While rebutting another post here on Lemmy, I ran into this. This says exactly what I want to say.
I am not a friend of Biden’s Administration. I think they drug their feet over a variety of things ranging from holding Trump and his goons accountable for January 6th through rulemaking on issues like OTC Birth Control and abortion rights, and yes, I think he’s too quick to please big business. But then I remember what the alternative is, and … well, disappointed in Biden or not, I’m voting for him. Because my wife is a Black bisexual goth woman, four strikes under Team Pepe’s tent. And I have my own strikes for marrying her as a White dude, and respecting her right to not have kids since she doesn’t want them is another strike against me. And I care about my Non-Christian, Gay, Transgender, and Minority friends, and will never willingly subject them to Team Pepe.
No. You’re not gonna convince me I’m responsible for how other people treat minorities.
I don’t have to choose between the lesser of two evils.
You literally do.
You are responsible for who is in charge of how minorities get treated. What the fuck else is an election for?
No, I don’t. To demonstrate, I voted third party for president last election.
I literally am not responsible for the actions of this government. That status isn’t granted by my having abstained from voting for one of the two major parties, but by the governments actions not representing the will of the governed at all.
You contributed nothing last election.
Nobody is “responsible” for this government. You don’t sign a blood oath to some candidate. That’s childish horseshit. You are only offered a choice between two people, and you can choose less evil, or more evil. Previous elections led everyone to this point. If you want something else, those elections are what shape your meaningful choices, here in the future.
Nonparticipation, or effective nonparticipation by voting for Mickey Mouse, accomplishes literally nothing. Blather all you want about “the will of the governed,” you are getting a government, and you know goddamn well who it’s going to be, if you don’t vote against the candidate who led a failed coup d’etat and openly proposes vengeful dictatorship.
Wait so am I responsible for the governments actions or am I not?
My third party vote didn’t accomplish nothing, it contributed to the relevance of a candidate and party I actually would like to see in power.
I don’t have to vote for a genocidaire because the other guys worse.
I don’t have to and I won’t.
Your vote helps decide which asshole takes power. One asshole is FAR WORSE. One asshole openly proposes dictatorship, having already attempted a coup d’etat. Your choice in light of that should not be complicated.
And yet. You struggle.
But hey, I’d like to be president, so I’m voting for myself. Same deal. Right? I have the same odds as whichever loser you’re voting for. I’ll be better than either of these assholes. And I’ll definitely win, totally, super special promise. If you doubt me then how dare you vote for anyone else. Plainly we agree that neither leading candidate is flawless, and you aren’t running, so vote for me or you’re a fucking coward.
there’s no struggle. its not a hard decision and my mind cannot be changed. i’m not posting to have someone convince me otherwise or to convince people to come around to my way of thinking.
if you think one or the other candidate is far worse and you ought to vote for the other one even though you don’t actually want them in power that’s okay for you. i’m not doing it.
I don’t believe that “responsibility” is a useful tool for navigating moral choices. It doesn’t matter who’s “responsible” for the trolly. If there’s someone on the tracks, and you consciously decided not to pull the lever, you chose for them to die.
If trans people are going to be killed, and you don’t vote, you chose to prioritize your time over their safety.
Responsibility is a myth invented to assuage guilt for inaction.
I am absolutely going to vote, just not for Biden or trump.
I’m not going to weigh future trans people dying against current Palestinians dying.
Voting 3rd party isn’t going to help Palestinians. If you want to vote for someone who isn’t a Democrat, you should start building a grass-roots electoral movement (the way Bernie Sanders) did now so you can do that next time.
is the argument here that neither party will actually help the pals and voting third party can’t help them either so i ought to vote only based on the other stuff?
so we’re clear, i stopped voting for democrats years ago. it was in part to the constant “next time” and “most important election” rhetoric.
Oh, you’re that weirdo who’s all about how the Holdomor was fake.
Yeah, it makes sense that you would misrepresent my argument like that. I’m still not arguing with a genocide denier.
🤷♀️ the anticommunist historian who got to look at the soviet archives after the fall said it wasn’t intentional and that’s the whole idea behind “holodomor” instead of the “famine in 1930”.
E: oh shit! youre the other person who was slagging on me for this! did you ever get the chance to look into Years of Hunger?