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Don't ever stop (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 1 point 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (7 children)

Because they do slightly less harm than the fascists. I'm not even voting for the Dems, I'm just voting against the fascists. It's not a cheap dodge, it's the whole principle. Voting isn't going to give us "good" anytime in the.near future, so trying to use it for that is foolish. The comparatively slow march towards fascism under the Dems gives us time to utilize tools besides voting: mutual aid, community building, workplace democracy, etc.

I think you fundamentally misunderstand the concept of "harm reduction". It doesn't mean "Vote for Democrats because they will reduce the harm caused by fascists". It means "Both the Dems and fascists cause harm, but the Dems cause less harm, and since one of the two is going to win in the current political landscape, voting for Dems reduces the amount of harm added".

The only rational voting strategy is voting for leftists in the Democratic primary, and then voting against the fascists in the general, even if that means voting for the neo-lib. If you want to vote against the fascists while also voting for a leftist, you need to make sure leftists win the Democratic primary. We're seeing that starting now.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (6 children)

    The only rational voting strategy is voting for leftists in the Democratic primary, and then voting against the fascists in the general, even if that means voting for the neo-lib.

    That strategy is only rational if you believe that voting progressive in the primary will create change faster than the status quo will kill us all. And forty years of the party continually fucking off further right at the behear of it's Wall St paymasters screams loudly that that belief is a fantasy, and your strategy is delusional.

    You continue to hand power to the people making things worse and pretend you're doing harm reduction.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    That strategy is only rational if you believe that voting progressive in the primary will create change faster than the status quo will kill us all.

    False. The best strategy is still the best strategy even if the outcome is still bad. Voting for a third party has a worse outcome. Not voting has a worse outcome. Despite voting for Dems still being a bad outcome, it is the least bad achievable outcome. Hence, harm reduction.

    And forty years of the party continually fucking off further right at the behear of it's Wall St paymasters screams loudly that that belief is a fantasy, and your strategy is delusional.

    On the contrary, it screams loudly that protest voting is not only ineffective, it's counterproductive. When they lose progressives, they don't shift left, they shift right to try to get more centrists.

    You continue to hand power to the people making things worse faster and pretend your protest achieves something. It does not, the rightward shift of the Democrats screams this.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (4 children)

    Voting for a third party has a worse outcome. Not voting has a worse outcome

    Only if you're a spoiled child incapable of thinking any further ahead than right now.

    In the king term your strategy has no chance of ever improving anything. Your best case outcome is "thing get much worse. But a little bit more slowly".

    You're clinging to the ratchet for fear of the wheel, when the only answer is to destroy the whole machine. Voting outside the duopoly or abstaining altogether offer even a slim chance of that. The good news is the chances get less slim with each person who gives up on the genocidal war party in disgust, so the numbers are shifting in ways that give me hope. In ankther cycle or two, when even more Dem voters realize that the DSA isn't going to change anything either, I expect the rate of attrition for the Neoliberal ghouls to increase starkly.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Only if you're a spoiled child incapable of thinking any further ahead than right now.

    On the contrary, that's your position. You want the revolution right now without the work required to build it, regardless of who gets hurt in a failed attempt. Spoiled and short-sighted nonsense.

    the only answer is to destroy the whole machine.

    We don't have the organized power to do that yet.

    Voting outside the duopoly or abstaining altogether offer even a slim chance of that

    Only in your mind. Not in reality. There is absolutely zero evidence that that works.

    when even more Dem voters realize that the DSA isn't going to change anything either, I expect the rate of attrition for the Neoliberal ghouls to increase starkly.

    Counterproductive doomerism. You're not a serious adult.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    You want the revolution right now without the work required to build it,

    Said the ShitLib to the people doing the work to build the revolution, despite the best attempts of the ShitLibs to convince them to abandon that work and vote for the status quo.

    We don't have the organized power to do that yet.

    And you never will if you're "organizing" with people who don't recognize the DNC as being just as much the enemy as the GOP. The Democratic Party absorbs and neuters any organizing it sees being done, just ask Occupy Wall St. Or wait 5 years and ask the DSA. If the climate wars haven't killed them all by then.

    There is absolutely zero evidence that that works

    There is a great deal more evidence this will work than there is that continuing to guarantee your vote to Neoliberal ghouls on exchange for no political concessions whatsoever will.

    You're not a serious adult. Oh no! The ShitLib lamb doesn't think I'm a serious adult, how will I ever console myself!

    You're still a selfish child voting to protect your privilege and comfort instead of being brave enough to abandon the reassurance of a mainstream party to try to affect real change. You're such a coward that you stand on the sidelines haranguing anyone who draws to step outside the lines painted by your masters, and it disgusts me. The Dems are already showing that they're about to throw trans people under the bus, so in two years when we do this again, you'll be arguing how we have to support that in order to keep some other imaginary worse thing from happening, and you'll still lack the self awareness to recognize that the "center" you're defending has once again lurched right and taken you with it.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    brave enough to abandon the reassurance of a mainstream party to try to affect real change

    Being bad at math and ignoring political reality does not make you brave. It makes you foolish and short-sighted. Like I said, an unserious, counterproductive child.

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