this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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the_dunk_tank

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Imagine the mental gymnastics you have to go through to argue that not voting for a genocidal maniac is privilege. Basically what this person saying is that if you are Palestinian you should vote for and support the person who is actively enabling the genocide of your people because they are afraid of what Trump might do because they themselves might be affected by it. How is that not privilege?

The most effective way of achieving any meaningful change is protesting and holding politicians accountable no matter who is in power. But they're arguing for not doing that. To blindly accept and not protest or even criticize a person enabling genocide. Who cares what you vote for? A single vote doesn't mean shit but standing up and fighting against fascism and genocide is what matters. Not only are many of these liberals privileged they are fucking cowards too.

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[–] Frank@hexbear.net 76 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Dem hardliners have decided the ends (their fake democracy) justify the means (literally genocide). This is not the answer to "What would you have done during the Holocaust" that I wanted. Like what the entire fuck

[–] SacredExcrement@hexbear.net 42 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

"If you don't vote for Hitler, Turbo Hitler will win and he'll commit MORE genocide"

[–] onkyo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

They read Martin Niemöller's poem "first they came for the socialists..." and somehow think this doesn't apply to them. Do they think that the precedent that is being set by the genocide of Palestinians can't also apply to the other marginalized groups they pretend to care about?

[–] DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml 27 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

"Whew, good thing I'm not any of those things in that poem, I'm a liberal, and nazis don't go after liberals, so I'm fine."

[–] ExotiqueMatter@lemmygrad.ml 20 points 7 months ago

This!

If they can genocide 1 group of peoples they can genocide any group of peoples, expecting that party to do anything to stop the right's attack on lgbtq+ peoples is naive to the point of stupidity. If the Republicans really do decide to significantly ramp up their oppression during the next term, the Democrats will not only let them but probably even help them do it.

[–] Ho_Chi_Chungus@hexbear.net 18 points 7 months ago

They read Martin Niemöller's poem "first they came for the socialists..." and somehow think this doesn't apply to them.

They read it but never got past the first line

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[–] 420stalin69@hexbear.net 26 points 7 months ago

I didn’t expect more but I’m still shocked to see it.

[–] Ho_Chi_Chungus@hexbear.net 71 points 7 months ago (4 children)

"I shouldn't have to vote for the lesser of two evils, I should get to vote for a candidate that 100% aligns with my desires"

sweet mother of shit no one has ever said, can you actually address a real point anyone has made or are you only capable of debating strawmen. I've can't even fathom agreeing on 85% of things with someone who would run under a third ML party that's going to get 450 votes, let alone 100%. I'm willing to vote for someone who agrees with like, 40% of what I actually believe. Biden, on a good day? Represents maybe 2% of what I believe and actively opposes about 95% of what I believe. Man can't even be bothered to not send bombs to Israel that he knows damn well are going to be dropped on hospitals. I live in a state with universal mail in ballots. I get my ballot mailed to my doorstep. I don't need to put on pants to vote, and I'm not going to waste my time acting like somehow things would be totally different under either Red Trump or Blue Trump

[–] BurgerPunk@hexbear.net 50 points 7 months ago

Bernie was a compromise and they're the ones who wouldn't accept it. Always projection

Biden 100% conforms to their only real ideals of going to brunch, hating poors, and killing brown people

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 44 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I don't need to put on pants to vote

This is the most brutal condemnation of voting as political action I have ever encountered.

[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 32 points 7 months ago

Basically how I put it to my folks (not America). "In a race between these two would you bother leaving the house to vote?"

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 7 months ago

In the coming sunday we have local elections in Poland. I briefly entertained the thought of putting on my pants and going to vote, but the local elections in Poland are designed to be much more corrupt than the national ones.

[–] ExotiqueMatter@lemmygrad.ml 32 points 7 months ago

I hate how these smug ghouls are almost always trying to re-frame anti-Biden sentiment over a literal genocide as if it was just us making mountains out of nothing.

"This is just a small disagreement you have with his politics, you agree with him almost 100% of the time otherwise so you should just accept it and vote for him, don't let perfection be the enemy of the good."

[–] Greenleaf@hexbear.net 22 points 7 months ago

Not even Lenin aligns 100% of my values, and he’s the leader who in all of world history I align closest with. That’s such a strange straw man they are making.

[–] Tommasi@hexbear.net 66 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Funny how they frame it as Biden doesn't align 100% with your desires instead of there's literally zero places your interests align with his.

[–] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 46 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Not wanting genocide is like a pony"

[–] crusa187@lemmy.ml 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The “everyone gets a pony” counter they love to trot out is so weird. Is that some kind of boomer humor?

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[–] PKMKII@hexbear.net 63 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Notice how the framing on Palestine switched from “Trump will do the bad thing” to “Trump isn’t going to be better than Biden.” Even there they have to admit that Biden and Trump are 100% Hitler.

I think this goes back to the white, affluent liberal worldview that they speak for the poor, unfortunate souls that can’t speak for themselves. So to disregard their political interests is, in their minds, to disregard those without privilege.

[–] SacredExcrement@hexbear.net 36 points 7 months ago (1 children)

In the reddit-logo news threads on anything Israel/Palestine, there will be (highly upvoted) comments spouting off about 'what even is Palestine' anyway, and that kind of garbage.

As though Palestinians must need to be able to trace their lineage back generations and have a history dating back millineia, and failing that it's fine to just seize their land and kill them

[–] 420stalin69@hexbear.net 33 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

As though Palestinians must need to be able to trace their lineage back generations and have a history dating back millineia

And yet they can. Genetic testing shows the closest genetic relatives of the 2000-year old Hebrew population of Palestine and Galilee are Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syriacs.

Ironically, the Ashkenazi Jewish population have 60-80% European origin by mitochondrial (matrilineal) DNA.

The Jews mostly didn’t leave Palestine. They mostly converted to other religions.

The “Palestinian Arab” idea is pseudoscience in furtherance of genocide. It’s to deny the indigenous nature of the Palestinians. The arabicization of Palestine was mostly a matter of cultural exchange, much less than genetics. The Palestinians have been there for almost 5,000 years, and the Ashkenazi and Sephardic, etc, groups share some common ancestry with them.

The indigenous Hebrews (one of groups tribes who lived in the region) mostly converted to Christianity and Romanized by the 4th century then after the Arab conquest in the 7th century they largely converted to Islam. The local population was never removed or expelled. They simply changed their cultural practices over 2000 years, included by their neighbors, just like everywhere else did.

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 24 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

What's funny is these zionists/conservatives say stuff like:

"Oh they're turned arab like 1000 years ago, therefore we should genocide them"

Using this standard, Germans have every right to genocide Hungarians out from Europe, considering they invaded 1000 years ago too. But they won't because Hungarians now look european and are Catholic.

[–] frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 55 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I love how this ladder-pulling liberal cop-queer thinks there's any solidarity to be found between assimilationist sellouts and those who know better. Nah, if you're gonna eagerly goosestep right next to the rest of the coastal nazis, you are no longer someone I consider worth extending solidarity to. I would sooner watch the country fall-- would sooner die in that fall-- than be counted on the same side as the genociders. Death to the settler, death to its empire.

Leave it to blahaj.zone to have the most spineless, most wretched, most fucking milquetoast assimilationist take possible. Anything to keep the treats flowing for them. Their man ain't done shit for me; in fact, he still owes me 2 grand, locked up a couple of my cousins on RICO charges, and still hasn't closed the concentration camps or divested the country from prison chattel slavery. That cracker (and everyone who stumps for him) is my enemy.

[–] Dessa@hexbear.net 21 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Trump has done more for working class people just by stumbling into covid stimulus and pursuing his need for adortion. They need to realize that a lot of Trump voters see him as the lesser of two evils.

[–] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 46 points 7 months ago

there isn't even an electoralist logic to supporting biden now. the administration is sacrificing a major piece of the coalition that forms the DNC's support bloc. trying to bully those people [and anyone who understands political projects] back into line is twisting the knife in an already critical wound. even party reformers should be vocally withholding support for biden. the lesson would be for leadership to understand that there is no segment of the coalition that can be sacrificed without losing the election. that they have found the floor of "giving a fuck" and they can't go any lower.

of course, i think the notion that the democrats do not mind being out of power, as they are primarily a perennial fundraising and campaigning/consulting/advertising organization and major client for highly concentrated media conglomerates, is a tough pill many americans are unwilling to swallow.

[–] lapis@hexbear.net 45 points 7 months ago

as a trans lesbian, I am terrified of another Trump presidency.

that said, I am sick and tired of people like me being used as mere rhetorical pawns by liberals. if democrats cared about trans and queer people locally, if they cared about people of color locally, if they cared about women locally, you know what they would have fucking done? run a viable candidate. stopped supporting Israel's genocide of Palestinians. codified bodily autonomy and freedom of sexuality and gender identity into law. and they have done exactly zero of those things.

I'm tired of pretending democrats are the lesser of two evils. they're not less evil. they're just marginally less forthcoming about their evil, which is honestly worse in a lot of ways. at least Trump says he wants trans people eradicated, meanwhile Biden will make some mushy statement about the Trans Day of Visibility while doing jack shit to protect the rights of trans people in, what, half the country now? over half?

[–] Angel@hexbear.net 42 points 7 months ago (1 children)

100% aligns with my desires

A politician in line with 100% of all my desires? That would be ideal but impractical, so maybe not, but I'm100% opposed to genocide, and I refuse to vote for someone who is even only 99% opposed to genocide. I don't think being 100% opposed to genocide is too high of standard, right? If it is, the Democratic Party needs extreme reevaluation more now than ever.

[–] Smeagolicious@hexbear.net 30 points 7 months ago

Before he showed his whole ass with the ongoing genocide I could've held my nose and voted for Bernie who was clearly already a socdem at best. Nowhere near 100% purity, just like, the bare minimum c'mon

[–] Owl@hexbear.net 38 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What value is my vote supposed to have if a candidate can get it regardless of what they do?

[–] Ram_The_Manparts@hexbear.net 10 points 7 months ago

Their answer to this is "if you vote for him you can push him left" but none of them can explain how that's supposed to work, as it's just obvious nonsense.

They're just running on auto pilot at this point, mindlessly repeating meaningless soundbytes.

[–] happybadger@hexbear.net 37 points 7 months ago

One of those comments that's so stupid that they should legally be required to choke themselves while writing it. Not in a fun way, but like the boot camp scene from Full Metal Jacket.

[–] kristina@hexbear.net 35 points 7 months ago

im literally trans and ive been hatecrimed before.

average liberal: woaw so privileged

[–] anonochronomus@hexbear.net 32 points 7 months ago
[–] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 31 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I should get to vote for a candidate that 100% aligns with my desires.

I'm not American, but if I was I'd hope to get a candidate that aligns with at least some of my desires. So far Biden has done nothing to further leftist causes, nor has he protected people from the right-wings draconian policies. Not to mentioned he has funded genocide, war and imperialism. The dude might as well be a Republican.

Real good look for your so called democracy when you're expected to vote for a candidate you don't want.

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[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 30 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

What I love is that with each passing year, Biden has justified my decision not to vote for him. If you wanted my vote back you would have earned it. I was done with the Democratic party after the fuckery that they allowed and rewarded in Iowa. Illegitimate party, illegitimate candidate. If he wanted my vote then he'd better do something I actually like.

[–] BeanBoy@hexbear.net 28 points 7 months ago

I’m trying to think of things Dems have done at the federal level for anything listed there and all I can think of ranges from “actively against me” to “doing nothing at all”

[–] marx_mentat@hexbear.net 25 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Everyone in Trump's orbit is dumb as shit and incompetent. There's a very valid argument for Trump potentially being the lesser evil in some ways.

[–] Moss@hexbear.net 24 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Liberal voting strategy comes down to "vote for us or we will let fascists kill you"

[–] frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 7 months ago

Liberals would rather look for pearls to clutch about fascists(and then eagerly slob on their boots) rather than rounds to put in them, and this past couple cycles, it shows

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[–] iie@hexbear.net 22 points 7 months ago

How is lesser-evilism working out for you so far?

[–] ProfessorAdonisCnut@hexbear.net 18 points 7 months ago

The only way to achieve left wing objectives is for both parties to move right at all times and under all circumstances

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 16 points 7 months ago

Step 1: Vote for the lesser evil so things only get moderately more shitty every day instead of way more shitty every day

Step 1.5: Shut down any alternative to voting for the great shitstain or the greater shitstain. It's one or the other, bucko.

Step 2: Keep voting for the lesser evil for the rest of your life

Step 2.5: Shut down any consideration that a country that forces you to vote for either a great shitstain or a greater shitstain requires fundamental change that cannot and will not come from a ballot box. Shut down any thought that voting for either the great shitstain or the greater shitstain will further cement both their powers so the pipe dream of "change via ballot box" slips further and further away every passing moment.

Step 3: Hope things will get better

Step 3.5: Distract yourself with treats and/or being smug and condescending to those who have not/will not follow steps 1 through to 3 for being privileged

Step 4: Things don't get better, cope because things could have been worse if you didn't valiantly defend the great shitstain to the bitter end.

Step 5: Die miserably under fascism lite, content you didn't die even more miserably under full strength fascism. Don't spend a single moment considering how things might be different.

Ah, the American dream.

[–] LaBellaLotta@hexbear.net 16 points 7 months ago

Yeah it’s really glaring at this point how absolutely hollow and depraved the arguments sound no matter how you present them

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Do they not realize that they're the ones taking risks? There's a growing progressive base and you're alienating them even if it risks costing you an election.

[–] Coca_Cola_but_Commie@hexbear.net 11 points 7 months ago

Libs love to pretend that if you just vote blue enough that the valiant democrats will do another New Deal, or realize the Great Society, or build an American Nordic model, or do anything good.

Even from a left lib position, even if you for some reason believe that Biden actually cares about LGBT people, or trade unions, or making a robust and safe immigration system, or reproductive rights, etc. what has Biden actually done to make the case for himself as the lesser of two evils? As far as I know basically the only accomplishments of the Biden admin are the infrastructure package and taking credit for the economy.

I guess a left lib would probably agree with those, but obviously money for infrastructure in this country is more like a government handout for deeply corrupt construction companies. And I would personally advise libs to stop trying to take credit for Biden fixing the economy. Just because the line goes up doesn't mean the economy is good. Or if it does then whether the economy is good or not doesn't matter to the lives of normal working people because the cost of everything is absolutely fucked. And sure, maybe Biden can't wave his presidential hand and fix that, but he shouldn't take credit for it.

[–] Adkml@hexbear.net 6 points 7 months ago

They love to tell on themselves with the "somebody who doesn't 100% allign with my values"

I have literally never once heard somebody say "I agree with them on the fundamental issues but won't be voting for them because of this one issue"

We're not mad you're trying tonget us for somebody we agree with on 90% of stuff but he just has a blind spot on genocide, you're trying to get us to vote for somebody we agree with on 1% of things and actively tells us won't do anything to increase that percent.

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