#i do not want to vote for biden but i feel i got no choice sigh | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fromorigintofinality · 1 month

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i dont post on here a ton but i gotta say the growing attitude on tumblr that voting in the US is somehow useless is really concerning.

just recently i saw this post that was basically making fun of people saying that voting was the way to change the system, and that's just.. wrong? like seriously, how do you think roe v. wade got overturned? its because despite everything, republicans are smart voters and now how to play the long game.

but leftists as of late have lost that quality i feel. instead of advocating for people to vote, they advocate for some "revolution" they think will solve everything. among the people in the post mentioned earlier being glorified as revolutionaries were mao zedong and stalin, and when asked why the poster was glorifying these horrific figures, they said, "yes. Mao freed my family and stalin defeated the fascists. Get with the program sugar"

do you notice anything about that? do you notice how it sounds like the way a child describes the world? "stalin defeated the fascists" like he's some hero who defeated the evil horde of thieves? the way things like the red guard, struggle sessions, all of that, are completely ignored on the side of Mao? how this person, despite having a trans flag in their pfp, is ignoring how the utterly homophobic state of the Chinese government at present is the fault of Mao? how they ignore horrific things such as the Gulag on side of Stalin? this person cannot think, and the only way they believe that the world can move forward is a revolution, and revolution's don't work when the people advocating for them do nothing.

maybe one could argue that this was just a one off type of thing, and that all of the thousands of people liking and reblogging this post are just weirdos. but whether or not thats true, this growing sentiment of praying to a revolution that will never come is indeed growing. and its not just like these people stay in their lane, they actively encourage and probably will cause people to not vote.

so i want to remind everybody. elections are not a moral choice. joe biden is complicit and actively funding a genocide, but not voting for him, third party or not (if you still think third parties are viable please look into the history behind them), will make it more likely that trump will win, and that things in palestine and other things that joe biden has failed in will get 1000x worse. candidates in elections are a bus stop to the real goal, and treating them as such is smart voting, republicans proved this with the overturning of roe v. wade.

please do not be selfish. this last bit may seem out of nowhere, but i need to say this. this type of thinking is selfish. it is selfish and almost impossible to detect as such for the people who believe in it. if you are the type of person who believes in this style of thinking, you have created a completely arbitrary moral code, and care more about your conscience than real political change. you believe yourself to have completely good morals that are universally good, and for the consequences of following these morals, you don't consider the real change that will occur, just your conscience and peace of mind. as for what happens because of that moral code, you will always find a way around looking inwards to how you contributed.

this election season may be the most important yet, please learn to take the practical route instead of the "pure" route.

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sarenth · 2 months

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Reflecting on some of the posts that I have made and seen in the last couple of weeks, both here on Tumblr and on TikTok, I am increasingly suspicious of anybody that insists that voting is a useless or misdirected effort of energy. Not only have I seen innumerable cases in my state where this is simply not the case, entire sections of the federal government are effectively locked into right-wing positions because Trump won his election. He has entire sections of the appeals system and federal government more broadly aligned with him precisely because of how many nominations he's successfully put forward. Now, this does not mean that Biden or even the Democratic party more generally is going to ride to the rescue, however it speaks to the power that voting results wield.

Not voting is not an effective protest. All you are doing by not voting is saying hey someone else make this decision for me. By not voting you are not actually saying to the system "Hey I'm protesting against you!" At that point you have given the government system cart blanche to fucking ignore you.

I don't know who told you that not voting was anything other than giving up what little power you have to influence your government and therefore how your tax money and society operates on an everyday level. They lied to you. After a certain point there's no nice way to put this.

If you choose not to vote, that is a choice. I view it as an incredibly poor one. I also look at voting third party outside of elections where you know the candidate has no honest to the Gods shot to be a waste of time. You can vote however you want. If you want your vote to be effective then you're going to have to play with the system we've got until we can make a better one. These things take time. If we are being realistic, it is likely more than a few election cycles.

Another thing I have found intensely distasteful this entire election cycle has been from some leftists to sneer at harm reduction, as though opposing Republicans with Democratic candidates is just caving to fascism. Democrats and my State backed up unions and secured a woman's right to choose and secured bodily autonomy not only for women but forLGBTQIA+ folks. Republicans have fought against that.

"Oh but Manchin-" "Oh, but Sinema-"

Are not the whole of the Democratic Party. They were conservative holdouts in a largely center to center right coalition party whose younger constituents are far more left that the old guard. They fucked up some excellent legislation (or at least excellent opportunities) to put us in far better positions through helping to kill the Democrats' Build Back Better Plan and similar legislation.

Trying to punish the Democrats retroactively for not pushing Roe v Wade into law or not fulfilling all their campaign promises, by withholding your vote come the elections is short sighted, retrograde, and ultimately, harmful. It hands power to the Republicans without a fight, and allows them to set the boards for zoning, schools, city council, and so much more. It actively shoots your fellow citizens in the foot so you can feel moral superiority.

It reminds me of folks saying "Well I'm not filing because I am not gonna pay my taxes!" Unless your income is entirely under the table or illegal, or you intentionally changed your contributions, chances are that you were paying taxes this entire time and the only thing you're doing by not filing is potentially fucking yourself.

I get being angry, desperate, and despairing at the state of things, whether the political system, the world more broadly, or whatever issue you hold most dear to your heart. I'm not saying don't be angry, sad, depressed, or raging. I'm saying use it well. If you cannot summon up the give-a-shit on your own case, do it for those around you. Every bit we can do helps, and voting can make a lot of difference in our neighborhoods, and from there, the greater world.

Whether you are reading the missives from various pulpits or you're looking at project 2025, Christofascism is here. Folks have been warning about this for quite a long time, and it is here and it is in full swing. We cannot afford for the Republicans to take over. Heathens, Pagans, magical folks, none of us can afford a Republican victory at this point. Republicans have shown a deep willingness to use the apparatus of the state to harm queer and non-Christian people. They have shown a disdain for the separation of church and state. If you are on the right in this country you should be concerned if you're in any marginalized group. You will not be spared because you're "one of the good ones ".

Did you not see how they treated the Log Cabin Republicans? Did you not see that? Voting red will not save you, it will not make you more palatable. If the Republicans take power and get what they really want through their Christofascism and Project 2025, it does not matter how long you've been a Republican; if you are queer or Pagan you may as well not exist.

Believe me, I am not for a moment stating that Democrats are our saviors. They are a coalition center right political party that we can influence through our lobbying and votes. We can influence them through a variety of other means, including direct action is some have done. Some of you have failed to notice that your direct actions actually were useful! Kamala Harris came right out and said that they were pushing for a ceasefire, after so long of just leaving it off the table entirely. It is not that the narrative cannot be pushed, it is not that we cannot be heard, but you all need to recognize when you are heard and act accordingly without moving the fucking goal posts.

You demanded the administration work on a ceasefire and now they are. That is a victory! However, the Democrats cannot make the Israeli government and the Palestinian government come to a ceasefire. There is also only so much that we can do given the treaties and the alliances that we have. Yes, I know that America has a history of breaking it's treaties and why couldn't we just break this one? Well, because we're just not going to because it's been policy for almost the last 80 years. I just fervently wish the left more generally understood the political process better than it does and realize that we are doing quite a lot to move things along from where they could have been.

If you think for a second that Trump presidency would be better on any of these things you're wrong. That there are some leftists want to sink this project of American democracy simply because they didn't get what they want reminds me a lot of screaming fucking children who want a toy and are going to scream and shout when they don't get it. There's a sincere lack of understanding of the political process that I am seeing right now, especially given what I saw during the primary elections, and is sincere lack of understanding the political process with regards to our position with Israel. Again, I am not saying for a fucking moment don't be angry and don't do everything that you can't tell lobby for the Palestinian people. Engage in whatever diversity of tactics appeals the most to you. Part of having a diversity of tactics is including voting and on the ground diplomatic work. It isn't fun, it isn't sexy, but it's absolutely necessary in the meantime to get us to a place where we can be more effective. I would rather be more effective than being morally pure. I would rather be more effective and do what is possible than see everything around me fucking burn because it isn't just right.

I really do not hold with deontology. As a heathen my ethics are more centered in consequentialism. I care about how the tapestry looks after it's been woven, more than I care about how it has been woven. I will take an imperfect way of getting to the end of a tapestry then the tapestry never getting finished or being finished poor due to constantly unraveling it. There is no way that burning everything down is going to be helpful or effective for most folks. In any case, burning everything down with nothing to replace it leaves folks like me who rely on regular medications like insulin completely fucked. To be sure, the system fucks me and those in my position. It fucks the poor, the disabled, the marginalized. However, not having anything to replace it and just burning everything down, having no complex systems in place to slot into place will do immense, untold amounts of damage. Reforms are not sexy, and but they are how we can continue to live while we do the work needed to make things more equitable, more fair, more just.

I want change. We need to change as a society to become more just, equitable, fair, and to survive in the face of the challenges that we are facing. However, stepping away from the system as a whole, as though you're not going to be wrapped up in it as things go forward, that, to me, is giving up. It's not revolutionary. I would far rather see leftists and left-leaning Heathens and Pagans to flex their vote and their activism locally, to make the changes on the ground that we can where we live, how we live, with the Ginnreginn we live alongside.

#polytheism #animism #polytheist #animist #heathen #politics #us #us politics

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plethoraworldatlas · 2 months

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This Super Tuesday massive numbers of Democratic primary voters provided a kernel of hope in a dark time by choosing uncommitted, or non-committed, or no preference in states across the country. Yesterday in North Carolina over 80,000 voters chose uncommitted. In Minnesota, over 18% of the Democratic primary chose not to commit to Biden. Massachusetts saw over 50,000 uncommitted votes. In each state, there was little to no uncommitted movement prior to the February 27th Michigan primary, which saw over 100,000 voters selecting uncommitted. These campaigns brought together broad coalitions and got massive results in just one week, after a well organized campaign in Michigan sprung into action and shocked the country after just a three-week push.

And the message of these inspiring uncommitted voters, both in interviews and in messaging from the organizers, has been clear. Biden has lost our confidence after backing a genocide. He must do more. He must take action like cutting off the flow of weapons and bombs to Israel. He must stop funding Israel. He must use his very considerable power to push Israel to end the genocide in Gaza. This has been made clear, repeatedly.

Yet it’s still being deliberately misconstrued. Instead of listening to the points made soundly and repeatedly by a broad coalition of Democratic voters, the effort to malign the uncommitted campaign is in full swing. John Fetterman is one of the avatars of this push, spamming social media with half-baked memes and commentary making fun of his own party’s voters, and fellow Democratic members of Congress like Rashida Tlaib, for backing uncommitted. Again and again he says that this movement to show Biden just how much backing Israel’s genocide could cost him is helping Trump. It’s a non-existent logic that’s both totally wrong and debasing to those making it in that it feigns a complete misunderstanding of the primary process.

...

On CNN last night, in one of their analysis bits, a Democratic commentator acknowledged that these uncommitted campaigns are making a difference, then immediately pivoted to “but Trump would be even worse than Biden on Gaza.” And I do think he would be worse, or just as bad. Even if he hadn’t just said the other day that he hopes Israel “finishes the problem” there’s no doubt he wouldn’t even feign the care that the Biden administration is currently trotting out. But what the commentator didn’t understand is that this is exactly why the Biden administration should do everything in its power to stop Israel in its tracks.

The American people want peace. They want a ceasefire in Gaza. A permanent one, not the six weeks pause the administration is currently waving around. And Biden should listen. People do not want a choice between genocidal Trump and genocidal Biden, and those are not the options. The option that the White House and various pundits want to pretend does not exist is Biden actually changing course.

#us politics #2024 presidential election #2024 elections #palestine #israel #biden administration #vote uncommitted

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outsidereveries · 5 months

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in the ninth issue you have access to see..

itzy, health check: from what i can see, i pulled (unconsiously) 1 card for each member - i can feel that lia is definitely feeling the worst out of the rest (last card). i really don't want to burden my audience more or less, but it's certain that jype didn't lie how she's really feeling. i feel that the fourth card is possibly yuna; whoever that is, is feeling better rather than a while ago. the middle card imo is, i am assuming, yeji, and i am aware she's gemini sun. whether this is yeji or not, is also healing, possibly from practice or something, related to dancing/exercise(s), but overall, she's ok. the second card is chaeryeong, at least i believe that's her: she is also feeling great. if she had injury or was ill, she's feeling better. the first card is possibly ryujin, i see that she's training a lot more on herself, whether that's about her health or to gain some more muscles, or practicing. if her health was shaky, she's healthier now. i am certain where i saw chaeryeong and lia but i am unsure of the rest of them, but i don't think the difference is much - apart from lia, the rest are feeling great.

why the drama surrounding fifty fifty happened: basically someone got seriously greedy, and i don't think it's someone from the group at all but someone from one of these two companies, i personally believe they're from the givers. there's nothing much but the other side seems to have been through similar times and they're trying to not make the same mistake again. definitely behind the scenes issue.

how outsiders see selena's position surrounding the i-p* conflict: they don't care for some reason? i am not sure that i actually see mixed opinions. she got called out because of it, right? i do see that these opinions aren't actually the ones that are the main point of view from outsiders' side. i actually see that these people actually, idk, don't care. don't get me wrong, but the situation is incredibly complex, even more than the previous one between u-r^ in my opinion because it's more one-sided, like a lot more, and i thought that the first^ was one-sided, the current* is different breed where people are actually aware and when in the previous situation i could actually see the both sides, i cannot in the reoccuring conflict^. the outsiders simply don't care in which side selena is and even if part of them actually do, the rest of them are simply egoistic for not being aware of usa's doings. i do see their main opinion is quite ignorant about this situation and they love how selena says that she cannot change the world with a post. i would say that their opinion could be better but it's egoistical one, and for obvious reasons.

how m'bappe feels about messi winning his 8th ballon d'or: he was happy, to be honest. he isn't jelaous or envious, m'bappe seems to be happy to live in the same era with messi himself. kyllian is feeling that duty for what he's acomplished so far, and he is happy for messi. like, he's like a proud son/brother, similar feeling like that.

johnny nct, career until march 24': not as well as he might expect? he might prefer to renew with sme, and i see that some other people might want to leave.. that will lead his solo career to be stagnant, or even uncertain at some point. it will get better after everything is resolved. since they asked about acting career and overseas activities, the second one is more likely to happen as of now, tbh, but i don't think they'll be in his home country for now.

usa's elections for their next president and their influence after them: yet again, the americans seem to not have choice but "settle" for someone who's less bad. no, no, that's not how it works, americans, either vote for different person who isn't scandalous, or not vote at all and make the elections invalid. their next president might be someone who is still bad but not that bad, you know? i don't see biden, or feel him. i do feel trump and someone else who is way worse than trump. americans might be still dissatisfied that trump won again? i do see trump winning again as of now. i don't think there will be newbies, just familiar faces. the reason i think why trump will win as of now is that the people outside of usa will feel better and not as controlled as of now. unless if there will be a cataclysm where trump isn't candidates, i see trump winning. i don't see biden, but i do see trump. i also feel worse energy from democratic party's side.

blackpink, comeback in the end of 2024? or subunit of them?: since i asked before the group renewals, as of now, lisa seems to be strongly against it, like very strongly. there are unresolved issues between her and yge and unless yge give her these fucking money, she'll oppose. i do see travelling for the girls and important gigs which possibly are group ones but idk, up to that. i don't see subunit debut.

jaemin nct, 2024 career: he might leave sme atp, there's something going on behind the scenes. he'll be overwhelmed :(

what sme thinks of jaemin: very smart but also a person who knows their secrets. if jaemin told sme that he'll reveal everything, they might be afraid of him. also very hardworking person.

what type of scandal boynextdoor might have in the future?: i've heard about the drama about that security guard person. it's not about that. possibly difficulties between 2 of the members (water and fire sign?? big3 is possible too)' personalities. it can be made into bullying scandal, by the way, but it might turn into controversy too, i am not sure how it might turn out.

what red velvet think of "chill kill" era?: tbh they're satisfied, they like it.

what red velvet think of their disbandment rumors: very dissapointed atp, it won't happen!

katseye, overall success: seems to be guaranteed, can do very well for a western girl group with k-pop standarts. won't be very, very famous but it will be enough to be popular.

skz hyunjin, shinee taemin bond: VERY much work-related dynamics, and they match really well. outside of work though.. no. just no. not that they won't match, but it just doesn't exist.

i'll-it, success: not as what they've (belift, hybe) expected. small fanbase outside of south korea, local fandom might be a bit bigger, fans from r u next? are still MAD for how hybe rigged everything. i do see water energy girl standing out, possibly wonhee or youngseo, but it can be both girls tbh. just focus them on solo activities pls

i'll-it, concept: very similar to enhypen, seems to focus on empowerment. might be teen crush?

taylor swift, 2024 career: might be merging with her personal and love life. i do see viral moments, breaking record and similar things. i am unsure if she'll release something in 2024, but she has to be prepared as kelce might cheat on taylor. she might learn about the preparations on it in one way or another and she will try to stop him just for the sake of their popularity (individual, as couple, idqk). she might learn to be more aware of what she actually wants in 2024, she seems to be blind about that.

why treasure's hyunsuk is more scandalous these days: he seems to experiment with his vibe, aesthetics and style. he might've wanted to do it for a while. like, he's aware, but he isn't that sorry from what i see. he's just experimentinnnnng

will hyunsuk be more scandalous: i intepret it as no, he doesn't want to be more extreme.

*israel-palestine ^ukraine-russia

** there's no need to read this since this paragraph isn't related to my usual content. although i do not stand with israel's side, my content that's provided here is directed only to divination-related readings and it will stay this way. personally i agree with selena that a post, or even threads on social medias won't change anything and although taking a side might be nice if we are aware of the conflict in question (doesn't matter which), i personally believe only mass protests for indefinite time will make actual impact, unless if they're restricted by more influental people. (that's to sofia's ex-mayor btw :)) my country has problems that are in the dust for the most of its citizens and we don't look through them. how tf we have to be aware of other issues and conflicts when we aren't aware of our owns? that's issue between israel and palestine. my country and people have no place in this. i really try to support palestinians with what i can, but to take a side? i never chose ukraine or russia. i won't choose israel or palestine either. i do hate some of the countries' laws and so on, but i will stay as neutral as i can. these issues aren't bulgaria's. sorry for this ted talk but i felt it's needed. **

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tieflingkisser · 3 months

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Hey AOC, is genocide a 'progressive value?'

Progressive Democratic leaders want us to be 'adults' and vote for their candidates in the US elections this November, but doing so requires us to lose our moral conscience

It's an election year in the United States. If you're one of those voters who has the temerity not to like genocide and white supremacy, you might be feeling weird about being told to vote for Democrats, even if you don't like Donald Trump. It's difficult to see how President Joe Biden and his party represent a material improvement from the previous administration. They continue to run concentration camps at our southern border, continue the policies of Trump's Muslim Ban, and enthusiastically partner with Israel to slaughter tens of thousands and displace more than a million innocent Palestinians in the past four months alone. Suppose you're worried about voting for the people supporting genocide. In that case, the most progressive Democratic officials want to assure you that there's nothing wrong with endorsing powerful leaders who commit crimes against humanity. In fact, it's the "adult" thing to do. You wouldn't want to be some weird, emotional Trump voter who has a strange, tribalistic attachment to their candidate and party, after all. "We've just got to be adults about the situation," Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a recent interview where she stumped for Biden. "I think sometimes people [think that] if you vote for someone, they have to be the embodiment of you. That's something that I think Donald Trump provided to a lot of people, where it's like if you voted for him and you were a Donald Trump person, like, it symbolised so much. But I think what we have here in this situation is a more honest thing. There are plenty of things that the president does that I completely disagree with," she continued. Ocasio-Cortez doubled down on her support for Biden, despite his carrying out what she says are unacceptable atrocities. Speaking with CNN's Jake Tapper on 13 February, the congresswoman said the choice to vote for Biden - even as he commits genocide - is an easy one. "And what I know is who I'm going to choose is going to be one of the most successful presidents in modern American history," she said. "I think we need to be very, very realistic about the grave impact of a Donald Trump election…It is not a game. We need to protect our democracy and, ideally, it's going to be on progressive values." With her effusive praise and meritless assertions, Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez are asking voters for a near pathological level of hastily resolving cognitive dissonance. If it is easy for her to support Biden, that's fine and well, but to then make the jump to call Biden a historically successful leader is downright propaganda. Ocasio-Cortez is speaking to progressive voters when she describes and derides Republican voters as having some inappropriate psychological need to feel represented by…their representatives. What she is demanding from voters instead is that we jump through an at least equally psychologically complicated set of hoops to vote for Biden and her colleagues.

[keep reading]

#us politics #usa #free palestine #news

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qqueenofhades · 1 year

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as a young person who is also very fed up with online leftists, it’s so frustrating because i do understand where a lot of my peers are coming from. i was born in 99 and i feel like american politics has just been nightmare after nightmare throughout my life. we weren’t quite old enough to understand what obama was up against during his presidency, and when we did finally start tuning into politics, it was during the trump era of clownery and everything has just felt so much more panicked and urgent (a lot of which is manufactured, i’m aware) since. i understand people being sick of things taking so long to change, i am too, i just don’t know how they think not voting or claiming both sides suck (which diminishes how dangerous the gop is) is going to put us in a better position. they may think it sucks right now under biden but it sucked a lot more under trump and would suck even worse if the gop took the presidency in 2024

Like... yes, to an extent, I understand. You guys came of age right when things really went off the rails with Obama Derangement Syndrome, everything got a lot worse and a lot scarier overnight, and it felt like the current system was so laughably inadequate for the problems at hand that of course it needed huge and immediate changes. Which, like! I'm not disagreeing! I wake up every day and I see something else terrible and/or stupid has happened and I occasionally just wish for the meteor too! But I am also a grownup who recognizes that that's not going to actually fix anything, and that life beyond echo-chamber leftist Twitter exists. So yes, we all have the "just give in and blow it up" moments. But that's... not actually a political strategy, certainly not a humane one, and it continues to baffle and infuriate me that that's just Online Leftist staple rhetoric.

I know that it can be difficult for people of any age, but particularly young people, to conceptualize anything outside of their own lived experiences/personal memories, and yes, you have the misfortune of coming of age in a particularly bad political moment. Again, nobody's denying this! But if someone's response to that is to insist that only they know anything "true," history and/or culture and/or the besetting problems of America for its entire 250-year existence either aren't real or could have been solved by the Democrats already if they just Tried Hard Enough, then those of us who know better are under no obligation to take this BS seriously. It gets even worse when these people start acting like they're the only authority to ever be trusted, everyone else is wrong and/or evil, and their twisted immature ideal of "revolution!" is the only way forward.

Humans, and human society, politics, culture, history, etc., are complicated. The world does not exist in a neat black-and-white, zero-sum moral vacuum where one choice is totally right and the other is totally wrong. Attempts to impose the Most Correct Ideology, of whatever stripe, have always ended terribly and done a lot of avoidable damage. But "things got really bad in four years and Biden hasn't fixed that + every other problem in America since its founding, therefore he and the Democrats are actually worse than Trump!" is just straight-up clown magical thinking, and it offers absolutely nothing useful for anyone, especially those who sanctimoniously claim to want to fix it. So, yeah.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts

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lunargracklepersonal · 6 months

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It occurs to me that we're in a collective abusive relationship with our government. We have the chance to elect a government composed of one of two main forces. One is openly abusive. The other is covertly abusive.

There exist other forces we could elect to make up our government, but as a result of the first-past-the-post voting system most people don't consider these viable options.

Look, I come from a (relatively mildly) abusive family. If I had to choose to vote between my mother or father, one of who is less abusive than the other, and those were always my two choices, eventually do you know what I'd still realize? This is an abusive family. Does that mean I am obligated, morally, to vote for the less abusive one, and that things will in time stop being abusive as a result?

Now, imagine my siblings, some of whom are periodically being gaslit to be convinced no abuse is taking place, also get a vote.

Do you get where I'm going with this?

I'm essentially trying to get this family to vote for Uncle Mike, just long enough for us all to realize what's going on.

Failing that, I'm trying to get enough people to vote for Uncle Mike to trigger - something, anything, that gets real change. Maybe the abusive elements of the government will try to illegally crack down on people who voted third party and folks will riot. Maybe somebody more charismatic than I am will use that as the impetus to start a movement. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Better than waiting around for politicians to magically start growing a conscience.

But that's beside the point.

Do you see why I can't get behind the democratic party now?

This is still an abusive situation, just covertly instead of directly. These people are still fascists, just subtly instead of openly. And given a choice between Hitler and Mussolini the moral choice is not Mussolini as was proposed in a post that floated across my dash a few days ago.

I still believe in voting as a tool of democracy. Just consider voting third party - any third party you feel comfortable with will do. Vote for a joke if you can't find a good one. The point is to convince the people in power that you're still willing to put time and energy into democracy. Voting third party is a threat to them. A roundabout way of saying 'fuck your two party system'.

The argument of the split vote effect becomes irrelevant when both parties are abusive and you do not want either to win.

Someone somewhere is muttering, still, vote blue no matter who. Fuck that. Relegate it to the depths of hell where it belongs.

Do you realize how far right the blue has gone?

Even basic criticisms of wealth inequality have gone from a basic milquetoast centrist position anyone from the center right to the left could hold back on the 1990s to being considered actively leftist. (Oh, democrats, my dear sweet summer child, if you think a leftist is someone who criticizes wealth inequality and maybe has pronouns you're in for some shock when you fuck with any actual leftist.)

And do you know how we got here?

By voting without criticality.

A claim to blue-ness is a nothing claim. It's like claiming to be a nutritionist (as opposed to registered dietician) - anyone can do it, it's a nonregulated term. There are no official criteria. There is no test. No battle of wits with your predecessor or even a swearing in.

In other words, infiltration is really, really easy. Especially when your base keeps chanting 'vote blue no matter who'! So is just... Enshittification. We could have done so much better if we had held our side to a higher standard.

As far as I'm concerned, it's already over. Don't bother trying to convince me there's a chance to push the dems farther left or god forbid, rehabilitate Biden. I am an anarchist.

Tl;dr fuck 'vote blue no matter who'.

#anarchism #us politics #democrats #democracy #voting #vote third party

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tiggymalvern · 4 months

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I understand the sentiment, but I just want to let you know that your VOTE hashtag might be undermining your efforts. I think it’s great to demonstrate what the Biden administration HAS accomplished because it’s not being publicized and it’s helpful information to hear, but ending with a blunt VOTE is dismissive of where people’s anxieties and despair are coming from. Instead of leading with the conclusion you’ve drawn, I just ask you to consider changing the way you’re communicating with your audience so that they can get there with you. A lot of people who are saying “VOTE” are using it to ignore genuine critiques and while I think voting for Biden is still the best option, I think there are better ways to help people get to that understanding.

The VOTE hashtag on my posts means exactly that. Everything that I think about who people should vote for and why has been eloquently explained by the OP and in the additions. People are either going to read it and engage with it or they aren't, and one tag that I put on the bottom probably isn't going to change it.

The VOTE hashtag reflects my belief. I literally think everyone who is allowed to vote should turn up and vote. Even if, for whatever reason of your own, you feel you need to vote Republican or Alternative für Deutschland or National Rally, or whoever your local neo-fascists happen to be.

Throughout history, people have had to battle for the right to choose their government. There were monarchies or emperors, and nobody got to choose. Then in many countries only landowners were eligible to vote, and the people who worked the land were excluded. Then in various countries, all white men were allowed to vote, and women and people of colour might have all had to fight in their turn to get their right to vote.

Whatever category of human you are, some people somewhere marched and/or were arrested, jailed or killed so that YOU could have the chance to vote. My grandmother was nearly 30 when women in England were allowed to vote on the same terms as men. This is not ancient history. This is less than a hundred years ago. If you are eligible to vote, DO NOT waste it. Do not blithely toss aside the right that your grandparents risked everything for.

I have voted in every single election that I was eligible to vote in. There was one year when I was around 20 when the candidates for the three main parties in my local elections were all so awful that I couldn't vote for any of them. It was for the regional council, so there were no larger ramifications in the national voting block of the government. So I turned up and voted for the Monster Raving Loony Party as a protest vote. Doing that made it clear that I wasn't staying at home through apathy - not voting for any of the main candidates was an active choice, and it registered my vote as a rejection of all of them.

I have voted for the candidates I truly believe in. I have voted tactically, simply to make sure that the worst candidate didn't get chosen. But I have always, always voted, when I could. And I believe that everybody should, even if I also believe you're a misguided idiot in where you place your X.

I'm not allowed to vote in the US, where I currently live, because I'm not a US citizen. I also live in a blue state where I can guarantee that Dems will get elected without my vote, so I don't fret too much about being excluded. But I am excluded.

I believe that everybody should validate their ancestors' struggles and do their civic duty and show up at the polls if they're allowed. I also believe that you should educate yourself on the issues and the reasons before you do. So I reblog the posts about the issues and the reasons that I believe, in the hope that those candidates will be elected. But my tag VOTE isn't just to try and get Dems to turn out (although everyone knows that Dems win when turnout is high, because low turnout means fewer Dems, not so much fewer Republicans).

VOTE. Seriously. Everyone. Even, especially, if you live in a red state where arseholes in power are deliberately making it hard for you to vote. If Republicans ban you from mailing in your vote and make you stand in line for three hours at a polling station, that's all the more reason to do it - it's the same battle that has been fought before, and you damn well insist on your right to vote. It's inconvenient and miserable, but you're not being arrested or murdered for wanting to vote, the way other people before you have been.

Your rights have been hard won. Understand that, respect it, and vote.

#asks #VOTE #representation #history #human rights #civic duty

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striving-artist · 5 months

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first of all, apologies: this may sound like needless bait and or agressiveness, it may not be my place, as a non usamerican, to comment on usa's politics, i can't hit enter on anon ask for some reason so this will be a block of text, and my english is of dubious quality when it comes to expressing my points. But as a non usa citizen, or even a non global north citizen, but honestly the bidencourse or whatever feels like its distracting... from the actual point? 1/?

Okay, first, Very Sorry it took me a while to answer. I wanted to wait and give this a proper response, and then real life got to be a Lot. Second, your english is better than my french, and your phrasing ends up saying things more clearly than native speakers because you’re trying to communicate, not say something with clever words.

Actual answer now. It’s below the rest of your asks, which I copied all into this. I’m going to talk about Americans as ‘We’ in this. I know that there are exceptions, I hope I am an exception to it, but its easier to talk like this.

like, yeah, sure. american politics are horrifyingly influential on a global scale in such a manner no single country should be. yeah, sure, deciding whether your president did something bad, terrible even, whether your... ok i dont know the name of state guys in usa politics, so biden & folks, and whether you'll vote for or against him to continue supporting your political goals against their current actions is important, sure 2/?

but also, it really feels as a sorta... united states of america main character of the world moment? really bad at wording this, but it feels as though the vast majority of americans right now are using whats happening in palestine as... performance, sorta? political performance, or using palestine suffering as set dressing to their own issues. theres a really strong vibe of "see all these people suffering, *arent you, white american liberal* feeling guilty about your choices?" 3/?

its like... it really feels as though the whole things is abstract or like, superficial to most people posting about it right now. sure, theyre making a big show, or whatever, but instead of heres how you can actually help, heres what you can actually do about this, american posters are doing the equivalent of asking for a manager about a building thats on fire. theyre complaining more about their own politics than actually helping 5/?

and it circles back to how could my politician do this, or im not voting for him, and, sure, by all means, feel this way, act on it even, but like. grips their shoulder. Can you please not make it about yourselves. once in your lifes. can you please not think about people who are dying, who are being killed, who are being oppressed - in terms of set dressing for internal american politics? just this once? 7/?

this is going a little offtopic, but like, fuck yknow? i saw more people commemorating the death of kissinger than discussing on how to undo the shit he did, and most people commemorating were... americans. i celebrated too, because i was born raised and live in a country that got its dictatorship through american involvement, but it always ends up being how the world impacts america than the opposite, despite how ppl phrase it. sorry. idk. this ended up venty as hell. 8/8

As long as the USA continues to shove into the politics of other nations, especially in the global south, you have the right to comment on what is happening here. I’m happy to be a place for you to vent. You’re also right that the USA is acting like a Main Character. We have done that since Isolationism went out of style. Lots of American politicians on the right talk about ‘America First’ and staying out of other countries’ problems, but they just mean they don’t want to send aid money. Almost every American politician still wants to get involved when it suits their interest (oil, money, personal agenda, personal religion)

Talking about Biden is an intentional distraction here. In part because our politics is a mess of blame shifting and personal attacks. In part because it’s election time, and anything a president running for re-election does is heavily scrutinized. But also, because most americans don’t know enough about global politics to actually talk about it. Instead, we make it about ourselves.

That gets amplified online, and especially on tumblr bc there’s a lot of americans on english websites. We are used to everything being about us.

You’re right that our politics have a huge impact globally. That’s also true for Russia, China, and some key European countries. For the most part, the global south is considered unimportant. Not saying that’s a good thing, but it’s definitely true right now. The next american election could, genuinely, collapse the USA as we know it. I don’t mean the country will turn into anarchy and the purge overnight if Trump wins, but it would be very bad. I’ll ignore the problems we would have domestically for now and how those filter into the rest of the world. That’s an entire essay. They’re huge, but you asked about why we only see things through our own lens.

I kind of want to say that we just suck. That it’s ego, and nothing else. But, we’re actually taught to think this way. That won’t help your frustration, but it is the Why.

Americans get raised with an american perspective, obviously. We’re taught, pretty specifically, that we are a superpower who can change anything we want, and the rest of the world can’t stop us. Having veto power in the United Nations is a good example. We don’t see things that aren’t filtered through American media and reports unless we go out and look for them. Hell, we’re at a record high right now because 60% of americans have passports. We don’t go to other countries, when we do, we expect them to cater to us. We never see anything but the american side of things.

And if America is the only one who can really have any impact, we see our elections as the Most Important Thing. It isn’t completely wrong. How our politicians think about other countries has a direct impact on the rest of the world. We supply a huge amount of money, weapons, and aid to countries. Right now, funding for aid to Ukraine and Gaza are really contentious in Congress. Congress has to pass the bills that let Biden send help. Our system is a mess, and we have people who are elected thanks to a few thousand, or a few hundred voters, that are going to be critical to get those bills passed.

But that’s the bigger picture. That’s officials, and why, in a lot of ways, it DOES matter to the rest of the world how our politics change. I don’t like that, but so long as it’s true, then any american who cares about the rest of the planet needs to focus on effecting our government’s choices.

As for individuals. You are very, very right about this. We treat global events as set dressing for our leaders. Like I said, it does matter, but the way we talk, especially online, is performance.

Lots of americans WANT to help internationally. We feel helpless to do that. If you don’t have the money to donate to charities, it feels like all you can do is scream. Media and news in America doesn’t talk about the rest of the world, so we pour all of that anger onto our politicians, and expect them to fix it. We feel weak, we don’t know what to do, so we do the only thing we know. We don’t know the names of Knesset leaders. We don’t even know about UK politics unless it’s really dramatic, and they’re our closest ally and culture.

To use your metaphor; we’re screaming at the manager because we think he has the keys, and we’re in the fire too. He doesn’t. We don’t know how to handle that. So we’re just screaming.

As for Kissinger, it ties into the above, I promise. A lot of the hate for him, and the celebrating that he died, is because we know what America has done is fucked up. He was a symbol of that. Lots of young americans hate what we did. Shit, lots of americans who were young back in the 70s hate what we did. Him dying felt like we’d gotten rid of some of the baggage tied to us (it doesn’t, we still interfere all over the world) It was a bit of good news when we are facing the fact that we can’t force other countries to obey us.

I’ve talked before about how conflicted I am about this. I badly want America to step in Fix It. I want us to help the Rohingya. I want us to stop Putin in Ukraine. I want us to force a peace deal in Israel and somehow make things right. I want that so badly because I hate what’s happening. I also hate the idea of America continuing to act like we’re the main character. But. I hate that we could do more, and we aren’t. I think a lot of Americans feel that way.

Americans who are watching the rest of the world feel weak right now. Younger Americans - who are more likely to be online talking, AND more likely to be watching the rest of the world - feel weak in every part of our lives. Money, politics, social stuff, corruption. We feel like we aren’t able to do anything. So we’re screaming at the manager because staying quiet hurts too much, and we don’t know how to change it.

This is already long, and I don’t think it will make you or anyone else feel better. But I want to add this.

Everyone pays attention to their immediate surroundings first. The people of Guyana are focused on Venezuela trying to annex them. The people of Sudan are thinking about how everything is falling apart for them. The problems in the US are pretty privileged. The danger for trans americans is bad right now. It’s not wrong to think about keeping yourself alive and safe first. You put on your own oxygen mask first. Everyone does.

I don’t know if I missed something that you want me to talk about. I don’t know if this was helpful at all. Really, I just sympathize with you. It isn’t fair, it isn’t right, I want to shake americans by the shoulders, and I can’t. And I hate that.

#us politics #principles - strife #this is 1300 words of answer #I don't know if it really answered anything #because the answer comes down to:#Americans can't imagine things except through how it impacts america #the rest is me saying that with more words

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sakebytheriver · 7 months

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I hate American leftists so much 🤦‍♀️

How can I get the giant government to listen to my itty bitty teeny tiny voice?

Oh i know! I'll refuse to do the only thing our government actually offers us to have our voice explicitly heard by the people in charge, this will surely create the change I am looking for and lead to a revolution and not just completely silence myself and take my entire existence as an American citizen out of the equation! I am so smart 😁

Look, I'm not here to tell you that all you should be doing in your activism is voting, that would be goddamn stupid, and I am NOT goaddamn stupid, but you know what else is goddamn stupid? Taking an arrow out of your quiver when you're in the middle of a battle and just snapping it over your knee and saying 'you know what I don't need this arrow I have so many others'

There were generations of people who fought to give you this right, there are people who DIED to give you this right, and there are people in the government making sure that you CAN'T vote every single day, because they know better than anyone how powerful a fully voting populace can be

You think the Republicans are just doing voter supression for fun? Is that what you think? You think they purge the voting databases of ethnic and black sounding names only because they're racist? You think they make these horrible gerrymandered districts and restrict the number of voting booths or limit the ways a person in their county can vote because they're just bored? No! They do voter suppression because they know for a fact that enough people voting for a certain thing can change the landscape of our entire country

Stacy Abbrams literally focused all of her political power on Georgia and phone banking and registering people to vote and because of that the state went blue for the first time in a longass time. They've even found that the amount of voter suppression done in Texas basically prevented the state from also going blue. Can you even imagine if the Republicans lost TEXAS??????

Electoral politics fucking suck, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that they're the rainbow which will lead us to the pot of gold at the end of it, most of the democratic politicians we have to vote for are basically conservatives in any other country and half the time they betray the people who voted for them in the hopes of monetary gain (Krysten Sinema, Joe Manchin) but when the other side of the aisle is fascism that knows for a fact if every citizen in the country was registered to vote and got a ballot in their mail automatically every election season they would never win a seat ever again, it is on YOU to exercise your right to vote because if you fucking don't it's the difference between a Trump presidency and Biden one and considering how much destruction Trump was able to cause in only just four years of neofascism and the amount of actual change and progression (especially in workers rights) that the absolute neoliberal poster boy Biden has achieved I'm very happy in my choice to vote every single election, local too, because you all always forget about local politics and think the only time and the only way to vote is for the president or the senate/congress 🙄 but you know what? Local politics and the people you elect to those positions will have more effect on your day to day life than any president ever will and you should also 100% be voting in those elections

People DIED to get you the right to vote and you cast it aside as if they did NOTHING

You should feel shame for spitting on the graves of activists who never got the chance to make their voice so heard as you do in this day and age, you say you want revolution, but all you're doing is calling the old ladies who picked themselves up and marched their ways to the polls and made sure you don't have to live under neofascism for another four years stupid for exercising a right that human beings once again literally DIED to give you

Sorry, but you're the stupid one

And also I doubt you're actually out there doing any community activism other than complaining about people who vote

#ignore me #yes this person is a tankie are you shocked?

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dhaaruni · 2 years

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That interview got me thinking, but in the opposite direction. If something as milquetoast Obama's Trayvon speech is enough to tip an "average" voter over to Repubs, it only goes to show that voters will inevitably coalesce around conservatives every 4-8 years no matter what the Dems do. Deep down, nothing short of reviving Jim Crow will please those people.

Well to be fair, Obama saying Trayvon Martin could have been his son wasn’t seen as milquetoast, it was seen as radical and unprecedented, and I even agree with that tweet which said it was one of the top political utterances in American history. Watch the clip again, and look at his face as he speaks. Obama’s a very intelligent man, and he instantly realizes the significance of what he just said along with every white person in America, even if many of them refuse to admit it.

Barack Obama was elected as a post-racial president so to speak like a whole lot of white people saw his presidency as a “look racism is over!!!” statement. They regarded Obama as not like those “other” Black people, which is racist in itself, and by his saying Trayvon Martin could have been his son and publicly positioning himself as a Black man in America, which he always has been, the lines were drawn in the sand. I’ve read that people explicitly said that if Obama had said this prior to the 2012 election, they’d have switched their vote to Romney.

So yes, the statement might seem milquetoast to our 2022 liberal eyes, but to millions of Americans, it was an immediate threat to them and their way of life. The median American voter isn’t socially progressive and racially enlightened, and maybe you’re right that a nonzero amount of them want to bring back Jim Crow, but we don’t really have a choice except to win enough moderate swing voters to retain Congressional majorities and win the electoral college. Due to gerrymandering, there are a whole lot of ~R+3 districts floating around, but Democrats can’t win those districts unless it’s a midterm with a Republican president, while Republicans can hold D+5 districts even when Biden wins the popular vote by 7 million at the top of the ballot, and that’s because of swing voters pulling the lever for Republicans the moment anything feels remotely threatening to their sensibilities.

That’s exactly what happened in 2020: after George Floyd was killed, and especially after Jacob Blake was paralyzed and protesters built CHAZ in Seattle, Republicans quickly realized they could use the looting and rioting and “defund the police” sloganeering to win back the suburbs and it worked. The electoral college was decided by <43k votes across WI/AZ/GA, and the GOP won over a dozen Democratic-held House seats, almost all in the suburbs. President Obama warned Joe Biden of this when Kenosha was on fire too, that any whisper of left-wing violence would draw swing voters away from Democrats, and he was right. Like, the reality is that the very existence of our democracy is based on swing voters not feeling like their existences are threatened, and that’s unfair, but I’m not giving up on democracy because some anarchists who never vote anyways want to set Target on fire.

#answered #anonymous #politics

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sometimes-men-need-help-too · 2 years

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Okay, so from what i’ve read on your pinned comment, you are a Christian person, so I want to hear your opinion on the Chris Pratt hate. Lately, he’s been getting hate because… he went to a church that’s homophobic. There are others that went to that homophobic church and they don’t get hate for it, which just feels so hypocritical. Most churches (not all churches) are homophobic, and saying that he’s a homophobe for associating himself with a homophobic church is ridiculous, because what about the other celebs that’s currently go there or used to go there?

I’ve been remaining neutral in Chris Pratt because I feel indifferent to him, but seeing people make stuff up about him just irritates me because it comes off as people actively looking for something to get mad at. I just want to know what you personally think.

I’ve seen him get hate for a few different things.

- He made a joke about voting during the 2020 election because celebrities were telling people to vote and said this:

With all that's going on in the world it is more important than ever that you vote. Just ask any celebrity. They will tell you. Every day. Several times a day. To vote. But me? I will tell you EXACTLY who to vote for. #Onward. The heroes before us did not spill their blood only to have their sacrifices wasted by your apathy. The upcoming 2020 People's Choice Awards is the most consequential vote in the history of mankind times a million infinity. Vote for #onward for family movie of the year. Or else. You WILL die. No hyperbole. Click on the link in my bio. Let your voice be heard.

I think that’s funny. It’s harmless and true about the celebrity part. I know elections are important but I don’t think there’s any reason to get upset by this.

- He'd made a birthday post for his wife (six weeks early) and had said the words "healthy daughter" and people got mad because he has a son with his previous wife who has a physical disability

So basically, people felt like it was a dig at his son because he used the word healthy. Again, I don’t really see anything wrong with it. I don’t know. I think people are overreacting here. I don’t think it’s his way of saying he loves his daughter more because she’s “normal”

And obviously, if I’m wrong then that’s pretty awful of him to do so

- He wasn’t at a Joe Biden fundraiser that his other costars were at so people started to speculate that he’s a republican and they got angry

He’d come out and said he’s not overly political an from the sound of it doesn’t belong to either party, he’s just more in the middle.

Nowadays it's certainty expected to be upfront about your politics, especially as a celebrity and people don't realize it's okay not to be overly political. It's okay not to get super involved.

And the what you’re talking about, I believe that started (or more so, anyway) when Elliot Page made a tweet that was pretty much directed to him. That definitely fueled things. That might have been after Elliot came out as trans--I dunno.

I think a lot of this is just ridiculous and people overreacting and looking far deeper into things than they should. Some people have chosen him as the “bad guy” so it won’t take much to rile them up

And none of this is coming from someone who is a fan of him--I don’t believe I’ve seen anything he’s in. Than again, I don’t watch a ton of movies to begin with lol

#answered asks

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dallasareaopinion · 2 months

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I am supposed to call someone dumb or stupid or whatever or worse

Yet YOU are not dumb or stupid or whatever or worse. It is not that I feel I have to insult someone, it is just society seems to relish in it. And that is not correct. It is not society that wants me to insult someone or some thing, but rather I wonder have we just devolved to that point. And I think not. So what gives?

Is it social media? Is it the media? Maybe.

I would love to have tons of likes on “X” what use to be Twitter. Why can’t it just be twitter? People change things for reasons that make no sense or it gives them a sense of power. I affected your life by my action. Yet is that true? I still say the same thing I would have no matter the medium. Maybe some people are affected. There seems to be even more hate on Twitter I mean “X” than before. Is it because the name changed? Or because the owner changed? Or because we are just going further down the crazed rabbit hole no matter what you call it or who owns it?

People are obsessed with being accepted by their side. And I am not sure what that even means anymore. Politically we have two sides and everything is geared for those two sides to control our lives. I personally have railed against this for decades and in print for over a decade now. Yet what do the great unwashed masses think is their side. Certainly not the political sides, but are they accepting that the two sides as their only choice or have they gotten to the point where they don’t even care anymore. Of course that presumes that at some point the great unwashed masses cared.

Polls say the majority of this country does not want a Biden v. Trump rematch, yet we are staring at it in the face. We got it no matter what we wanted. So what gives?

Did Ms. Haley make a valiant effort? Or was it just a waste of media space all along? I am perturbed she dropped out. I wasn’t going to vote for her, but I was routing for her.

Yet as a person that posts on some type of social media, do I fail because I do not have a thousand likes and is it because I do not play the hate game? Do I succumb to insulting the other side to make a bigger name for myself? Yet I am against both sides. I do say both sides have failed this country, but I do something “weak” and attack them on points, try to come up with something better, argue for policy changes, patter for new ideas, but it falls on deaf ears or unresponsive ears. Why? Do I need to say horrible things to get noticed?

Some people might call me a Mike Milquetoast, someone who acquiesces or lets others run over them because I do not attack, yet those same people do not define on what hill I should die on. That is for me to choose. I feel no matter what age you are, whether you are 33, 43, 53, 63, 73, 83 acting like the 13 year old mean girl is not the answer. And just because I do not act like the 13 year old mean girl does not mean I am not ready to fight. Again I choose what hill I die on. And quite frankly like 99.999999… percent of humanity I am not ready to die on a hill, any hill. I may have an inkling of what that may be, but like most everyone except the Saints I am not that strong, yet it is mine to choose. And it is definitely not joining the crowd and spewing vindictives against some imaginary enemy to make me feel good.

Yet here we are staring as a country at something we say we do not want. The hate, the candidates, the public ridicule some people are suffering through for no reason are some of the current madness we say we don’t want, but open your local social media outlet and what do you have.

Invite someone to a barbecue, a back yard cook out, a dinner party, and we can talk about everything, but what it is we don’t want. Sports, books, movies, recipes, how to build a better deck for the backyard, cars, makeup, the list goes on, and we might even disagree about some aspects of it like what is the best sauce for barbecue, but what is staring us in the face right now we cannot bring up. People who normally like each other have been set on fire with angst about someone being on the other side. There is no compromise because it has become sacrilegious to say lets get something accomplished. I am willing to concede a point to do something better is criminal behavior. You have failed your side. And quite frankly we are all on the same side just looking differently at the answers. Does our side’s answers make us feel better? What gives?

I will continue to offer my version of sanity. Some type of idea that normalcy, what ever that may be, still exists. I will not create more hate just to get a name, yet I still want some success. How does a person create space for themselves in this environment by trying to jolt people awake to something better? What can give?

I hope to find out, but for now have a good evening.

#front porch ramblings

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stellardeer · 3 months

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Putting under a readmore cause what I'm about to say is more in the line of conspiracy thinking and I don't want anyone to read this and take it very seriously but I feel the need to vent this out.

I am.. almost convinced that the entire US government is just in on everything that is going on between the democratic and republican parties.

Like I really feel like they are just fucking playing us and making us think there's a choice when in reality things are going to go how they want them to go no matter who is in office. Who is "they" idk, I am not referring to any kind of shadow govt or antisemitic bullshit, I mostly mean "they" as in the government as a whole, like I would not be surprised if both parties are working together behind the scenes to coordinate.

Like idk, I know that realistically that is probably not the case, it just really seems like the democrats do not actually give a single fuck about undoing anything that the Republicans have done. Like their role is to just publicly condemn their actions and make it seem like the US govt still has a conscience so that the people who don't want outright fascism with be placated and still have someone to vote for. "Come on guys they are putting kids in cages but at least they put the parents in the cage WITH them unlike the other party!!" Like is this really where we are as a country????

The fucking Project 2025 bullshit just further degrades my fucking confidence in the left to actually BE left because like.. idk somehow it just feels like TOO cartoonishly evil?? And too perfectly timed? Like everyone is losing faith in the dems because Biden won't stop funding a fucking genocide, and people are seriously considering "boycotting" voting (something that is not possible and will not work) or voting third party because the dems objectively fucking suck and now it's like "LOOK AT THIS SCARY EVIL FUCKING PLAN FOR A FASCIST DICTATORSHIP, YOU BETTER VOTE FOR THE DEMS SO IT DOESNT HAPPEN!" And honestly the Trump presidency felt much the same to me ?? Like "look how awful the competition is, we gotta save the country from that! Vote for our candidate that nobody even wanted instead!" And they chose such a spectacularly awful candidate that it backfired and Trump actually won and they got to just accelerate making the country worse. I fully believe that Trump did not expect to win the presidency, I don't know how true this is but I remember people saying that his team was like.. scrambling to actually write policy for him when he found out he won because they didn't actually fucking prepare anything. Again, they might have just been misinformation but GOD, it just feels like they WANT us to vote for dems, like they're trying everything they can to make the Republicans look as evil as possible.

But like?? Idk?? Again I do not want to start conspiracy theories and I hope anyone reading this understands that I only half believe what I'm typing right now but like?? It just feels so coincidental??

But of course it also doesn't necessarily make sense for them to push people to vote for dems if they're goal IS to combine the evils of the Republicans and Democrats, cause like.. what would even be the end goal if not total control, but maybe that's part of it too. Like.. if the Republicans win and they actually manage to go through with Project 2025 then.. congrats we are officially run by fascists. But if the dems win then.. idk they just continue doing fasc shit anyway without the dictatorship?? Like when you examine the realities this theory falls apart, and also people have been saying shit like this for decades I'm not really saying anything new, but just.. goddddd I don't know how else to cope with this fucking country right now.

It is so difficult for me to believe that any politicians have our best interests in mind and that the two parties aren't just moving in the same direction at different speeds. And to reiterate and be a little more specific, if I use the word "they" I am referring specifically to the individuals in charge of like.. the selection of candidates for each party and like the heads of the departments in Washington, I am not making any claims that these individuals belong to any specific group, in fact I am almost certain the majority of these people are white Christians, it's probably something I can google even, but I believe that a lot of people in positions of power in the government are acting in self interest to maintain their own positions and have lost touch with the average American populace, like I don't think it's some shady organization or some shit I think it's just people. Certain (fucking old and/or rich most likely) people who are just looking out for themselves and want to maintain their way of life. The dems are not fucking left but they are slightly more left than the Republicans, but I think that the members of the party in charge are just fucking old, they come from an age before the internet where your only source of information was the TV and it was OVERWHELMINGLY white and middle class, and they grew up believing what their middle to upper class parents taught them in regards to lower class and minority people. And, honestly? I think they truly do believe that they have morals and are doing the right thing most of the time, based on what they know. They don't understand the struggles of the average American because they have never known those struggles. They think that homelessness is a problem that can be solved by getting rid of homeless people, because they weren't taught to view the homeless as people. They think that racism is wrong, but they also think that racism only consists of explicit spoken words and violent actions directed at minorities. And even then their definition of "violent action" only includes physical bodily harm and probably only counts if the assailant yells "I am doing this because you are [minority identity]" otherwise "well we can't *prove* it was motivated by bigotry"

Siiiiigh, idk I feel like I've made my point by now and I'm just rambling but, like... I wish it were possible at this point to form a viable third party that would actually reach enough people. But it would probably take multiple election cycles to gain traction and actually compete with the dems, in which time the Republicans will just win and turn the country into a fucking dictatorship. Otherwise like idk, get some new leadership in the Democratic party so we don't have people raised on 1950s pop morality running the party that's *supposed* to be leftist.

I don't care if people will think less of me for doing so but I AM going to vote for the democrats in this election, I just do not see any other fucking choice and if the Republicans are fucking for real, I don't want to risk letting them win a presidential election ever fucking again. I don't know what else to fucking do at this point, it feels fucking meaningless.

Like woooo 4 more years of dems doing NOTHING to undo the policies that Trump enacted, but the Republicans have shown us their hand and its worse than I could have imagined. Not that it even fucking matters what I do because I live in a red state, but hopefully my other votes beside the president will have any sort of effect, idk.

Ughhh. I gotta end this post it's getting too long and no one will probably even read it but I'm just so fucking tired. I'm tired of the USAmerican empire. I want to see the collapse in my lifetime so fucking badly. I can't adopt a hopeless view of the future, I need to start participating in local government shit idk, I don't even know where to start in a red state. All of the advice on how to make a difference never fucking applies to where I live. We don't HAVE community programs like food not bombs and homeless shelters and shit, we have like.. a food bank that only lets you volunteer in the morning on weekdays and a community center that ALSO only operates 9-5 M-F and I'm working during that time so :/

Not to mention I get like.. I don't know if there's a word for it but like.. research anxiety? Learning unsuredness? Idfk, but like if I try to find information on my own I'm always worried I'm doing it wrong or that I'm not able to find the right information because I don't know where to look for even how to look for it, I operate so much better when I have a mentor for stuff, like I wish there was some kind of program that matched people with others who have the information they're looking for so that they can get it from a real person... hmm.. jot that down, potential website/app idea... but anyway fuck I need to be working rn IM DONE

#long post about US politics read at your own risk

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emptymanuscript · 6 months

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Did a Republican Senator actually have a moment of Sanity? 0_0

Turtle opposing it makes it sound like it isn’t a Trojan Horse, which would be awesome.

I’m cool with giving Republicans the credit for overturning Citizens United if they want to do it. Go GOP. I’ve got an American Flag in here somewheres to raise and wave for anyone to kill Citizens United. I will happily de-partisan for the murder of that evil atrocity that is ruining our country.

I actually was officially registered as an Independent for me entire adulthood until Trump became the Republican nominee for President and I realized that I would never be able to vote Republican in good conscience. I literally didn’t register as a Democrat until 2015-16. I always had this fantasy - since turning 17 and falling in love hate addiction with politics and wanting Ross Perot to be President - of I’ll just vote for the best candidate and not care about party. And then proceeded to prove out every legitimate study that’s ever been done which says whatever way you lean is what you really are and you’re just lying to yourself. But, you know, I COULD have supported and voted for a Republican. In principle. Which was important to me. Never mind that I could, technically, still do that even being registered as a Democrat. Registering Democrat was really nothing but the final acknowledgment that I never would because the Republicans are psychotically evil as a group and, so far as I have been able to tell, pretty much psychotically evil as individuals as well.

No group that would support Trump for President, just on the evidence of what he was like before ascending to political office, can be trusted so long as they allow anyone in their leadership who ever espoused or allowed that support. A group that will support him again after January 6th… honestly, that group should be outlawed.

I would love to be wrong.

The thing I hate most about Republicans (as opposed to what disgusts or morally outrages me, I am talking about personalized hate) is that they turned me into a Democrat.

The Democratic party is far more Conservative and Right Wing than I am. It’s a poor fit for my ideology. What it is for me is pragmatic and practical. Promoting the Democratic party and its goals is the best way for me to accomplish mine. There’s not much glamour or love. I haven’t voted for the Democratic President in their first primary… ever. Even President Obama, who I admit I felt a lot of joy and excitement around his presidency, I actually voted for Biden to be the nominee back then XD. Clinton, like I said, I was in love with Ross Perot. Biden, this last time around, was my third choice in the primaries. My “dream ticket” would be Warren - Sanders at this point. But nothing doing. That’s not happening. There’s the world you want and the world that is. Biden is doing fine. I’ll vote for him again with minimal ennui and be a good little Democrat because the Republican Party is pure evil instead of just a poor fit for what I actually want.

When your choices are: 70% - 90% of what you want with 0% chance of winning, 50% ish of what you want with 50% chance of winning, or 15% - 0% chance of what you want with 50% (or less as the percentage of what I want goes up) chance of winning, the best choice is obvious. It’s just doesn’t feel great.

Again, I would love to be wrong. I would love to be convinced that there’s a practical and reasonable way to get more of what I want and less of what I don’t.

If the Republicans want to sanity up and power down their toxic evil. I’m really cool to reconsider all my stances. Hell, if any Republicans want to be sane and decent human beings, I am happy to cheer them on.

If the American people decide that they want some group to the left of the Democratic Party to be a viable potential that could make the current Democratic Party positions the far right positions in this country, I would be ecstatic and eagerly reregister.

I just don’t trust any of that to happen.

I HOPE that Hawley succeeds in this. I doubt that he will.

Which makes me sad. And Hate Republicans again. Because this SHOULD be a no brainer. Turtle’s position should be obviously evil to anyone looking. But of course it’s not. For exactly the reason I registered Democrat. There’s not even really a way to pretend that the Republican Party has a decent bone left in its body.

Again, I would love to be wrong. Please, Senator Hawley, prove me wrong. I’m honestly happy just that this much has happened. It’s like finding one tiny little ember left in a dead bonfire pit. Just a bit of unexpected warmth in my bitter, cold heart.

#politics #about me

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