The "don't bother" messaging is 95% from Russian troll farms.
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2026
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Shhh, they haven't seen this new thread yet. You're calling them.
Let them come, it's good entertainment. They fall into a very fascinating intersection of pseudo-intellectualism, hubris, and privilege. It's an absolute riot watching them defend the deaths of minorities as necessary. They'll either double over backwards with some weird logic or just shout Gaza.
They give leftists a bad name
It's all pretty low effort. They have to juggle working for daddy poot-poot against taking breaks to b8ttf8ck close relatives in their crumbling soviet-era hovel.
They're not leftists, they're either paid shitheads, bots or fascists.
Paid to give leftists a bad name, but I do think there are quite a few that actually believe what they're selling. It's a lack of critical thinking
Maybe there is a small percentage, but I doubt they would be so aggressive on election morning before most of America woke up.
I wish Ukraine would do us (and ultimately themselves) a favor there.
Cory Doctorow (highly recommend his writings btw) said it best: "Is voting politics? Well, sure, but voting is to politics as shopping is to boycotts. For several decades now, most voters have been asked to chose the lesser of two evils (and now they're asked to choose the significantly lesser of two evils). Voting can change things, when there's something good to vote for, or something very bad to vote against, and when lots of people show up at the polls.
But to make voting effective, you have to do politics. You have to get involved in the primary races that select the candidate. You have to go to candidates' meetings and ask tough questions. You have to ring doorbells for your chosen candidate, volunteer to take your neighbors to the polls and volunteer to defend the polls from chuds and ICE fascists. The part of voting that takes place in the booth is the least important part of politics."
Full blog post: https://pluralistic.net/2026/05/21/purity-culture/#stop-fucking-that-chicken
To be clear, I am not saying "don't vote." I am saying "vote, and then also encourage everyone you know to vote. Become that one person your elected officials dread showing up in town halls, because you're going to loudly demand that they keep their campaign promises."
Cory Doctorow is very smart and a visionary technologist, but not a voting expert. Voting is always a critical part of meaningful social change.
Part of using the ballot as a force of change is participating in local organizing and running for local office.
I thought Corey did okay there. Voting is the absolute least you should do while participating in democracy.
b-b-b-b-but they're both bad!!! I am very smart.
b-b-b-b-but they’re both bad!!!
Nah, the new hotness straight from .ml is that voting for anybody = uncritical support of fascism and genocide. Apparently, the only way to save Palestine is to sit on your ass at home and post internet memes.
Some so-called anarchists also have a similar opinion
Yes, in the way a tooth ache and getting curb stomped are both bad.
The prevalence of "no on prop 40" here in CA was wild. Especially since its such a no brainer of a proposition it doesnt need a counter campaign. The big argument against it is that if they can tax billionaires, they could tax the normals too. Its so out of touch the campaign forgot that normal people get taxed all the fucking time. We literally vote for new taxes. Its such a wild concept for the rich.
That's the exact argument we got (*meaning, WA state has a millionaire tax that the billionaires are trying to repeal)! It's hilarious.
"Will they stop at millionaires?!" We might go a little lower, but yeah, not much.
We vote in new taxes for ourselves all the time. They act like it doesnt come out of our pockets all the time. Its just a nonsense argument.
Hell, I get taxed on projected value of my household, which has often increased. I already get taxed on “unrealized gains.”
I love when they spend a FORTUNE, and lose anyway.
I'm in one of the least interesting general elections and it's still important for the propositions. (The real interesting stuff was in the primary, though!).
Vote! And if you have a time machine, vote in the primary too! (And if you don't, vote in the next primary!)
Uh-oh here we go again
they spent millions to push their candidate within the partys
Unless that's the cost of maintaining the facade.
That is of course assuming they're not myopic reactionary morons which they sure seem to be.
at this point i think i see more posts about the evil tankies who want to steal ~~christmas~~ election day than i see the aforementioned evil tankies
anyways vote if you want to, it does have some effect, however minuscule in the grand scheme of things… but if that’s the extent of your political action, especially in a country as electorally fucked as the usa, you’re wasting your time.
Probably helps that lemmygrad and lemmy.world are blocked by blahaj.zone. Surprised to see blahaj.zone never ended up blocking lemmy.ml, all things considered.
The do to make you believe your vote matters
There are also Billionaires spending fortunes on Dems. There's probably some bias toward republicans but it's not like it's only one party getting money dumped on it. Maybe billionaires aren't special and get caught up in the same culture war political bullshit as everyone else.
There's probably some bias toward republicans but it's not like it's only one party getting money dumped on it.
So you didn't read the article you shared?
They never do
Did you? There's pretty clearly billionsaire democrat donors in there.
