193
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] TheFriar@lemm.ee 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

We all fully understand that. Well, most intelligent enough people do. Sure, there are some very vocal leftists calling for a boycott to the vote (as is the custom, so nothing new), but most of us know—even with leftist views—that we need to keep trump away from office. We will all just pull the lever for Biden because we have no other choice. It’s a shitty, unappealing and massively problematic choice. But we all know trump will be 10x worse on everything we have a problem with Biden doing. Not to mention, all the trans people, gay people, etc.

But that doesn’t equate to enthusiastic support for Biden. Because we all disapprove. Doesn’t mean we all don’t realize we have to vote for him. We’re just not democrats or Biden fans, so we complain.

But the other side of that coin is that this kind of shit will stop a not insignificant portion of people from voting for him, not understanding what another trump presidency means. Because there are a lot of performative leftists who think holding up an “well I didn’t vote for him” badge is something to be proud of…while LGBTQIA+ people are pushed back into the shadows, sent to conversion therapy, can’t get healthcare, etc. Doing shit like this will turn those people off. And it’s understandable—in a way. Because how can you justify lending your support to someone supporting genocide? Is it really noble to vote blue while they actively aid in the slaughter of Palestinians? Or while they treat immigrants like shit or keep arming police departments to the teeth with war machines and keep passing pro-surveillance laws and working with private equity and participating in every corporatist neoliberal tradition that sickens us all?

Well, it’s the basic concept of harm reduction. Not voting doesn’t help anyone but the non-voter because they get to hop on that high horse any time something goes wrong. It’s an insanely privileged choice, and actually will end up hurting a lot of people if trump wins. That’s the opposite of harm reduction. For example, making drugs legal and handing out free, clean needles, you’re technically supporting people’s destructive addictions. But you’re reducing the harm that inevitable presence of addiction can bring. It’s a good thing to do.

Even if it makes us sick to vote for Biden, neglecting to keep trump from the levers of power is so insanely self-destructive and harmful to vulnerable people and maybe even literally a mistake we will never, ever right. We have a desperate climate emergency on our hands. Four years (if we can actually get him out of office after that) of trump climate policy will literally kill us all.

this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
193 points (89.7% liked)

World News

39333 readers
3180 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS