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But if we vote for the non-vegan ice cream place, we're telling the leadership that we're okay with non-vegan options and no progress will ever be made!
/s for the illiterate
What everyone forgets is that the actual voting already happened. The bus company, Cliff driving Committee, voted before the bus embarked. They voted for the bus driver to drive off the cliff to cut spending to maintenance and health insurance to the driver and bus. There only so much the riders can say at that point
The only option the riders have to not drive off the cliff is to take control of the bus.
Trying to reach the "I don't do politics" crowd with "harm reduction" doesn't really work as a strategy.
Like, they're already admitting that when something is an unappealing and controversial, they'd rather check out than engage. Going on to explain the gritty strategy for approaching unappealing and controversial politics is just adding more reasons onto the "I don't do politics" pile.
It's a crass comparison, but it would be like if someone said "I don't play MOBAs" and the response was to immediately launch into an explanation of League's current meta-strategy. Don't be surprised when they immediately check out of the conversation. (Yes I know games are frivolous and politics is life and death -- but the people who "don't do politics" don't see it that way)
More than that, nearly all of the "I don't do politics" people are almost certainly never going to see this image. We're in an online forum dedicated to talking about politics. The only people who see this are the people who already choose to spend their personal time on the subject. So ask yourself, is this image really about the people who are checked out of politics? Because, practically (regardless of intent) all this really seems to be is a thought-terminating cliche to throw at anyone who points out that running a "We're the lesser evil candidate!" doesn't actually engage or activate anyone who's already checked out!
im sure the illogical thinkers will start thinking logically any day now
The problem with this is that the choice isn't cliff or ice cream. The choice is the cliff in front of us or the cliff around the corner.
The "drive off the cliff" party vs the "drive off the cliff, but ever so slightly slower and also we'll wave some rainbow flags I guess" party. I know who I'm voting for!
Also, I'm installing a bigger motor so you have a reason not to vote for the other party, because they'd get to go even faster
20 people voted to drive over the cliff. 30 people voted to fucking gun it and send that shit straight into the abyss. 1 person voted for ice cream but the cliff voters beat him to death. 50 people didn’t vote
Not necessary in actual democracies where you have 10+ different parties.
There, abstaining is just an other party. One with a powerful voice telling the politicians that if enough people not vote, it is a big sign that something is wrong with the system and things will need to change to prevent riots.
It is not the same as voting blank, which is also possible. Then your vote gets added to the most popular vote. In a way of saying that you are content with any.
Exactly! Having “ice cream” and “death” as the only options doesn’t exactly foster a great discourse..
That's BS. Removing yourself just removes yourself, nothing more. 70% of the population not voting just means 16% get to decide - there's no redo.
After all, you not voting because you didn't like the options is indistinguishable from you not voting because you didn't care.
In order to protest you need to participate in the process. Even invalidating your ballot is a stronger sign than not voting.
I live in Switzerland where low voter turnout is common, yet the population prides itself for its direct democracy. This discussion comes up every election cycle and it's always the same. Nothing happens because of low turnout and nobody thinks twice about why.
Here, voting blank is the same as not voting, btw. It's the way to correctly Not Care in cantons that mandate voting.
here it's reversed. blank votes are counted separately, meaning that you want to participate but no option is good. abstaining means you don't care.
I just knew the comments were going to be us tearing each other apart.
I'm just thinking out loud here. What if Progressives that are registered as Democrats changed their registration to independent? Also, stop sending them your money. We could organize it to happen over one week. Then keep it that way for 30 days. See how much power we truly have. If we can show the Democratic party that they would never win another election without us, maybe they would be more likely to listen.
We have to be careful though, I know this President is running roughshod over the Constitution with the blessing of SCOTUS and Congress but they don't have enough votes or State legislatures to amend the Constitution. If they get that, then that truly is the end of this experiment.
Yeah.... But also, Carlin was right saying this shit is all a stage. We've got groups of bullies picking on us, and I'd rather throw bricks than help them decide who to pick on next.
If "harm" and "less harm" are the only two options, then the only question is how quickly you die. There's the argument that we have to do "harm reduction" in order to buy time to organize for something better, but we've been procrastinating for decades apparently. Since all of history informs us that humans act only when inaction is no longer tenable (and sometimes not even then), really the only material difference between "harm reduction" and accelerationism is, again, the timeline.
Yeah fuck that. We’re throwing the cliff people off the cliff. Y’all can keep playing these stupid games.
Yeah fuck that. We’re throwing the cliff people off the cliff.
Any minute now.