Sorry this is kinda political. Is there an asklemmypolitics group this would be better for? I’m hoping not to get into the libs vs progressives political debate we see everywhere on here… Just want to know what people are actually looking for.
Sorry this is kinda political. Is there an asklemmypolitics group this would be better for? I’m hoping not to get into the libs vs progressives political debate we see everywhere on here… Just want to know what people are actually looking for.
Not everyone wants to vote strategically. Giving a candidate your vote is a form of endorsement. If I was a US citizen, I’d vote for Biden, and try to convince all my friends to do so, too. But I also understand the people who can’t bring themselves to vote for a guy supporting a genocide, no matter what the alternative is.
They’re basically saying “fuck it, if the system won’t give me a choice to vote against genocide, then I’m not participating in that system.”
No, this is a lie they tell themselves. Not voting isn’t not participating, because participating means making a choice for who will be president, and doing nothing is a choice. Not voting is equivalent to saying “I don’t care” or “I like both candidates equally”. People who don’t vote are participating, they’re just saying that they don’t care who gets elected.
Vote for the mediocre guy who won’t stop funding a genocide abroad, or don’t vote and watch your rights get stripped, the EPA get demolished, and the funding for Israel increased.
This is no longer an election about voting for the candidate that makes you feel good about your choice, it’s a vote for our own collective survival.
The problem is, not voting is as far as they’ll actually go towards “not participating in that system”. They still want all the benefits that they get from the system.
So it becomes less of a politically motivated action and more of just a tantrum.
That’s what irks me the most, when people act like abstaining from an election is a grand act of protest that will change things for the better. I understand the reluctance to vote, but that should never be accompanied by a reluctance to act.
If people have this view, then they should be even more concerned about a Trump second term. I’m sorry, this is unacceptable and it’s exhausting seeing it repeated on this platform. It shows a clear lack of understanding on how we’ve made progress in this country and a concerning misuse of emotion over critical thinking.
Modern governance has always been an uphill battle. Don’t throw away progress, as little as it may be. It’s still progress and gaining an inch every day is almost always better than going back a foot. It may take years to get that inch.
If we want change, start local and work up. Campaign for the people who see the world the way you do and fight for them. Organize. Not voting is by far one of the dumbest and most un-American thing you can do.