If they don’t realize who they’re voting for then why are they voting?
Acting on who someone votes for is not preemptive, and revenge does a good amount to resist fascism. We’ve seen what happens when people roll over and do nothing, and look where we are now?
They think they are voting in their own self-interest because they’ve been lied to.
edit in response to the above comment’s edit: I’m responding to this in a later comment.
Anyone who cannot see the obvious lies of the GOP is so dumb that I don’t mind lumping them in with all the people who vote red for other reasons.
The bottom line is, I refuse to absolve these people of any responsibility. They refuse to take responsibility for their ignorance, their hatred, and/or their glee at other people’s suffering. If you exercise the power to vote, that comes with the responsibility of educating yourself about what you’re voting on. Anything else is an incredible abuse of power. If you want to stay in your own little bubble and ignore the outside world, then you don’t get to subject the rest of us to your vote. These people are hurting us. Removing education opportunities. Killing public transport. Enabling corruption. Appointing phony judges. Polluting the planet. Stealing from us. Literally killing us. I refuse to let that slide.
Anyone who cannot see the obvious lies of the GOP is so dumb that I don’t mind lumping them in with all the people who vote red for other reasons.
Information silos aren’t an intelligence test. Anyone who has only false information will come to incorrect conclusions.
The bottom line is, I refuse to absolve these people of any responsibility.
Whether a person should be held to account for their voting is a moot point as acting on the information presents the same issues I raised in my argument earlier. I believe people should not be held to account for their vote. If all the fascists did was vote we would be in no danger. I take issue with fascists who will do more violent things than just vote.
If you want to stay in your own little bubble and ignore the outside world, then you don’t get to subject the rest of us to your vote.
The problem is the people who are brainwashed do not know this. People are trapped in information silos via their ignorance. That’s how information silos work.
https://www.cfr.org/blog/2020-election-numbers
Trump won 74,222,958 votes
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/10/17670992/study-white-americans-alt-right-racism-white-nationalists
If Hawley is right, then the alt-right’s constituency isn’t a tiny fringe. It’s about 11 million Americans.
The wrong thing to conclude from Hawley’s data is that there’s a massive number of people who are active participants in the alt-right. Last year’s Charlottesville rally only had several hundred participants; this year’s DC sequel isn’t expected to be orders of magnitude larger.
The study is from 2018 but I think it’s still relevant even when taking account everything that’s happened since Jan 6th. The total number of self-identifying fascists in the worst case scenario could not currently exceed 11 million Americans. Even in the worst case scenario, the total number of self-identifying fascists is small compared to the US population, which is somewhere between 330 to 340 million people. The total number of self-identifying fascists, is probably at most only a few million people, maybe fewer. The right-wing infosphere’s ability to garner tens of millions of votes, despite spreading the ideas held by a small fraction of the population, is what makes it so dangerous. That’s why spreading true information is so important.
Condemning everyone who voted Trump to political violence is self-defeating. With that strategy we are effectively creating tens of millions of enemies.
edit: This is in response to the above comment’s edit. Political violence is preemptive if it’s done before a fascist takeover and it’s revenge if done after a fascist takeover. If the fascists takeover has already been completed then the revenge isn’t about resisting it. Political violence will not deter fascists. We already know capital punishment doesn’t deter violent crime.
https://www.amnestyusa.org/blog/a-clear-scientific-consensus-that-the-death-penalty-does-not-deter/