Well, what I’m talking about- and always have been- are the people urging everyone not to vote- while pretending to give a shit about things happening in other countries. Those using the suffering of other people as a platform to get people to not vote- either because thy are so misguided and ignorant about how things work, or are actively trying to work against democracy.
Regardless of the reason- not voting doesn’t fix the problem. Regardless of the term “SJW” or whatever you wish to call them- THEY are who I’m talking about.
You realize that voting alone is very nearly politically irrelevant? Especially if your vote is reducible to an anonymous voting bloc? That most of the work that goes into making your vote mean something happens well before election day? Like, just voting on election days, no matter how many off-year election cycles and special elections someone votes in, if they aren’t participating in an political movement that is properly reflective of their vote, then their share of political power is merely given over to someone else. The places where someone’s vote has the most impact are the places where they’re treated as an afterthought.
Like, consider the electoral college, and how the votes break down in most urban areas (which tend to be where most Internet users live). The margins in most urban areas tend to be very much in Democrat favor, so spending all your resources to win a few more votes (or even stop a small amount of votes being lost) does not actually result in very many, if any, additional EC votes. You could focus exclusively on a presidential race for unpopular candidates and pour all your effort into that for marginal value.
Or you could realize the top of the ballot is of limited value and in fact can be severely abridged by the down ballot races if overlooked(if we need reminders of “Vote Blue No Matter Who”'s shortcomings, please reference Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema), and realize that browbeating people into voting for a particular candidate instead of getting people engaged about things they care about is a way to burn out your political powerbase.
If you get real fancy, you can even realize that losing a particular election is mitigatable by on the ground action, and building political structures that don’t rely upon the government to do all the hard work and never be out of the political favor of the party in power.
Cool. So not voting is still not going to bring change either. So…
We can agree to disagree. I’m not down with debating the topic where it’s required to read walls of text that are mostly irrelevant to the point.
Not voting is NOT going to create the change these idiots want. Period.
End of story.
If only people here bothered to try and understand how nuanced actual politics are and that shit can’t be simplified so easily just because you happen to think in simple terms.
What outcomes they get from not voting really depends on what they’re doing outside of electoral politics. I get it: you’re really invested in the election and maybe have went all in on the outcome of Biden v. Trump, and, to be fair, it’s a damnably important election and Trump getting the seat again will do a ton of damage.
But you know what I learned from previous elections? No matter how much I personally care, or personally do, I might still wind up living under a Republican presidency bent on making my life worse. But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna throw my hands up and say nothing can be done.
Building on-the-ground support networks and working together to build enough political power to make waves in elections is where it’s at, as far as I’m concerned. I’m concerned about the outcomes of the elections, certainly, but the better we’re able to help each other, the less impact an election (and therefore someone not voting) has.
