides are the same, playing up the idea of a 'protest vote' to anyone who will listen...
I'm not trying to convince the self-proclaimed leftists. The self-proclaimed leftists who engage in this bullshit are not people who are working on values that are compatible with a vote for anything except fascism.
Propaganda, if unchallenged or tolerated, changes communities. I've seen it happen with various forums - and now I feel a little old. Man, I'm not deluded enough to think that memes on here are going to create a surge of suddenly-shamed pseudoleftists to cast their votes for Biden. I just don't want their talking points justifying fascism and genocide to be welcomed, or propagate in the same way that gossip does, or be normalized in this community.
At best, sustained effort might choke out a vector of a vector of misinformation which may have swayed a voter. As intended, it's not even about that much. There's other work than posting memes to be done for actually getting out the vote and generating enthusiasm. This? This is a step above posting ordinary memes, but only a step. Insofar as it has a purpose, the purpose is recreational (to maintain standards in a community I enjoy and vent), not civic. It's not some great effort that will sway the election - but it can be enough to see useful idiots and fascists frequent decent communities less often.
Yeah, "bitching" is a good description.
Did I tell you to ignore it? Your mode of discourse is the problem. What I did say is that it will have the opposite effect of what you are apparently trying to achieve. The more convinced the left is that the Democrats hold them in contempt, the more they will see Democrats and Republicans as two sides of the same coin. You are pushing people away.
For decades it was absolutely true that there was almost no difference between the two parties, each competing to out-neoliberal the other. Biden has inched the Democrats left, and Trump has taken the Republicans full fascist. That's what you should focus on.
You asked "Who cares?" and I pointed out who cares and why. Don't know why answering your question is upsetting.
So you didn't actually read what I said, despite the fact that my explanation consists of the vast majority of the comment you're replying to, and just presumed that I was trying to convince pseudoleftists still. Okay. Cool. Good talk.
Down voting every comment your opponent makes is such a bitch move.
I read what you said. It's nonsense. The impact of your posts on actual leftists and also average voters is what I was addressing.
That's a convenient excuse for not actually addressing it.
Oh, so it's your opinion that actual leftists are sitting here on the fence about whether or not to welcome fascism, but someone calling out people who, say, condemn AOC and Bernie as insufficiently pro-Palestine for critical support when the GOP has become an openly fascist party, is what tips them into welcoming it. Okay. Weird people to call actual leftists, but alright, you do you.
Average voters are not going to be turned away by rejecting the kind of people who say "The US has always been a fascist country, and nothing will change anyway". In fact, welcoming those kind of people will turn off the average voter. But I guess fascists painted red get treated with kid gloves, and everyone else gets the gauntlet.
Let me clue you in about something. It's not all about voting. You don't just need the left to vote for your candidates, you need them attending rallies, canvassing, running voter registration drives, making phone calls, and getting their friends to vote. You know, all the shit you don't do. The left will vote for the shitty candidate the Democrats gave us because we always do, but driving down enthusiasm on the left damages all those other things that are critical to winning. That's what you're fucking up
I wonder if you missed the original point of the post? It's criticising people who call themselves leftist for rejecting AOC and Bernie, the two highest profile most left leaning politicians in the USA, for not being perfect. You know, the two people who got famous by caring about people on low wages.
If Biden loses it will because of this arrogant clueless attitude being pervasive in the Democratic leadership. But sure, go ahead and try again to win an election by berating voters. I'm sure it will work this time!
Wow, you aren't wrong. OP then goes on to do exactly what you're saying, because they know they're definitely better than the "pseudoleftists".
Fuck, man, if you think that being upset about shitheads advocating for literal fascism because "It's actually the MOST left action possible in this election!" is unreasonable, and thinking that maybe not welcoming them is a good course of action is smugness, I don't know what to tell you.