this post was submitted on 01 May 2024
1037 points (95.4% liked)
Political Memes
5432 readers
3429 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'll vote if you do more than just vote.
Get hooked up with Election Science to switch your elections to approval. Pick-all-you-like voting really helps make people feel like they actually got to voice their opinion at the ballot box.
I have friends who are into this kind of electoral work. It would be an improvement.
You have no right to hold this over people's heads, and even implying a tit for tat arrangement is suggesting that anyone who doesn't "do more than just vote" isn't doing their part. Some of us have demanding jobs, kids, family that requires care, or other demands that do not allow time for political activity beyond voting which has already been made extremely difficult in some areas.
In short: get fucked. Go vote. Don't try to create some kind of one-upsmanship game that predicates your civic responsibility on someone else's volunteered time.
This is extremely hostile. I was being cheeky. I want people to get more involved as much as other people want me to vote, that's the point I'm trying to make. I'll vote, and I don't need you to try and scare me or shame me about it. Maybe ask yourself why this makes you so upset that you have to swear at a stranger over it. Seems like there's something else going on that deserves your attention more than my dumb comment
It's intended to be hostile. Maybe you were "being cheeky" (I doubt it) but it doesn't read that way in a text format and a lot of people making those same statements are not. What makes me so upset about this situation is people like yourself not taking it seriously. We are, without hyperbole, looking at an honest to God threat to democracy and you are making if/then statements about your willingness to vote. Trying to shame people into being more politically active is the wrong way to do it.
I am tired of people treating this like it's a game, and I am tired of people being flippant about voting for the lesser of two evils.
What makes you think being intentionally hostile toward someone would persuade them to vote? Wouldn't it make more sense to try and educate? I said I was being cheeky, but even now you can't resist calling me a liar. I really wish you wouldn't, you know, I'm pretty easy to get along with, I tolerate other peoples opinions even when they disagree with me. I vote and I do much more than that.
If anyone is trying to shame, it is this group who descended on me within a 5 minute period with a flurry of down votes and open hostility. I'm genuinely sorry you're upset about the state of the world, I'm upset too. so why should we try to upset each other more? It doesn't make sense.
FYI that isn't me down voting you. I don't use down votes.
You have no right to hold this over people’s heads, and even implying that someone who does “more than just vote” isn’t doing their part. Some of us have demanding jobs, kids, family that requires care, or other demands that do not allow time for voting instead of attending the occasional local better-timed rally which has already been made extremely difficult in some areas.
In short: get fucked. Go do activism. Don’t try to create some kind of one-upsmanship game that predicates your civic responsibility on someone else’s volunteered time.
Nice of you to assume people who vote don't do anything else to improve things.
How will you look back on whatever you're doing right now if you, and people like you, don't vote and lead to Trump winning? All that work for nothing because you refused to do the one thing that could help everything else you're trying to do.
I didn't say that, where did I say anything like that? Why are you trying to villainize me? I want other people to get involve as badly as you want me to vote, is the point I'm trying to make. Save your shame and fear. Try talking to me like a person and not, I don't know, whatever demon you're trying to make me out to be
That's exactly what you said
"I'll vote if you do more than just vote."
You're implying that you know they don't do more than vote and that implies you assume the same thing of anyone that votes.
That's an incredibly dim interpretation. I just don't like being constantly lectured to about voting. It is completely valid to criticize this crappy system and yeah I think its okay to suggest that people do a little more than just vote every 2-4 years.
It seems like people aren't getting as upset at the idea that I might not vote, as they are at the suggestion that there is some alternative to it, that democracy can be more than voting for one of two deeply corrupt candidates who uphold a deeply corrupt system. I will vote, because its easy.
Yes, actually, everyone urging for pragmatism at the polls should be willing to take steps other than just voting.
What do you suggest? I'm for this. What are good steps? I want to get from where we are to a voting system that allows me to choose a different candidate without wasting my ballot.
Well, for example, a friend of mine is a big proponent of star voting. He joined DSA, which is an org I'm a member of and how we met, promoted it within the chapter and started holding meetings that actually attract a lot of people inside and outside the group. He networks with other activists around the country who have been successful in implementing voting reforms in their state and municipalities, and Now he is trying to build his own local campaign around Star voting. Its slow, steady political work and it is necessary. Build campaigns and get in front of people, do politics. Not everyone is gonna side with you but if it is a good idea, enough people will.
And in the temporary absence or inability to do that, educating yourself and others is vitally important work. But groups like DSA, WFP, and various local progressive campaigns have a low barrier to entry and participation. People learn so much so quickly when we get involved. Its not always easy, and for example, I don't really even enjoy politics all that much, not like some people who seem to love to debate and get a charge out of doing political work. But I've met amazing people and learned so much and orgs are desperate for volunteers. My primary focus is movement building and education, and also I seem to have a knack for building bridges. So if that electoral voting work is what interests you, just go for it, reach out to people and most importantly be patient!
Doubt.
Doubt what? That I'll vote? Why do you doubt it?
I just want people to be more politically active so that they learn from experience. For some reason certain people get angry when I do, even if I do it nicely, even if I say please
That you'll execute on that specific conditional.
Its not conditional, I just want people to be politically active just as much as people want me to vote.
So my doubts have been confirmed. Glad you fell on the side of voting anyways.
If you think I'm being ridiculous, I could flip through my history and find a dozen folks who would unironically holdfast to the letter of your original comment.
What do you mean your doubts have been confirmed?
Look at the other comments on this thread, the incredible hostility my innocuous comment got. So that road goes both ways. If I reacted to the way I got jumped on here, I'd probably set up camp in the not-voting bloc too.
So is your vote contingent on whether people in this thread demonstrate that they have/will "do more than just vote"? If they don't, will you abstain from voting?
I guess I'm unclear.
Yeah apparently people took it that way. I was being cheeky. I'm politically active, not as much as some but i volunteer when i can, I vote in elections but I also help out with campaigns. I guess I thought that it would be interpreted as "be politically active beyond voting" but people seemed to take it as "I'm not gonna vote."
I literally didn't expect to get this much, um, attention. It was just a throwaway comment that I wrote semi annoyed at this meme. I think people are frustrated with the system and instead of engaging with that there seems to be an overwhelming urge to make sure they do the thing that keeps the same people in power.. On the other hand it seems like people who are passionate about voting feel attacked by the no-vote crowd. Its getting nowhere.
The Uncommitted campaign was really successful and sent a clear message to national leadership. But I don't think they understand the message, or maybe they don't want to. But maybe we can learn a lesson from it, that there are a lot of people who want an alternative. Idk like I said it was just a throwaway comment.
Like I said, there is an alarming number of people on Lemmy who would say what you're saying without being cheeky at all.
I'm glad to know you are -- but that's why you're getting the reaction you're getting.
If that kind/amount of reaction is alarming, it should be, right? We shouldn't have to be that on guard.
There's a serious problem with discourse. Also I came from a server notorious for that kind of behavior, or at least those opinions, but I got banned as a "reactionary" for defending someone who I do political work with that is a Trotskyist. People were bending over backwards to jump all over me, call me names, misinterpret what I was saying -- kind of like people were doing here a little while ago. From my perspective I don't see a big difference between the people who try to bully you into not voting, and the people who try to bully me into voting. I seem to get bullied either way.
I have a lot of different heated discussions about politics all the time in my organizing so maybe I just have a thicker skin. I'm still not really used to it. But perhaps you're right I should use more care, but I also think I should be able to voice a harmless opinion and not get shunted into one of two camps. We see this "campism" a lot now, more than ever before. I believe that I can work with progressive liberals, who make up the majority of Lemmy servers, as well as other tendencies of leftists because I think we all basically have the same enemies. But instead we just make enemies of each other? It works a little too well for the benefit of the wrong people.
< someone who thinks going to grammable rallies and left signaling online counts as "more than voting"
Going to rallies is good, but I'm actually extremely skeptical of online "activism". I actually don't have a benchmark for what " counts as more," but I want people to have actual experience doing political work, which looks different for everyone. I find the most value in the discussions that come from regular working people, educating themselves and each other.
Why do you want me to be a hypocrite? Do you actually believe that nothing exists beyond the bare minimum? But I remember feeling this deep dark cynicism about politics at certain times in my life too. So hopefully you are on a road that leads you away from cynical otherizing and you discover the communities of volunteers that hopefully exist very close to you, so you are able to have some of these experiences.
At which point you might look back on these moments of cynicism with disappointment, as I look back on my mine. Its okay though, the system is supposed to instill these feelings of frustration and alienation into people, so it isn't really your fault. But in order to build a movement we need people doing work they are passionate about and I hope you find work like that and join soon.
It's more than nothing at all. Are you suggesting we should just vote and otherwise lay down and wait for fascism to descend upon us?
I'm saying that if you mother fuckers didn't have to be dragged kicking and screaming to fill a piece of paper out every four years, we'd have never gotten this far with.
Forget Hillary, Bernie could have won the primary if y'all spent the energy on voting that y'all bring to whining endlessly about how your privilege blinds you to how much it changes for people who need it the most.