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I’m a raging leftist but I’m getting tired of "deontologists" telling me they refuse to vote for Biden then telling me how great Xi Jinping is.
I have to caulk it up to young people learning about socialism and communism for the first time, but they're only reading Marx and Lenin.
Like hey guys, they lost pretty hard. Maybe we shouldn't do exactly the same thing and in fact there's decades of work outlining what we should do instead?
That's the charitable interpretation. The less charitable one is astroturfing aiming to further destabilize "the west"
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Some of those who work forces are the same who burn crosses: many that advocate for not voting from a "progressive" point of view are actually the ones who wouldn't be in power if you did. They think it's hilarious when we don't vote, and they love it.
Yep
I used to be alarmed that people were being taken in by this stuff, but I now think the overwhelming majority of people saying it are just shill accounts. For a couple of different reasons, I think the percentage that are actual human accounts that sincerely believe it is extremely small.
I notice they've pivoted to just general nihilism about the US economy and the state of things as of a few weeks ago -- I think they might have concluded, as I did, that expressing this type of viewpoint and doing such a bad job of it and getting unanimously yelled at in the comments was actually having the opposite effect, highlighting to people how important it is to vote and how it absolutely makes a difference.
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Things are not great in the US (and worldwide). But I always get pushback when I encourage people to vote and remind them that this is not North Korea or Russia, your vote still actually matters! Whoever you are, you can help prevent your country's slide into fascism...
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This just emphasizes to me that every vote matters. Sure, both parties are terrible and the chance of a third party making any headway, nevermind winning an election is, at best, unlikely.
But not voting is being complicit in what comes next. Good or bad, you're okay with whatever happens.
Harm reduction through voting is surreal, but it's required at this point. Don't be a filthy fucking collaborator, go vote.
They are both imperfect but only one is legitimately terrible. I'm actually pretty tired of everyone feeling the need to qualify this sentiment, as if the Democrats haven't been behind basically every bit of progress in the US going back a century or more.
* 50 years or more
Not that I'm disagreeing with your thesis as applied to the modern day, but pre-Lyndon Johnson, the Democrats were the racist party. There was a massive sea change during the era of Nixon, when the Democrats decided after quite a bit of heated internal debate that they couldn't possibly stomach depending on the support of the segregationists, whatever the cost, and the Southern Strategy scooped all the for real lynch-mob enthusiasts all up for Nixon. Except for Carter's brief flirtation with actual human decency, which the US isn't okay with for some reason, the Democrats got accustomed to losing elections for quite a while, until Clinton decided to make a pact with the neoliberal bastards since all the actual progressives were so ground down into not-voting-land that they weren't even worth appealing to anymore. That worked and that set the tone which has continued to the modern day of slight steady progress under Democrats versus absolute naked fascism under the Republicans (accelerating year by year to its current breakneck pace.)
Side note, if you want to have your heart broke a little bit, read Hubert Humphrey's speech at the DNC in NINETEEN FUCKING FORTY EIGHT, where he calls out the Democratic party for their acceptance of racism:
My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late. To those who say that this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.
He was still around in 1968, in the literal bloody battle, inside and outside the convention hall, for what the Democrats were going to be. They never fulfilled their promise completely, and they still haven't, and that year it cost them the presidency, just like it did in 2016.
I say this 1,000% agreeing that Biden has represented a big step forward and accomplished some genuine impressive things, and that voting for him in November is an affirmative good thing and not just a way to prevent Trump's end of the world. But the Democrats had to be dragged kicking and screaming by their progressive wing into doing good things, just as they have to be now on Israel among some other issues.
The difference is that they can be dragged into good things, which is enough. And they've done pretty much all of the progress the country has made since 1976; I'll fully agree with you there.
It's like someone who keeps pointing out "Yeah, but we're also running low on food!" on an spacecraft that is almost out of air.
True, these are both problems, but one is a MUCH bigger immediate threat and needs to be solved before we can spend time on the other, and doing nothing simply isn't the correct option.
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Been arguing with a tankie about this, decided to stop after they said a civil war and another genocide was preferable to voting for Biden because he supports Israel. Yeah ok bud
Yeah see, I don’t care for genocide. Genocide is not very cash money at all. So, see, in opposition to genocide, I’m gonna sit over here have a preference for a different not cash money genocide, you know, not really but yeah. Oh, and I’ve read accounts of war. I can handle it, I’m well read on the topic. Blood, guts, spit, and ass aren’t that scary. With all of my experience reading about war, I’m practically a shell shocked WWI vet anyway, hehe.
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Not to mention that the less people think their votes are worth, the more every individual vote is actually mean.
If you have two elections, one with a 40% turnout and one with an 80% turnout, in the one where 40% of people voted, each voter was as important as two voters in the 80% one.
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2.4 MILLION PEOPLE.... Why the fuck is every goddamn election 50/50!? Why the hell is it always the fucking razors edge!?
I'm no math guy but I feel like statistically it shouldn't be possible for almost every goddamn election to be 50/50.... 49/51... For fucks sake...
It didn't used to be that way. Big blowouts used to be common.
I think it's a result of the GOP holding on to electoral legitimacy purely through electoral tricks which are expensive / criminal to a pretty large degree, since except for a little violent minority, almost all of the country has moved on from supporting them or anything they stand for. They don't want to expend more money or risk than is needed, so they'll do more or less the minimum that seems like it'll let them hold on to power. Even that isn't really working that well anymore, and so their grip is slipping, and with Trump now running the show and demolishing the RNC's effectiveness just as thoroughly as he does everything else he touches, all bets are off for the upcoming election.
I think they're planning to move to simple explicit violence during this election, since that's all that is left if they want to avoid defeat, but you can't completely write off how effective their propaganda is at convincing people.
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Problem is even if the attorney general doesn't prosecute, local ~~courts~~ prosecutors can. We need votes for local elections THE MOST, so please vote for every small thing.
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Anyone who genuinely believes that voting doesn't matter should ask themselves why conservatives ALWAYS make sure to vote, come hell or high water.
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Not voting as a means to show dissatisfaction is probably the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever seen people do. And I say this knowing people willing vote for Trump.
They are at least voting.
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Voting is the same as the trolley problem. You can make a conscious choice between two bad outcomes, but if you do nothing then one of those outcomes will happen anyway.
The trolley problem is usually a useful tool and nothing more, but it's actually a great analogy for voting. You have two choices. Let the trolley continue or change its path. You may have different reasons for your choices, but those are the only two real choices. You can leave a note on the lever expressing your displeasure, but it still doesn't get pulled. Not pulling it is as much a choice as pulling it. You're a participant either way.
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it'd be cool if we could like vote for shit. But like, also fix the fucking voting system.
Would like to see more talk about that alongside voting itself. People seem too content with the shitty system we have. And i get it, it's a kill or be killed world out there or whatever the fuck, but like, we should have standards also.
Currently our standard is "literally fucking doing the bare minimum possible" and i honestly just cant fucking take this shit seriously anymore.
FPP is the problem with the US. And electoral colleges. And Gerrymandering the vote. Electoral oversight needs to be non-partisan. So much needs to change
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Your voting system is so fucked. Like voting should be something that people like to do. I want to vote for people that align with my values the most. But no, you have to be strategic and choose the lesser evil to not accidentally end up with fucking fsscists like Trump again. It's fucked. Still tho, please prevent Trump.
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the “Voting is Not Harm Reduction” article is possibly the most covert insidious thing that’s happened to online political discourse since 2019.
somehow, it’s managed to SEO weasel its way on top of every other article since the dawn of the internet for the search terms “voting harm reduction” and similar. and not just once, but reposted to every corner of the internet imaginable. literally try it now, if you set your google search to find articles before February 5, 2020, you will see inumerable articles with diversity of positions on the topic. after that? literally just the same article reposted and crosslisted, with the occasional reddit/twitter/tumblr comment thread.
it’s not even a bad article per se, it’s just indecently self-contradictory as OOP says, admitting at the beginning that small rights can be preserved by engaging in voting, and then pulling a 180 and accusing those who vote of perpetuating white supremacy.
like i get it, harm reduction has a specific meaning originating in addiction treatment. but for heavens sake, this flub of language doesn’t mean you should throw away one of the only miniscule rights the oppressor class has granted you to help your neighbors.
editing to add this comment thread and article which i think give helpful insight.
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this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
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