this post was submitted on 18 May 2024
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The main thing I draw issue with is the fact many states are not swing states. If I live in Alabama, what are the odds that biden wins that state?
Tell me, if I live in alabama, will my vote for biden influence the election at all? Or will it come down to voters in michigan or florida or some other swing state.
I do understand the meme, but I also understand that swing states decide the election. Your impact of your vote is determined by your location.
Before I respond, I just need to repeat back to you the argument you've made here. Upon reading it, if you really want to continue, let me know and I'll give you a full response:
"I take issue with the point communicated by this 4-panel comic strip, because some people live in Alabama"
I mean, that’s one way to read the argument, but it isn’t the one I was making. It seems like you are misrepresenting me intentionally.
As you should probably know, votes for the president are not done by people in their states. They are done by electors in the electoral college.
These electors, as per tradition, vote for the victor in their state’s election on the president.
If I live in a deep red state like Alabama, the majority is already voting for Trump. If I want to change that, I won’t be doing that by voting or shitposting on lemmy, I’d have to tireless campaign for a president I don’t like.
You brought up florida in a previous comment, specifically the election with bush. I’m sure you know that florida is a swing state, and therefore is going to be down to the wire on some elections, right?
Alabama is just an example. I don’t live in Alabama, but my state has barely swapped colors in the past, and certainly wont any time soon. Same with New York, or Montana, or Mississippi, or Texas, or many others.
So, to rephrase what I said in the 2nd paragraph more focused language, will my vote matter if I live in a deep red/blue state? Or will the election come down to swing states?
Edit: i’ve reread what you said and jesus fucking bad faith argument batman. You literally ignored half of what I said to smugly say not everyone lives in the one example state I used
Edit: I've pared down my original comment here because after reading it, it came off way too harsh. Hopefully nobody read it.
The meme is intended to convey that withholding a Biden vote could result in a trump victory, and that "teaching Biden a lesson" at the cost of "having a fascist state" is a bad trade.
Your issue is that, it is possible that some peoples votes don't matter at all based on their zip code.
I don't know how else to put this: you aren't refuting the central thesis. You're on a tangent that AT BEST concludes with "well, this doesn't apply to EVERYONE... But it still definitely applies to SOME"
It's not that people's votes possibly don't matter because of their zip code. It's that peoples votes don't matter because of their zip code. There's a lot of bullshit going on with voter suppression, shittily written constitutions, and how representatives are calculated, but the electoral college itself is what decides the election, not the popular vote. And with the electoral college, your location is determinate of how much your vote matters in the election.
The thing is, that does refute the thesis.
If the thesis is "You withheld the one vote that would have prevented fascism", was true, we would either be using a popular vote system for president, which we literally don't, or the person would have to be in a singular swing state that decides the election. This means that the thesis is only true for those who live in swing states, due to the presence of the electoral college.
I googled the current swing states, and I got Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and New Mexico. The current population of the US is somewhere above 330 million, and the population of the swing states listed is, according to my napkin math, 55 million. I'm assuming the population of voters proportionally is roughly equivalent state to state.
That being said, this means there's roughly 1/6th of Americans whose votes would be representative of this meme.
To call the experience of 5/6ths of Americans tangential is a little silly.
The irony is palpable that you're describing voter suppression as a factor, while literally actively participating in it. Using social media to convince people that their votes aren't important is quite literally an act of voter suppression. Trying to convince people that withholding their vote could not impact outcome, is voter suppression.
You are literally no different than a robocall telling people that the polling stations have closed early. You are a bad faith actor. For anyone who didn't actually read the Muler report and were unsure about what "Russian interference" actually looked like, it's this. It's exactly this.
I never said anything about not voting. I'll be up front that I'm not electoralist (I'm an anarchist) but I also don't care about whether or not people vote or not (I'm an anarchist) because I'd rather be focusing on creating systems that will protect people from fascism (because I'm an anarchist). Fuck, I even vote in my town elections and elections for state representatives because there are genuine fascists running where I live, and in that case it's popular vote. Diversity of tactics and all. But if you think that voting is sufficient to stop fascism though, I have a history book and a bridge to sell ya. And that's why instead of advocating for non-voting, I advocate for activism, direct action, and just fucking fighting fascism where you see it.
The thing is, you are misconstruing what I'm saying. If calling out the fact that someone is saying that voting alone will prevent fascism using a shitty inaccurate meme is convincing people to not vote, then it is impossible to discuss the fact that the electoral college is antidemocratic. If calling out flaws in the system that makes voting unequal is voter suppression, then I don't know how anyone can address the problems in the system.
It's like you think I'm some lemmy.ml tankie or something, a strawman whose views you despise. Instead of engaging with what I said, you swapped over to insults and name calling.
And then you say I'VE constructed a strawman?