TheFriar

Yeah, the people I know and spoke to all just said “I didn’t even vote, I couldn’t stomach it.” And the people who didn’t vote because they were put off by the choices don’t really get reliably surveyed—if anything we might find out a small sample size’s opinions months down the road, but more leftist circles are so disillusioned from being asked to plug their ears, hold their nose and vote for neoliberalism with a heavy splash of neocon garnish thrown in that they don’t engage. We can’t keep ignoring that segment of people. Some of them went to vote third party, but when you’re talking about a 4% difference, a lot desperately needs to be said of anyone left of Bernie madoff being written off as “extreme left.”

I mean, this is true, but in most states you have the option to vote early, vote by mail. We can’t ignore the middle part of your statement: capitalism is getting more and more hostile and no one is offering us a solution. Just giving us differently colored badges to pin to our lapel while telling us the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Give us someone who is actually speaking to us and our needs and we’d have turnout like they wouldn’t believe. But both parties actively suppress anyone trying to do so. Which has been on display my entire life, but has definitely come into much sharper focus in the past 12 years.

You can’t honestly think this is true. People didn’t switch—at least not any significant percentage. I think it was a 1% swing. People stayed home.

The democrats don’t own the votes of people. They swung for the neocons. Leaving the people who’d been arrested for sitting in their schools for not liking a fuckin genocide to sacrifice their values. Again. It’s always on those of us that want better to sacrifice our values to keep the wolves from the door. While the Democratic Party opens the back door for them when they hold the keys anyway.

They are doing the same thing over and over, shutting out even a middle of the road progressive like sanders. And then they expect to hold onto voters who want real change? They can’t promise more and more of the same and then expect people to get excited. This is 100% on them.

Say you get two choices.

One is to poison a town’s water supply without telling them.

The other is poison that towns water supply, not tell them, and then pick off survivors as they flee from the town.

Can you stomach voting for poisoning a town’s water supply if you’re firmly against poisoning people, just because anyone fleeing the town would be able to leave if they managed to survive? That’s the choice we were being asked to make. I get that it’s definitely worse to shoot the survivors, but in the end…either way your vote was to poison people. Some people have strong feelings about it. So strong they couldn’t stomach being the ones to sign on to it.

We all know it’s worse adding the slaughter of the fleeing survivors…but signing your name to the poisoning is unthinkable for a lot of people. It kinda should be unthinkable for all of us.

And you’re just saying “well, all you people are racist!”

See how silly that is?

Nuance, man.

Yeah, that’s definitely not what that meant.

Because, like I said, it suddenly became “the most important issue” and she was courting the “centrist swing voter” that doesn’t exist anymore. And we all saw, republicans voted almost exactly the same way they did in 2020, but a bunch of dems stayed home. She sold out anyone left of Bush Jr. and then surprise pikachu’d when no one fuckin voted for her.

I was just pointing out that you said they did Bernie dirty in 2016 and then said in 2020 Biden knew he could beat Bernie on name rec alone. I was just clarifying what I think was the bigger betrayal.

This attitude is generally insane.

“I don’t hate racists, I hate people who hate genocide so much they can’t stomach voting for it.”

Look, I voted for Harris, but it wasn’t easy. Because that blood is on this administrations hands. The party is moving further and further away from my ideals every election. Because they keep moving right. On immigration, tax breaks, health care, foreign policy. She was courting the fuckin neocons!!!

I understand how frustrating it is, because you’re right—not allowing trump to win is better than allowing him. But it’s not so straightforward when your vote is support for something you can’t stomach. Can you understand how that is difficult for people? I sure can. But I also understand how many people stand to get hurt under an authoritarian regime, so i sacrificed my morals again to do what I can to somewhat stem the bleeding.

But that’s not an easy decision to make. Much harder than, say, blaming the racists for racism, and not the people who are anti-racist.

I mean, people…this comment is true. Yes, “every vote counts” in that the more people that show up, the higher the vote count is. But one vote will not sway the election. It will irreversibly harm the climate though. If every single person had this attitude, the story wouldn’t be news, but if this were everyone’s attitude, it would make a difference. I don’t remember the philosopher that theorized the whole “act in a way that you would want made into law for everyone to act in that same way” thing—but what’s worse, everyone expending tonnes of co2 as law or one vote going uncounted?

No, you’re still not getting it. And I wasn’t the original person you were arguing with. I voted for Harris, but there is so much nuance involved in the decision that writing it all off as racism is beyond stupid and helps no one but you—the same way the “I won’t vote for Harris because it’s a vote for ____” people were only doing it for themselves. Basically, it’s a glass house and stones situation. You’re both guilty of the same thing.

Translation: “I’m not listening or even willing to pretend to engage in nuance! Which means YOURE RACIST!”

Everyone says they did Bernie dirty in 2016, but no one ever brings up how in 2020, the establishment dems all dropped out of the race in exchange for cabinet positions to rally around the elder statesman Biden—when Bernie was winning the primaries.

That, in my opinion, is far dirtier and a much bigger “fuck you” to leftists/progressives/humanists than 2016.