I can’t tell if these people are real or just trying to justify their laziness. Don’t respond to people who call you a radical. Think about every issue and make the choice for yourself. We had two candidates. Vote TODAY, protest tomorrow. I HATE that we’re picking our poison, but we’re all on the same ship. For some reason, 50% of the country wants to sink that ship, but what do I know?
They’re real. Some of them try a utilitarian argument of a long-term “The Dems will never understand if you just keep GIVING them your vote!” which ignores the realities on the ground of what message politicians get from non-voting, and also the difference between the importance of a message and the importance of preventing a literal fascist. Like, this isn’t 2008 or 2012. It’s not even 2000 or 2004, gruesome and murderous as Bush was. This will significantly hinder our ability to influence the polity going forward - assuming we don’t end up in camps or graves.
Others are just viewing voting as they’ve been taught to by American society, which does not place especially emphasis on civic duty - they view it as a spiritual exercise, a kind of personal prayer to democracy, something that is an expression of their soul rather than an attempt to use the political power generations fought and died over to achieve what you can in, and against, other political coalitions. For them, if there is something offensive to their morality in the practical choices, that’s enough to not vote.
If they don’t vote, they tell themselves, they aren’t responsible. And I’d agree that they aren’t responsible, but in a different meaning of the phrase.
I can’t tell if these people are real or just trying to justify their laziness. Don’t respond to people who call you a radical. Think about every issue and make the choice for yourself. We had two candidates. Vote TODAY, protest tomorrow. I HATE that we’re picking our poison, but we’re all on the same ship. For some reason, 50% of the country wants to sink that ship, but what do I know?
They’re real. Some of them try a utilitarian argument of a long-term “The Dems will never understand if you just keep GIVING them your vote!” which ignores the realities on the ground of what message politicians get from non-voting, and also the difference between the importance of a message and the importance of preventing a literal fascist. Like, this isn’t 2008 or 2012. It’s not even 2000 or 2004, gruesome and murderous as Bush was. This will significantly hinder our ability to influence the polity going forward - assuming we don’t end up in camps or graves.
Others are just viewing voting as they’ve been taught to by American society, which does not place especially emphasis on civic duty - they view it as a spiritual exercise, a kind of personal prayer to democracy, something that is an expression of their soul rather than an attempt to use the political power generations fought and died over to achieve what you can in, and against, other political coalitions. For them, if there is something offensive to their morality in the practical choices, that’s enough to not vote.
If they don’t vote, they tell themselves, they aren’t responsible. And I’d agree that they aren’t responsible, but in a different meaning of the phrase.