The discourse on American politics sometimes devolves to “Leftists who won’t vote” & “MAGA Republicans” teaming up to “getting revenge on liberals”.
The discourse on American politics sometimes devolves to “Leftists who won’t vote” & “MAGA Republicans” teaming up to “getting revenge on liberals”.
“Revenge”?
Vindictiveness doesn’t have anything to do with it, I just can’t bring myself to vote for genocide.
If anything, it’s resignation and apathy as everything I predicted back in 2016 continues to come to pass.
Trump is going to win in November because the Democrats care more about preserving their AIPAC financing than representing their constituents.
Okay then vote against genocide.
Donald Trump is Genocide at home and abroad.
Joe Biden is “only” Genocide abroad, and probably less of it.
Therefore, a vote for Joe Biden is a Vote against genocide.
No, it doesn’t matter that he’s an active participant in the apparatus that’s creating the genocide, because if he’s in office there’s less genocide. Which is the important part, and pretending otherwise is sophistry. By abstaining from voting, you are increasing the likelihood of more genocide, if you discourage others from voting, you are an active participant in the overall social apparatus that is probabilistically increasing the ammount of genocide.
The utility calculation is dead simple: more votes for Biden in key states makes more genocide less likely, and discouraging people from voting for Biden makes more genocide more likely. Therefore, discouraging people from voting for Biden is a pro-genocide strategy and voting for Biden in battleground states is an anti-genocide strategy. I live in a solid blue state, so I reserve the right to vote third party, but I will also encourage other people to vote for Biden.
You should vote for Biden unless you live in a solid blue state, and even then it’s not a bad idea.
Offering a sandwich with more and less peanut butter when I am allergic to peanuts still means I will be sick. I’m hungry and I want a sandwich with no peanut butter. There are third party candidates providing sandwiches with no peanut butter. I am sorry demand decreases for the sandwich with less peanut butter, but I am unable to stomach peanuts.
Alright, but it’s not really about you, is it? There’s untold many hungry people, some of which are allergic to peanuts, and the only crate left has nothing but.
There are several people needed to open the crate. Maybe it can be opened without you, maybe it can’t maybe it’s stuck regardless. But even if you don’t want peanuts, it’s incredibly selfish of you to not only refuse to help feed the people who can be fed but also pretend to be of upstanding moral character when you do so. So take an antacid and show up at the ballot.
There’s untold many hungry people in the world because our comfort depends on it. In fact, what a wild metaphor to continue using when there’s thousands starving to death in Palestine right now with our tax money. Hey, but at least we’ll get cheap oil shipped to us through that new India>Saudi Arabia>Palestine trade route that’s being set up as a competitor to the “new Silk Road” thing china is doing. Cheap oil might be that peanut butter sandwich that people over here need to stay financially afloat, but it’s only a few layers removed from your actions being responsible for genocide. Some people don’t like this fact and would rather we had actual representation in our government.
That’s not actually relevant to the discussion; dismantling the United States, capitalism, and/or all imperialism isn’t on the table.
If you want to have a birthday cake, and you see Timmy about to start playing with a loaded gun, you should still stop that from happening even if it doesn’t get you birthday cake. That’s especially true if there’s no birthday cake readily available.
Edit: the more I think about it, the better an analogy this is, because if >!little Timmy blows his brains out after you chose not to stop it, it seriously hampers the ammount of birthday cake you eat in the future. Because if there’s birthday cake available you probably won’t be able to eat it after that, people will be less likely to invite you to a birthday party, and little Timmy won’t have any more birthdays.!<
CW: casual discussion of graphic and dark topics.
Oh look, it’s another metaphor that ignores the fact that doing what we’re doing is actively harming other people (and comparing genocide to “eating cake”). You gave the gun Timmy was playing with to his brown friend and even disengaged the safety for him. And then you’re surprised when the little boy’s parents are upset you gave him the loaded gun. You’re right. This is a good metaphor for this situation we’re in.
This reply is so bad I’m comfortable not giving an actual response.
There is a flaw in making a collective choice individualistic. Helping others is a moral thing to do and I was there in 2020 even though peanut butter sucks. Individually, I will get a sandwich, probably with peanut butter.
However, this crate landed on Palestinians. Helping the people under the crate seems important.
Voting for a sandwich without peanut butter will result in other people deciding what sandwich you get, and the only realistic options are those with peanut butter.
Also, you’ll have to eat the sandwich.
I understand needing to eat the sandwich. I also understand making a collective first-past-the-post choice individual is a flawed argument.
However there is an individual component to saying I really can’t eat peanut butter. The decision then becomes stand your ground (no peanut butter), compromise (just a little peanut butter) or protest (full peanut butter; see you in the ER). The claim is the compromise is best.
How do we reach a point where we no longer need to compromise on peanut butter?
So, don’t vote for genocide. Vote for one of the anti-genocide candidates, like Jill Stein or Cornel West.
Might as well stay home and save myself the trouble of wasting my time. Third parties aren’t viable in a first-past-the-post election system.
In my state at least if a third party receives at least 5% of the vote they’ll get significantly more funding in the next election cycle. Pretty sure that’s true across the US.
You mean that thing that hasn’t happened since Ross Perot in Texas 30 years ago?
Surely his Reform Party is still around after having their funding boosted, right? Nope, they dissolved in '97 after doing even worse at the polls in '96 than in '92.
That’s simply not true. The Reform Party got Jesse Ventura elected governor of Minnesota in '98.
So you’re just throwing up your hand and giving up?
Yet voting 3rd party sends a signal that many are upset instead of apathetically staying at home. Silent consent is the very thing you accuse Democrats of in a sister thread.
Gives me an idea for a new meme to cover the other half:
“Leftists who won’t vote” 🤝 “Democrats” agree on being “apathetic”.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republican-state-representative-in-florida-calls-for-the-death-of-all-palestinians-during-a-call-for-ceasefire/ar-AA1jG00Z
I’m much less concerned about the hostility of those who openly demand genocide than the inaction of those who merely pretend to oppose it.
The worst thing I could wish for you as a person, is that this comment follows you around for the rest of your life.
The complaint is about duplicity, not an acceptance or exoneration of those who openly agitate for it.
An ‘ally’ who goes along to get along, but has a radically different value set is not an ally. “9 people sit a a table with a Nazi and say nothing - how many Nazis are at the table?” We decry the Russians who don’t speak out against Putin, but shuffle uncomfortably when the DNC’s top candidate is pursuing a path that enables atrocities?
It’s a bullshit complaint for many reasons, but one of them is that they already stated that they won’t participate in an easy activity to help mitigate genocide.
Strong “at least they’re honest about it” energy