Language and words have great power. Walking around attaching the word genocide to a man who has at worse not done enough in a very complex situation will cause great harm to the electorate. You may be propping up the uncommitted vote, but not everyone will understand that, many may just see the genocide and not vote for Biden ever or worse vote for the orange idiot.

Meanwhile you have politicians who will kill Americans with their policies. And you have a potential future president who would put boots on the ground in Gaza and do just about whatever they could to see Ukraine returned to Russia.

Words have power. A simple phrase will stick more than the meaning behind it. There is a reason crooked Hilary worked so well, and no one can tell you why she might be crooked beyond her emails and Benghazi. Even then they only know those words, they don't know the meaning behind them. We need all of the votes we can get in November.

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 13 points 8 months ago (18 children)

i mean i guess?

counterpoint: “sleepy joe” was around long before the 2019 general election and the dude still got into office. and that was a powerful phrase too.

i’m not down with what your argument boils down to, that we shouldn’t criticize politicians because it risks elections. this is a GENOCIDE happening. it’s not like this name came up for funsies. america has long been in the business of funding attrocities, and i have no shame in calling on Biden to change that.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 20 points 8 months ago (17 children)

The difficulty, in this particular case, is that the alternative is a President who will even more aggressively support Israel's genocide.

Like, I get it. The idea of voting for a party and a president that are actively supporting genocide feels morally reprehensible.

But the alternative will, without question, be so much worse. At least the Democrats can, to some degree, be pressured on this issue. Trump will take the opportunity to murder Brown people and gleefully run with it to the ends of the earth, and along the way he'll burn down what's left of American democracy just for good measure.

This is, quite literally, the trolley problem. You either have to be actively complicit in some amount of horror, or a passive bystander to an even greater atrocity, placating yourself with the knowledge that while more people have died as a direct result of your choices, at least it wasn't your hand on the trigger.

There is no good option here, and there is no morally clean option here. It's awful, it fucking sucks, it's not a choice anyone should ever be forced to make. But for every American, it's the choice in front of them now.

[–] SantaClaus@lemm.ee 8 points 8 months ago

I really love the trolley car problem analogy here. So fitting!

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