But there is still a large number of people who are just a product of their environment. Be it not having the time or resources to be able to vote (especially as disenfranchising voters has been a core of the Republican agenda), lacking the education the make informed decisions (dismantling and defending education has also been a goal), being inundated by billionaire propaganda machines in every aspect of their life (news, TV and film, social media and paid actors or bots astroturfing)...

It's easier to understand how someone can be swindled into not being involved in the political process. And these aren't exclusively US issues, they are global problems. Other nations have had some better infrastructure to deter them, or strong leaders to fight them. But this isn't exclusively on the individual.

You say some are apathetic and lazy, you're demoralized and hold that against them. That's exactly what the ghouls in power want. They stole something from those people. Be it the time, the money, the knowledge, to stand up against evil. But you're blaming the individual.

I'm not saying everyone is good. There's a lot of terrible people. But falling for the trap set in front of you is just as bad.

[–] greenskye@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 days ago

You say some are apathetic and lazy, you're demoralized and hold that against them. That's exactly what the ghouls in power want. They stole something from those people. Be it the time, the money, the knowledge, to stand up against evil. But you're blaming the individual.

To be clear, I'm still mostly blaming the ghouls in power. They are the true evil. I've not forgotten that.

But I do hold those who had the ability to vote and didn't responsible. I'm sure a fraction of that 1/3rd was legitimately voter suppressed, but I'd be shocked if it were more than 20% of them. I know that's a thing, but I really don't think it explains most of those who didn't vote.

I personally think it's totally fair to hold those people accountable. Yes, we've all got shit going on and life is stressful. For most elections that excuse would be more than enough. But it was impossible to be uniformed going into 2024. It was impossible to not know exactly who Trump was and what he was pushing for.

I actively tried to disengage from all political information and effectively found that to be hopeless. Trump's every move was reported on and talked about and joked about everywhere and no matter how you tried to curate things, he infiltrated anyway. Only the most hermit in the woods type people could call themselves truly uniformed.

It was clear to basically every American that this was a battle for democracy and we utterly failed to show up.

So yes, they aren't as bad as the people literally carrying out the destruction of our country, but that does not absolve them of all blame. They are collaborators, by either active support or tacit acceptance.