"#US ambassador to #Canada goes on expletive-laced tirade at #Ontario’s trade representative"
It's just so fucking embarrassing
Americans:
WILL YOU PLEASE FUCKING #VOTE
enough of your "BoTh SiDeS tHe SaMe" mindless lies and your "votes don't count anymore" premature spineless capitulation
get off your fucking asses and fucking vote, for the side that sucks, but is obviously better. it matters
incremental improvement works, toxic idealism means shit
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ambassador-hoekstra-rant-9.6957854
This entry was edited (5 months ago)
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David Scott Moyer
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •"enough of your "BoTh SiDeS tHe SaMe" bullshit and your "votes don't count anymore!" premature capitulation spinelessness"
THIS THIS THIS
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Neil E. Hodges
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • •like this
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES, Scott Miller 🇺🇦 🇺🇸, Pepijn, ●, Seán Fenian, John Anderson, Ianto Jones, WideEyedCurious 🇺🇸 💙 🇺🇦 & 🇨🇦, Russell and ❄️SnowyIn🇨🇦❄️ like this.
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Democracy Dies in Dumbass
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Ahh yes, "Diplomacy"
"#US ambassador to #Canada goes on expletive-laced tirade at #Ontario’s trade representative"
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ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Democracy Dies in Dumbass • • •my country is going rapidly down the toilet
partly because of MAGA fascist bigots
and partly because of these cringe weak "but i want perfect" nonvoters
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Democracy Dies in Dumbass
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Yeah, but they get really bitchy when you (accurately) blame them for Trump being back in office.
If it weren't for the 7 million or so who stayed home or voted third party he'd be rotting in a jail cell today...
pardon my crudeness, but voting third party is like masturbating into a fan...It might feel good at the time, but it creates a huge mess that someone else is going to have to clean up.
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Grassroots Joe
in reply to Democracy Dies in Dumbass • • •@ShredderFeeder
That number is over 15 million.
Way to Win has dug deeply into the cohort of nonvoters they've dubbed Biden Skippers, 2020 Biden voters who sat out 2024.
There are multiple episodes of their Charting The Way Forward podcast discussing their research, including surveys and focus groups, as well as conversations with folks like Terrance Woodbury, Cornell Belcher and Chuck Rocha.
Check them out at https://chartingthewayforward.buzzsprout.com/
@benroyce
Charting the Way Forward
BuzzsproutJohn Mierau
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •John Mierau
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to John Mierau • • •right
and if people SHOWED THE FUCK UP in the #primaries that wouldn't be as big a problem
of course corporate centrists #democrats would still win some races
but less
then you *iterate*. you keep voting. you keep participating. you keep at it. it's not fucking hard!
then even less centrists win next round
if people SHOWED. THE. FUCK. UP.
instead of not showing up and whining the choices suck
no shit, and that's on *you*, nonvoter
#vote!
#primaries #primaries2026
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SlightlyCyberpunk
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@john @ShredderFeeder Not everyone has the time to do that research. It ain't always easy. I'm regularly voting based on literally nothing more than a four year old interview on local radio from when the person was running for some different office. And for some races even that would be a lot of information. In at least one election all I could find to go on were photos of the candidate putting up yard signs! You only even get *claims* about what they want to accomplish at the highest level races, and even those require carefully watching their past history to know if they actually believe a single damn word of it. I struggle to figure this shit out and I'm invested enough to be taking classes on how to research candidates!
It'd be great if we had a party that actually held their candidates to some standard; an organization to do some of that vetting for us; instead of Ds and Rs that switch parties like an NFL draft without actually changing their positions...
Running under either party is basically just running with a corporate sponsor at this point. The only thing it proves is money and/or connections. And if you truly believe that people can all independently determine and vote for the best candidate then why does it matter which party? Why do we need parties at all? These organizations are either irrelevant or failures. Or they're highly successful as gatekeepers against us.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •and none of that will ever change until we all participate
meanwhile making up endless excuses for why we won't participate by cynically positing these problems as insurmountable obstacles only means we're saying "i accept this"
of course we don't accept it
so we need to fucking participate!
and thereby change the system. which will not happen overnight. so we persist. resist. fight!
it is the only way
not voting is acceptance
#vote
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SlightlyCyberpunk
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Voting for an organization that is trying to keep you out is acceptance.
Things will change when we participate in the work of actually organizing our communities and building institutions we can trust. The voting part matters but it's far from the most important thing. It won't do shit until we fix some of these other structural issues first.
"If voting changed anything they'd make it illegal"
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •bullshit
the democrats are not omnipotent space aliens
the democrats are who we fucking vote for
you're conceptualizing the issue all wrong, by positing the democrats as an unchangeable other. no. they are just me and you *if we show the fuck up and vote*
meanwhile, if you ignore your political process and only do community work and mutual aid, eventually MAGA just comes to machine gun you laughing
you have to work for better politically
you have to
SlightlyCyberpunk
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@john @ShredderFeeder The DNC is a large and wealthy institution with its own influences and agenda and which is not accountable to the voters. That is the problem we need to change. But you can't just vote that change into existance. That's not how the party is structured. It is not a democratic institution. It's not clear how we can actually make that change happen.
And sure, we can sometimes overwhelm that influence, but perhaps it would be easier if we weren't constantly fighting against these entrenched oligarchic systems.
The Democratic party knows that running independent is not a lost cause. They do it all the time when a progressive wins the primary. Now suddenly that progressive has all the baggage of their party, while the newly "independent" Democrat gets to pretend to be the outsider. They've proven they can win with that strategy. Why don't we use it too? Because they tell us it's impossible while they prove over and over again that it isn't. Because they tell us to "vote blue no matter who" while they fuck off and vote corporate no matter who. We need to stop pretending that those people represent our interests. We need to stop feeding their machine.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •"But you can't just vote that change into existance."
motherfucker have you heard of a primary?
have you heard of mamdani?
fuck off with your weak cynical acceptance
your rationale is part of the problem of *why* the democratic party is the way it is. because you meekly accept, you don't fight it
fight!
Democracy Dies in Dumbass
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •But when someone wins the primary who can't win the general, where do we end up?
Like it or not, the US is a two party system. The rules of the house, and the electoral college almost guarantee it. I'm all for changing those rules, but I don't see it happening any time soon.
290 to win is why we have a two party system. We'd be better off with a parliamentary system, but the founding fathers didn't see fit to make that a thing.
@admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com @john
SlightlyCyberpunk
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •mizblueprint
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •Woah. I'm going to interject something here. Most of our government services are provided by local governments. Most of those elected positions are non-partisan. Vetting local candidates is easy, because they show up and knock on your door. They have door knock pieces that list their credentials and priorities. Once they have served in your city or county for a while, they may run for "higher" office. You know these people and can judge their character.
SlightlyCyberpunk
in reply to mizblueprint • • •@mizblueprint @john @ShredderFeeder I have literally never in my life had a candidate show up at my door. Although until last year I was in apartment complexes where they wouldn't be able to get in so that might be part of it. You'd occasionally find a stack of flyers stuffed into a crack by the buzzers or something but even that was usually just the larger races. In my experience, the more local the race, the harder it is to find anything beyond a list of candidates' names...
Then sometimes you'll find a link to the candidate's "official website" and get excited that you might be able to get at least a couple sentences about them only to discover that their "website" is an Instagram page that only has photos of them putting up yard signs...and even the signs don't even have as much as a slogan, just their name!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •all you have are endless excuses not to participate
do you think the problem might be your rationale?
the world is not built to make your life easy
and you're built to fight for what is right
so fight, and stop complaining endlessly about everything
mizblueprint
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •I have knocked on tens of thousands of doors for my three terms, and as volunteer for other candidates. In every precinct in the city I served. Apartments, backyard or garage units, the only relevant data was whether or not they were voters. I always had a website and social media pages. Neighborhood coffees, candidate forums, interviews for endorsements, media interviews, unions, civic organizations. Public email address, council email & phone.
Inky says "What the hell?!"
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Sadly, I will have to keep voting mainstream democrat instead or more to the left, in my local elections, if the apparently lefty candidates were not awful people. Like beat their kids awful. Because I want to have that option open to me and not have it derailed by people like that.
I kinda want to primary them.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Inky says "What the hell?!" • • •@InkySchwartz @john @ShredderFeeder
da fuq
Inky says "What the hell?!"
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Yeah.
This was a municipal election between the so mainstream normal candidate that could be either a center left or center right depending on which way you squint and the very leftist one who has a horrible and public personal life.
I could not vote for the latter, as much as I wanted a decent person in that position to vote for. Nor could most residents.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Inky says "What the hell?!" • • •great
i'm certain this anecdote is meaningful for you
we're talking about the general usa
do you think this horrible candidate in your district says something in general?
of course it doesn't
Inky says "What the hell?!"
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Inky says "What the hell?!" • • •@InkySchwartz @john @ShredderFeeder
oh of course
it's also invalid to speak against lefty candidates in general because you personally encountered a fake/ a douchebag purporting to be on the left. that's an anecdote, not evidence of anything more broadly
and i don't think you were trying to do that, but please scroll up and see how your response can seem to imply that. at the very least, define the specific context of your words and provide the caveat that you support the left, in general
Inky says "What the hell?!"
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Inky says "What the hell?!" • • •Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@ShredderFeeder
Asking for people to be better than the least of two evils is before voting for them is hardly demanding perfection. People need a system that allows them to vote for who they want not just who they don't want least.
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ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️ • • •absolutely true
and you get that with participation
you're not dealing with people making coherent demands before they participate
you're dealing with lazy entitled wankers making excuses not to participate
you give them what they want?
they just make up new excuses not to vote
that is who we are dealing with. *that* is the problem
you can't respect this, it's impossible
you smack these people upside the forehead and demand they wake the fuck up
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The Sleight Doctor 🃏🍉
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder The worst part is, there's no reason to allow extreme cynicism about the electoral system (which I share!) to become an excuse for non-participation, let alone a reason to deride others for refusing to give up on it.
I personally know hardcore anarchists who would prefer, ultimately, to see the entire apparatus of the state dismantled. Yet they still bloody vote, if only out of spite towards the most right-wing candidate. 😆
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ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to The Sleight Doctor 🃏🍉 • • •@ApostateEnglishman @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
god bless those anarchists!
they can think, unlike so many empty entitled nonvoting whiners out there
Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️ • •Relevant. We won't get a new system if we continue to allow the current system to thrive. :/
Neil E. Hodges
2025-10-29 16:33:43
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES likes this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •@tk @ShredderFeeder @the5thColumnist
exactly!
does the #usa voting system suck?
absolutely
so what do you do?
some of you don't #vote
then what happens
obviously, it gets worse
🤦 🤦 🤦
but if you hold your nose and participate, it will still suck...
but a little less
then you iterate. and it sucks even less next round
that's how you do it!
meanwhile, what does whining and sitting things out achieve, genius nonvoters?
HELLO?
#vote motherfuckers
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I_give_u_worms
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to I_give_u_worms • • •well then pack your bags for the concentration camps
because if you never fight, it's endless MAGA fascism
i agree plodding incremental strategy is dreary and boring
and we need a left candidate with fire in their belly to appeal emotionally
this isn't a problem. that's human nature. there's no denying it
but you have to understand:
we're talking about assholes who don't even show up in the primaries to get those real left candidates!
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Grassroots Joe
in reply to I_give_u_worms • • •Did she clearly lay out the negative ramifications of sitting out the election?
Did she own up to not being perfect, but inarguably a long way better than the adjudicated rapist, especially for people of color?
Did her campaign employ effective communication methods and channels to get her message to people she really needed to hear it?
Did her campaign leverage highly effective ads produced by progressive groups?
...
@tk @ShredderFeeder @the5thColumnist
Grassroots Joe
in reply to Grassroots Joe • • •@i_give_u_worms
No, no, no, and no.
Especially the last one. Amplify Freedom, a construct of the Freedom Over Fascism Movement Briefing consortium, produced great ads addressing attacks on immigrants, LGBTQ+ people in general, trans people in particular.
Harris' campaign didn't appear to know they existed much less put $ behind them.
If they had Bob Casey, maybe Sherrod Brown would still be Senators, possibly a sane person in the White House.
@benroyce @tk @ShredderFeeder @the5thColumnist
Democracy Dies in Dumbass
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •@tk Disagree. We need incremental change. But if you always vote for the "left-most" viable candidate in every election, eventually we'll get there.
Radical change or "tear it all down" gets people killed, plain and simple..
@the5thColumnist @benroyce
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️ • • •@the5thColumnist Wow, that sounds like people who regularly sit out municipal elections, where people you want are rarely if ever on the ballot. Those rare times you do find someone you want invariably end in disappointment because they *never* live up to your expectations. You vote for the least worst option anyway, otherwise you are letting a shockingly small number of people do it for you.
Choosing not to vote is a de facto vote.
@benroyce @ShredderFeeder
roblosricos
in reply to Deb Nam-Krane • • •@dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
"none of the above" should be an option on every ballot, and if None wins, the election must be held again, without the rejected candidates.
hell, even I'd vote.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Yes I too like to go on social media and proclaim how things should be, then not do a fucking thing to make it happen, even the easiest fucking thing
roblosricos
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
once again, for the people not paying attention -
i just spent 3 weeks at the ICE detention center, 24/7, being gassed and harassed, while you sat on your lazy ass at home.
i didn't get enough to eat most of that time.
i did this to stand up to fascists. as i have done my entire life.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •If you voted, you fucking moron, you wouldn't have to do that
Unfollow me at least, a block is preferable
roblosricos
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
fuck yourself, you order-giving fascist wannabe.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Oh yeah, I'm a fascist because I want you to vote 🤣
roblosricos
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
no, you're a fascist because the US has been a fascist state since 1946, and you've voted to keep it that way your whole life.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Well yes the point is to vote and keep fascism out
What's failing us are the morons not voting and doing call of duty edgelord fantasy life of revolution. Having not the slightest fucking clue what that is really like. They are either violent idiots or agent provocateurs out to sabotage the left
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GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺 • • •i never block
(except those creeps that follow you around to harass you)
when i see posting behavior a normal person would just block, i mock them with an eye on getting them to block me- that's enjoyable. or such that i harvest enough of their behavior to get a server suspend, then i report them (behavior way over the line, like vatnik trolls with their kremlin disinfo, assorted racists, transphobes, etc)
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •I commend you, but I lack that level of patience. I have to carve out time for arguing about important things, like egg cartons.
@Eetschrijver @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Deb Nam-Krane • • •there's no serenity, ie, patience, over here
it's anger
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Deb Nam-Krane • • •@dnkboston @Eetschrijver @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
catharsis
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to Deb Nam-Krane • • •Egg cartons! I trust you've seen my poll?
@benroyce @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺 • • •@Eetschrijver There's *another* poll?
@benroyce @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to Deb Nam-Krane • • •I *think* mine was actually the first!
@benroyce @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺 • • •@Eetschrijver four options? And the last one is the only correct one?
@benroyce @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to Deb Nam-Krane • • •I have as yet no opinion on which of the four is the correct option!
@benroyce @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺 • • •@Eetschrijver Are you going to tell me that you're also registered Independent? Because...wow
@benroyce @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to Deb Nam-Krane • • •I am, in fact, not registered at all. I'm a Dutch national currently living in France and I never claimed American citizenship in spite of insistent urging on behalf of my Californian ex. 😂
@benroyce @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺 • • •@Eetschrijver Well, that explains it then, doesn't it? (But seriously, hope you're voting somewhere.)
@benroyce @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to Deb Nam-Krane • • •I definitely vote whenever and wherever I have the right to vote. Never sat a single one out. And I'm actually on the municipal council of my French village.
@benroyce @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺 • • •@Eetschrijver @dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
oh wow
but you're going to lose your seat in an argument over the supriority of edam/ gouda over roquefort/ camembert
be careful
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •However, I meant getting blocked.
@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺 • • •i get tons of blocks
i consider it a win considering the kind of people doing the blocking
everyone from polite society, who don't like my attitude. i view them with contempt, because polite society is happy to tolerate bigotry as long as its serene. they view someone angry as a problem. anger is what is really appropriate
to the entitled nonvoting shitbags themselves who are enraged i call out their self-serving bullshit
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺 • • •@Eetschrijver I just got one!
@benroyce @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to Deb Nam-Krane • • •Let me guess: from a certain Celestial Mammal?
@benroyce @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
SouprMatt
in reply to GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺 • • •@Eetschrijver @dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder That marsupial blocked me after I dared to question his assertion that the only solution to politics in the USA was to “buy guns” and not vote.
I actually got a MASSIVE amount of blocks on that topic. It turns out that America has a serious mental disease where they love guns more than anything else. And it’s not just right-wingers. Or maybe all those “anarchists” are actually just libertarians with hammer and sickle avatars.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SouprMatt • • •@mls14 @Eetschrijver @dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
"Or maybe all those “anarchists” are actually just libertarians with hammer and sickle avatars."
bingo
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
So one point about that: If you want people to vote, you have make it:
A) Worth the effort (ie: votes actually mattering)
and
B) Not make their life a living hell.
Hint: Ask a "potential swing voter" in a "swing state" how the last year before election feels.
Danny Boling ☮️ reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •why are we catering to people who don't care enough to understand the stakes to their own lives
in which case we're dealing with a moron, no brain (i'm not talking genius levels of political insight, but really obvious choices)
or people entitled and privileged enough that they don't care to do anything but whine
in which case we're dealing with an asshole, no heart
what do you think is actually served by such an approach?
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
First, I'm Danish, so I have grown up in country where 83 to 87% vote for parliament.
Second: Have you actually ever asked a friend, who is a "swing voter" in a "swing state", how many times they get accosted because of that designation and how much that can make life hell, almost constantly ?
Because if the insane voting system in USA, there is an enormous pressure on those "pivot voters", while much of the rest of the voters know that there is absolutely zero chance of their vote changing anything, because of where they live.
And the other part of it is that you dont have two-party system. You have a one-party system which cos-plays as a two-part system, and the voters are plenty smart to see right through that.
If you want to get people to vote, you have to change both of those aspects: Make all votes matter and give the voters a real choice.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
"You have a one-party system which cos-plays as a two-part system"
ah, "BoTh SiDeS tHe SaMe"
Poul: that is an incredibly fucking stupid lie
you're danish?
would harris be making claims on greenland?
be honest
does it matter?
of course
so right there is something huge and concrete for your own concerns, nevermind domestic issues
so stop fucking lying Poul, and doing apologia for morons who believe really stupid lies
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •yelling at assholes buried in mindless lying cynicism, me, is not the problem
the entitled assholes buried in mindless lying cynicism is the problem
i say entitled because they are privileged enough to not care if trump wins, that it doesn't affect them
or they are that fucking stupid to believe it won't affect them
there is a difference that matters
not big enough?
some stupid fuck thinks they are going to get perfect?
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
It's really very simple:
No matter which party you vote for, the 1%'ers get richer and everybody else gets poorer.
All the rest is just play-acting and rearranging the deckchairs as far as I am concerned.
And really, Greenland ?
You know what that is about ?
Area(USA) + Area(Greenland) > Area(Canada)
Area(USA) + Area(Canada) > Area(Russia)
Yes, an orange man with a very small and predictable brain.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
this is the rationale of the 1/3 in the usa that do not vote
another 1/3 is fascist and the final is sane
if the 1/3 who don't vote because "life sucks waaah" fucking voted, maybe we could do something about our problem
your entire rationale is cynicism
you realize cynicism is acceptance right?
do you like plutocracy?
no?
then why are you accepting it
that *is* what you're doing with your rationale
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •and yes to your observation about greenland poul
and???
do we accept it?
or do we make pessimistic posts and leave it at that? what is the fucking point of that?
besides, again, cynicism
which is what again poul?
that's right: acceptance
cynicism is acceptance
do you accept this bs?
no?
then you tell people to fucking #vote
right?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
And you seem to have missed the important bit about me be Danish:
Never mind the effect of it, I dont even get a vote, but I have to live with the shitty consequences of what has gone on in your dysfunctional country for my entire life.
I'm Danish and yet my first memory of non-children television was the Vietnam war, and it has gone downhill from there.
So I have every right to be cynical, and to call your sorry excuse for a democracy a one-party system cosplaying as a two-party system.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
then stop lecturing americans trying to fix things on the premise of your broken useless cynicism and your ignorance about how the stupid american voting system works
you're not helping
go get drunk and call americans assholes. we are
but don't think for a second anything you are writing here is going to fix the problem. since you're cynical, you don't even care about that, all you want to do is whine
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Said Every EU person to visit USA: "That could be such a wonderful place, if only they got their shit together for just one week!"
But if you think voting is going to get USA out of the mess, you are almost certainly wrong, and if you think voting for one of the existing parties will do it, you are very very wrong.
There are three ways USA can get out of the current mess and there's no telling how long that will take:
1. Military Coup. That is, after all, very much "The American Way". Probably not happening, too many fascists in uniform, but strictly speaking the have sworn to do so, in a situation like now.
2. Somebody untainted by current politics and widely known and trustworthy runs for a new third party. This is the Havel/Wałęsa/Zelensky model. Colbert can probably pull it off.
3. California leaves, USA. They're big enough. Some NE states may join Canada. The technical term is "civil war.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •you know poul, i've been treating you with kid gloves
gloves off
you sit there, happily posting from denmark, dictating to americans boring mediocre cynicism and
1. not to vote and do a fucking *coup*(!?)
3. do 3rd party (doesn't work in an fptp voting system, but you're ignorant)
4. dissolution of the usa(!?)
poul:
do me a favor and never speak of american politics again
you are an idiot
please stop following me
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
1. By all means vote, but never vote against your own interests, which means dont vote for the 1%'ers sock-puppets, no matter what they call their party.
2. I can count.
3. You do know that the current two parties in USA are not the same as the first two parties in USA, right ? Even in a shitty system like yours, change can happen.
4. »When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another[…]«
It doesn't say "single use only"
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
obviously there are fascists as a problem
but then there is also this lumpenproletariat like poul regurgitating easy lazy cynicism and thinking "i'm helping!"
you're sitting in denmark lecturing americans to dissolve the country, have a fucking coup, or do 3rd party in an fptp voting system
*all of that only helps the fascists, genius*
you lack the care or intelligence to see how
stop talking about what you don't understand
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Ben, there is this thing called "perspective", and one of the ways you can get one, is by being an observant outsider.
There is also "lack of perspective" which often happens to people so deeply on the inside, that they no longer think an outside exists or matters.
I do think I have some perspective, I have lived in USA, my kids have USAnian mother and are dual citizens, and I have been forced to powerlessly observe USA closely for all my life.
You on the other hand lack perspective, so much so, that you cannot even imagine a third party existing, much less that USA could ever reconfigure, and you curse the voters, many of which saw clearer than you, that voting for either party would not improve things for them.
But I understand why you're upset, but anger wont win you a "Velvet Revolution".
And since I'm quite sure you have no idea what that is: Look it up, it's USA's best chance.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •you want us to have a coup, to dissolve the country, or vote 3rd party in an fptp voting system which helps maga win
i instantly lost all respect for you for posting that
you don't have perspective
you're an idiot
don't worry about my request to you to unfollow me, i forced you to unfollow me already
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Thanks!
You were getting pretty tiresome to have in my feed.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
bye idiot
crumbletiltskin
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Poor Ben, still thinking that voting is somehow going to correct the situation.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •a mediocre cynicism reply and immediate block from crumbletiltskin
coward
running away from dealing with a poster on mastodon?
morons who think mass murder on the street is the solution, also being such incoherent cowards, says everything we need to know about their edgelord pathetic cosplaying
all the while watching what mamdani is doing
😂
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to Deb Nam-Krane • • •@dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Of course a civil war would be bad!
But that doesn't mean it's not going to happen if the shit-show is not stopped any other way.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
and at the same time, you're proposing a coup or a dissolution of the usa
pick a lane, deep thinker
do you want us murdering each other in the streets yes or no?
because you're in another comment saying you're looking forward to it
this is how i lost all respect for you
Annavirrpanna
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@phloggen @dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Another outside perspective.
It's american exceptionalism again. Somehow the US threat to democracy is completely unique, never happened before or elsewhere. Nope. It is uniquely bad, and impossible to solve politically, by voting. Nope, it's a one way fast lane to hell (or cosplaying armed revolution heaven) and we better give up beforehand.
Annavirrpanna
in reply to Annavirrpanna • • •@phloggen @dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
How TF do these people think democracy works? By refusing to participate because the system is flawed? Yeah, that'll show them!!
Annavirrpanna
in reply to Annavirrpanna • • •@phloggen @dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Also also... WTF people, you do know that people dies for the right to vote, Have died. But you can't stand the indignity of voting for someone far from ideal. Perspective please!
As a last resort: PLEASE vote for the lesser evil for us poor bastards in the rest of the world. We have to live with your choice, or your laziness.
Lynn McAlister UE :mstdn:
in reply to Annavirrpanna • • •Annavirrpanna
in reply to Lynn McAlister UE :mstdn: • • •@lmgenealogy @phloggen @dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Yes! And yet several people, on this thread, keep arguing for not voting. Mindblowingly irresponsible, and selfish and just...
Annavirrpanna
in reply to Annavirrpanna • • •@lmgenealogy @phloggen @dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
I refuse to believe that they actually believe it would be as bad as now with another president in your country. That's Trump voter-levels of stupid!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Annavirrpanna • • •@annavirrpanna @lmgenealogy @phloggen @dnkboston @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
some nonvoters are just that stupid
some of these anti-voting accounts you see are fake accounts, doing a purposeful troll farm psyop to achieve the intended effect: weaken the left turnout to help trump
and then some of them are victims of said psyop, thinking they are doing something "principled" because they fell for the lying manipulative bullshit
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •All of you who are not engaged in disinformation campaigns will like this. I rarely share YouTube links, but this is worth it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx6VNa1pMpQ
@annavirrpanna @lmgenealogy @phloggen @roblosricos @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
roblosricos
in reply to Annavirrpanna • • •@annavirrpanna @phloggen @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
democracy works by ALWAYS creating a minority to oppress. and that's what you vote for, every time.
like: "they're killing protesters!"
voters: "that has to stop!"
later: "they're killing homeless people!"
voters: "they are following the (anti-homeless) laws."
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •just wait until rob figures out how other forms of government work
rob the political science professor is in for an exciting voyage of discovery about oppression in non-democratic societies
would you like to tell us how homelessness is handled in authoritarian societies rob? go ahead, scholar rob, educate us fools
roblosricos
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@annavirrpanna @phloggen @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
shit-for-brains, i am experiencing homelessness in the USA.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •rob, no one has a problem with your words because you are experiencing homelessness. i am sorry that you're homeless
the point is homelessness is not unique to democracy. homelessness sucks everywhere. in russia you can be shipped off to murder/ be murdered in ukraine. in china if you are not in the hukou system you're persona non grata for social services. other countries have it better, some worse than the usa
Democracy Dies in Dumbass
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •I've been homeless in the past... I've been VERY homeless....
Sometimes the only fix for homelessness is taking all your anger and putting it into not being homeless anymore...
When Rob masters channeling his anger into something useful instead of being pissed off on social media, well then he might stand a chance...
But since vivaldi.net is defederated on my server, he's not going to see this message...
@roblosricos@vivaldi.net @annavirrpanna @phloggen @dnkboston @the5thColumnist
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Democracy Dies in Dumbass • • •@ShredderFeeder @annavirrpanna @phloggen @dnkboston @the5thColumnist
rob is entitled to any opinion he wants
i will meet him at his opinion
if his opinion is related to homelessness i will defer to his lived experience and not be so arrogant as to assume my opinion has more value than his. but if his opinion is not on homelessness, but on comparative social safety nets in other countries, my knowledge is as good as his. unless rob has experience being homeless in other countries. do you rob?
roblosricos
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@ShredderFeeder @annavirrpanna @phloggen @dnkboston @the5thColumnist
i don't give a fuck about social safety nets in other countries. how does that affect me in the slightest?
last saturday, the police took everything from me. i didn't even have a sleeping bag to curl up in, and couldn't replace mine for three days.
so forgive me if i'm feeling especially bitter and hate-filled at the moment.
James Wells
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen
Yes to the orange Shitgibbon it was about growing the US, but that does not answer the core question @benroyce was asking: Would Harris have done that or even said she wanted to do that?
It might not be much, but it is a difference between the 'two parties'. But that too misses the point, if the mentally deficients had voted, perhaps we would have had Harris or even a third party president...
1/2
@roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
James Wells
in reply to James Wells • • •@phloggen
Remember, roughly 40% of eligible voters chose not to vote, that means that the rest of the candidates combined had 60%, of which Chump got 49%... AKA roughly 30% of eligible voters, meaning those 40% could have elected whoever the hell they wanted and in their stupidity chose to stay home.
@benroyce @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Just Bob
in reply to James Wells • • •James Wells
in reply to Just Bob • • •@justbob
That is an important question, but also kind of a trick. The 40% that chose not to vote were people who were eligible to vote meaning they were not purged and were instead qualified to vote.
We don't know, or at least I am not aware of it, how many people were purged and not allowed to vote or how many votes were discarded for insufficiency. But again, that 40% does not include those people.
@phloggen @benroyce @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Just Bob
in reply to James Wells • • •With all of them demanding ID and places sweeping #homeless people as well as stealing their ID, 771,000 people often CAN'T even vote. Just to add to the nonsense... I've been out for 14 years and have given up on even having papers even though I'm qualified to vote.
@nikatjef @phloggen @benroyce @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Just Bob • • •meaning what for those who still can vote?
all the more reason we must show up
to even begin to approach a position where we can fix that
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to James Wells • • •@nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Cursing the people who probably most desire change, for not voting in an election that would not give them any, does not make any sense.
USA needs a 3rd party which is not beholden to the 1%'ers.
Create that, and will guarantee you the 40% will come running to vote for it.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
so you're depending upon people who can't reason their way out of a wet paper back, and elicit an amount of care akin to spitting on the street, and you think great passion is what motivates them?
nevermind you have NO FUCKING CLUE how our shitty fptp voting system works, but still think you have a right to comment on what you don't understand
James Wells
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen
A very little known fact about the US party system: it is not set in stone. To create a new party simply requires starting one. And to get federal funding / support merely requires 6% voter turn-out. The US actually has more than 10 parties on the books. The libertarian party and the communist party are two of the biggest, but they tend to be a bit disorganized and fail to register their candidates properly.
@benroyce @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
A_Minion
in reply to James Wells • • •How is a 3rd party going to change anything. 1group is solid, 1group is following tradition, 1group is saying they don't care. So you have divided the ones that should be supporting what is Left in half. In this case they fucked themselves. As I've said before Biden/Harris was trying to give them what I hear many on that left want, medical, global warming a chance for a future.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to A_Minion • • •@A_Minion @nikatjef @phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
a lot of people proclaiming "3rd party" are elsewhere in the world like europe with zero clue how fucked the american fptp voting system is
they are lecturing from a position of ignorance
you are correct:
3rd part only divides one side and the other side wins
in our fucked up system
until we can change the voting system to get stable viable 3rd parties, the only way forward is to take over the democrats
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@A_Minion @nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
And yet, fucked up as it is, a 3rd party getting to power has already happened once.
Have you already forgotten, or did you never learn about "The whig party" ?
Almost 10% of your presidents came from that party.
So instead of saying a 3rd party is impossible, stop your whining and get of your lazy butt and start one!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •the whigs are from the 1840s you colossal dimwit
a better example:
ross perot, who divided the right and handed bill clinton a win in 1992
or all the morons who voted for nader in florida, throwing the vote under the microscope because it was so close, handing gw bush the supreme court aided "win" in 2000
*that is all 3rd party is good for in the usa currently*
learn it
or stop fucking talking ignorance
feld
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •the hardest part about getting a 3rd party traction is that the current system is directly controlled by the RNC and DNC. They are the ones who run the debates. They will just choose to never include a third party. They also have the power to buy every single ad slot available to ensure no third party candidate will ever get space to advertise their campaign. It's pretty scary.
Also most Americans don't even realize that the two parties are literally private corporations, not public institutions.
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to feld • • •@feld @dnkboston @nikatjef @A_Minion @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder @roblosricos
It will absolutely be an uphill battle, and if history (of other countries!) is anything to go by, you need a political outsider with high name-recognition to pull it off.
About the only place to find that kind of name-recognition these days is entertainment, (see also: Zelensky) which I why I think Colbert is somebody who might be able to do it.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @feld@friedcheese.us @dnkboston @nikatjef @A_Minion @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder @roblosricos
but feld is lying or an idiot
no 3rd party will ever make it in our current stupid voting system, ever
not because of corruption (i'm not saying corruption isn't a problem)
but because of math
*please educate yourself*:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law
principle in political science
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@dnkboston @nikatjef @A_Minion @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder @roblosricos
Duverger's law only says that two parties tend to dominate, it does not say anything about what the elections outside "tend to" look like, nor that it will be the same two parties forever.
And as I already pointed out: Happened more than once in USAs history already, using the precisely same flawed rules of election.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @dnkboston @nikatjef @A_Minion @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder @roblosricos
it happened in the 1840s, and then there was a civil war
that doesn't tell us a fucking thing about the modern day
what does?
ross perot in 1992
ralph nader in 2000
you are idiot or a liar purposefully trying to help fascism
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@dnkboston @nikatjef @A_Minion @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder @roblosricos
USA still has the exact same mechanisms of election as it had in the 1840'ies.
QED: Not impossible.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •jramskov
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to jramskov • • •@jramskov @phloggen @dnkboston @nikatjef @A_Minion @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder @roblosricos
i love denmark
if the usa were run like denmark i would fall to the ground and weep from joy
obviously, poul is not representative of what makes denmark work
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •You know what the true hallmark of fascim is ?
"Either you're with me or you're against me - no room for nuance!"
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @dnkboston @nikatjef @A_Minion @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder @roblosricos
it's called reality Poul
there's also people who think vaccines harm more than disease, and that climate change isn't real
you don't respect that
in exactly the same way you don't respect idiots who don't understand what duverger's law means
rejecting stupidity and lies is not fascism
MidgePhoto
in reply to A_Minion • • •@A_Minion
Works well with ranked preference voting, single transferable vote or something more proportional.
Given three party candidates, rank them in order:-
Unlikely to be elected but virtuous
May be elected, somewhat virtuous
Might be elected, ghastly without virtue.
So you might be surprised by your first choice being elected, but you are no less likely to have your second choice elected.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to MidgePhoto • • •@Photo55 @A_Minion
right but to get that change people need to show up and vote and participate
instead they vote 3rd party *before* we get the voting system change, helping MAGA
or they use our broken system as an excuse not to vote, which, again, helps MAGA win
MidgePhoto
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@A_Minion
Ah well. People.
SouprMatt
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder I hate to tell you this, but you don’t understand the first thing about US politics.
Thanks for the tips and advice (aka pipe dreams and vapid platitudes) but they are worthless since you can’t comprehend even the basics of our system.
PS - We had a well-funded 3rd candidate in 1992 and it only increased voter turnout by 5% from the previous election.
PPS - You’re claiming that people who most desire change don’t vote? IMO they must not desire it very much if they won’t even get off their couch. Like, if you REALLY desire change and your answer is to sit around and whine instead of AT LEAST voting? Nah you just don’t give a 💩.
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to SouprMatt • • •@mls14 @nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
You seem to confuse "well-funded" and "popular" ?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @mls14 @nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
And if people don't vote all the money the plutocrats are spending to shape the turn out is working
You're not even in the USA and you're working your hardest to suppress/ divide the American left for fascism
Mister Shade
in reply to SouprMatt • • •@mls14 @phloggen @nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder Yeah. Never thought I would use the term “ keyboard warriors” myself, but sadly we have them here on Mastodon.
People who demand things and insist upon things, but support nothing and no one and do nothing themselves.
Push back against this wherever you see it, it helps Mastodon (and the real world)
JamesBont
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
We have this in Germany, and yet the opposite is true. The stupidity of non-voters and voters is even greater than that of politicians. And sometimes you wonder if democracy isn't abolishing itself precisely because of this stupidity?!
🤔
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to JamesBont • • •@JamesBont @phloggen @nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
If people dont vote that is what will happen
JamesBont
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@phloggen @nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
Seit #AFD, #BSW und dieser #Union, keine Ahnung mehr, Ben.
Hinzukommt dass die Demokraten es sich dann durch schräge Bündnisse - vor denen etliche warnen - trotzdem eingehen.
Hinzukommt dass die Medien und deren Populisten einen gewaltigen Einfluss haben und die Menschen lieber solchen Marktschreiern zuhören. Wenn die Bildung völlig im Arsch ist auch irgendwie kein Wunder mehr.
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to James Wells • • •@nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
People in Denmark and Greenland dont get to vote in USA's elections, so that question is not even wrong.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •@phloggen @nikatjef @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
but at least one of them can lecture americans on the premise they don't understand a fucking thing that they're talking about
Democracy Dies in Dumbass
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@roblosricos@vivaldi.net @dnkboston @the5thColumnist
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Democracy Dies in Dumbass • • •from shredderfood.com?
i forced their account to unfollow me
or maybe there is a delay here
Democracy Dies in Dumbass
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •LOL
@roblosricos@vivaldi.net @dnkboston @the5thColumnist
Ilka 🌐
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •and so, due to people thinking like you en masse, the chance of a #UBI gets even more remote
but if you participate, and iterate, you slowly inch your way towards the possibility
your rationale *guarantees* there will never be a UBI
the only way you get a UBI is to participate
if you withhold your participation until you get what you want, right now, rather than slow plodding boring iterative progress, you only make sure the chance of a UBI is zero
not voting *never* works
#VOTE!
Neil E. Hodges likes this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Neil E. Hodges likes this.
Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Luupies • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES likes this.
Luupies
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •Neil E. Hodges likes this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •so you vote to change that
you participate
you don't sit there and whine about corporatist democrats being omnipotent. they are in fact extremely weak now
are you an eternal victim? do you cynically believe nothing ever changes?
no
just say what you want, and fucking vote for it
you participate
nothing will change until you do, and if you endlessly make up weak excuses for why "everything sucks and then you die, waah" *you* are the one making sure that is so with your rationale
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Your position makes sense but I have been following politics, notably US politics for decades, and that's where that conclusion comes from
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •i agree with you 100%
the problem is *how*
and the solution is participation, relentlessly
and our enemy is plutocrats and bigots, of course
but it's also these lazy entitled assholes who go
"but it's not faiiiir... but it's haaaard... waaaah... i'm not voting, we should just get what we want right now with no effort"
man, fuck these uesless fucking lumps. sometimes i think they are our greater enemy than MAGA
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •yes, and you do that in the primaries
not in the general election when the alternative is MAGA
there's a time to make demands, and a time to strategize
then iterate and ratchet towards better
but some people make demands when the negotiations are over (the primaries are the negotiation, you're showing up in them, those who are reading along here, right?)
and some don't ever do any shit at all except whine
reshared this
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES and Solarbird :flag_cascadia: reshared this.
SSFC KDT 💚💙⚽🌹💻🍺✌
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SSFC KDT 💚💙⚽🌹💻🍺✌ • • •but this observation can apply to any political process in any country real or imagined, in all of history and forever more
so you're just voicing mindless cynicism, not reality
of course you can have better
*if you work for it*
*and persist*
instead of making excuses to accept bad as you are doing
those who intend malice *love* your rationale
so don't give that rationale to them, serving them
you are accepting their abuse with your rationale
cynicism is acceptance
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Seán Fenian
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Either resist, or bend over and kiss your ass goodbye, because sooner or later they will come for you if you do nothing to stop them.
Luupies
in reply to Seán Fenian • • •Seán Fenian
in reply to Luupies • • •Luupies
in reply to Seán Fenian • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •@luupies @zakalwe @ssfckdt
but you won't ever get that until you show the fuck up and persist
then you get UBI
"UBI or bust" then not voting until you get that, just means you'll never get UBI
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Brad Macpherson
in reply to Luupies • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Brad Macpherson • • •@brad @luupies
i agree with both of you but we're never going to get any of those changes until people show the fuck up and vote
that is the root problem we can work on
participation will change things
nonparticipation is just whiners accepting the abuse
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •@luupies @brad
i hear you!
it's all good 😁
Seán Fenian
in reply to Brad Macpherson • • •We are very, very, very slowly making inroads with ranked choice voting.
The establishment is fighting it tooth and nail because they know it means the end of their stranglehold on power.
Footnote:
I came up with a way to implement proportional representation on top of the basic existing US electoral system. People would SCREAM BLOODY MURDER, but it would work.
Jimmy
in reply to Luupies • • •Luupies
in reply to Jimmy • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •"B*mb* G**v*rr*"
are you fucking serious?
fuck you you fucking shitbag
please unfollow me
Jimmy
in reply to Luupies • • •Luupies
in reply to Jimmy • • •Jimmy
in reply to Luupies • • •Luupies
in reply to Jimmy • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •@luupies @jhavok
yes, asshole
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •@luupies @jhavok
"LOL LMAO ROFL"
aren't you the cutest edgelord
fucking shitbag
Jimmy
in reply to Luupies • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Jimmy • • •Luupies
in reply to Jimmy • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •@luupies @jhavok
yes, you're an immature edgelord
go play call of duty little kid
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •yes, you deserve the insults, because you deployed a misogynistic slur
welcome to grown up life, child:
show respect, get respect
be a disrespectful turd, talk to the hand
capisce, asswipe?
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •@luupies @jhavok
it says you still follow me
but there is a delay in the ui
did you stop following me?
please do so
or block me, even better
FUCK OFF
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Jimmy
in reply to Luupies • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Jimmy • • •@jhavok @luupies
i've met this guy in youtube comments. they think they're so edgy. just an immature disrespectful loser
Luupies
in reply to Jimmy • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •@luupies @jhavok
yes, we're crying
that's what we're doing, yup
hey friend: did you ever notice how the emotionally immature project their own frustrations and difficulties in life in their lame edgelord shtick? you can read them like a book like that
anyways, stop using misogynistic slurs, fuckstick
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@jhavok stop talking of immature and projecting frustrations... you're the one that started insulting and went on posts after posts. Get a fucking mirror and take a good look at yourself... and then change your bio because you're the opposite of that.
And there's nothing mysoginistic at calling aoc Bimbo Guevarra.
Saying "women are inferior, belong in the kitchen", and such is mysoginistic. Calling ONE woman a Bimbo is NOT.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •@luupies @jhavok
unread
uninterested
i asked you to stop following me
do so or block me, or the next response from you gets a block from me
Luupies
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Luupies • • •Gemma Seymour
in reply to Jimmy • • •@jhavok @luupies@mastodon.social @benroyce That is useful advice, but it really doesn't apply when the candidate in question isn't meaningfully "left". Voting for a conservative who wants you destitute, disempowered, and dead isn't a meaningful improvement over voting for a fasicst. AOC and Mamdani are, in the context of #USpol, two of the only true leftist candidates.
The problem we have is that centrist and conservative DINOs have no interest in acceeding to even the most minor policy demands of the left.
Jimmy
in reply to Gemma Seymour • • •@gcvrsa What a vivid imagination. Facts:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-in-republican-counties-have-higher-death-rates-than-those-in-democratic-counties/
One candidate belongs to a death cult, the other candidate just wants society to function. Some people don't see the difference.
People in Republican Counties Have Higher Death Rates Than Those in Democratic Counties
Lydia Denworth (Scientific American)Jimmy
in reply to Jimmy • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Jimmy • • •yup
AOC and Mamdani are there because people voted in the primaries
and this generalized whining like Gemma's about "not left enough" is used as an (invalid) rationale to not vote, which means we won't get any more AOCs and Mamdanis
the democrats sucking is a problem, yes
but people not voting is the bigger problem, and part of the *cause* of the democrats sucking
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Jimmy
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Darwin Woodka
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@luupies
not voting works but not the way they think it does
Seán Fenian
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •reshared this
Solarbird :flag_cascadia: reshared this.
JustBob 🪖🇺🇸♒️
in reply to Seán Fenian • • •@zakalwe
Democratic mayors deployment of armed police against unarmed homeless civilians is NO DIFFERENT
---
The Silence Continues (Just Bob 538 @ https://venmo.com/code?user_id=3063551149211648869)
The silence is deafening. Always hearing about this country or that one, this group or that one but the silence continues for #homeless people.
(Amendment I) Sorry, you don't have the right to assemble in public space even in protest because your homeless.
(Amendment IV) Sorry, you don't have the right to be served a search warrant when we steal your only way to stay warm and dry.
(Amendment VIII) Sorry, your under arrest for trying to survive in public spaces in the middle of winter/heatwave after the city/state/federal has taken everything from you and there is absolutely no place to go to get out of the weather.
A short time ago, #Trump decided that 770,000 people have no US Constitution rights when he declared it #Illegal2BHomeless across the entire country. Not only do we now have to be on the lookout for city cops, shariffs, state cops, National Guards that also forgot the oath we say when joining the US Military, we have to be looking for every day haters who won't hesitate to kill us for simply not having a paid for place to live.
But the silence continues.
Venmo | Street Roots - Add vendor's name and badge
venmo.comᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to JustBob 🪖🇺🇸♒️ • • •@bob @zakalwe
democrats fucking suck but you know what MAGA intends for the homeless
so which do you prefer?
and then you can work on them to get something more humane
remember, perfect isn't on the menu
JustBob 🪖🇺🇸♒️
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@zakalwe
I not only "prefer" the same US #Constition as everyone else AND i swore to defend, I DEMAND IT, after all. I was willing to die for CRUD oil, how about giving my life in defense of ALL THE PEOPLE IN AMERICA
Richard Levitte
in reply to Seán Fenian • • •@zakalwe Yes and no. Depends on how you think when you vote.
If you follow your heart when it's time to vote, not voting at all is essentially a vote of no confidence regarding all available parties.
These days, though, it's difficult to follow your heart, exactly because it's an uneven playing field, and a "vote of no confidence" doesn't work. It's quite sad...
A question, would you say the same to those that voted for Bernie Sanders?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Richard Levitte • • •i voted for bernie sanders in the primaries
i gave money to bernie sanders
then, in the general, i voted for hillary
not because i like hillary
i despise hillary
i voted for hillary *because i'm not a moron*
there is a time for using your heart
and there is a time for using your brain
and unfortunately, there's a lot of people out there with big hearts, and no brains
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Patrick Morris Miller
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Patrick Morris Miller • • •😂
keep 'em coming! you have a greater level of wit than me: you say what i say in far fewer words
Seán Fenian
in reply to Richard Levitte • • •Urzl
in reply to Richard Levitte • • •James Wells
in reply to Richard Levitte • • •@levitte
No, it is not a vote of no confidence for the simple fact that there is no one who will count your vote. Instead they hear nothing from you which to them means that you don't care and are willing to leave it up to the party bosses. Not voting is the absolute dumbest thing any American citizen can do.
If you really want a vote of no confidence, write Mickey Mouse or "Weird" Al Yankvich. They will count it and it tells the bosses you don't like your choices.
@zakalwe @benroyce
George B
in reply to James Wells • • •And if you do that on the big race on the ballot you might find that some of the smaller races have people you actually like and vote there which you can't do if you stay home
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Shannon Prickett reshared this.
Paul Wermer, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
in reply to James Wells • • •The place to make your opinion clear is in the primary. In the general, resign yourself to voting for the lesser of 2 evils, or accept the fact that we get the current mess, thanks to all whose conscience kept them from voting.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Paul Wermer, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 • • •@PaulWermer @nikatjef @levitte @zakalwe
it wasn't their conscience
it was their indolence and narcissistic self-regard
that's the "conscience" of the nonvoter
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
rk: it’s hyphen-minus actually
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@PaulWermer @nikatjef @levitte @zakalwe
“I’m sorry I didn’t vote for the secret third thing that would have resulted in neither of them winning.”
roblosricos
in reply to Paul Wermer, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 • • •if you continuously vote for the 'lesser of two evils,' what you are voting for is evil.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •@roblosricos @PaulWermer @nikatjef @levitte @zakalwe
Except for the minor detail that every political contest that ever existed and will ever exist is a contest between the lesser of two evils. No human being is pure. Everyone has dirt on them. And in vicious politics, even very good people are smeared as evil in some way, and morons believe
Hannah Arendt's quote is used as a lazy thought-terminator
Hannah herself would be frustrated with how her quote is misused by do-nothing whiners
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
roblosricos
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@PaulWermer @nikatjef @levitte @zakalwe
i just spent 3 weeks at the ICE protest camp, 24/7. call me a do-nothing whiner again, know-nothing asshole.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •You're a do nothing whiner if you don't vote. Because if you voted you wouldn't have to do that
If you vote I have no problem with you
And I am an asshole. But I'm right about this
Dopes The Frogman
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Paul Wermer, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
in reply to roblosricos • • •@roblosricos @nikatjef @levitte @zakalwe
I'm sure your ethical integrity remains intact by refusing to vote for the lesser of 2 evils.
And I'm sure there are thousands of people grateful for the worse of 2 evils that won as a result - those who will lose SNAP, the immigrants abused by ICE, the kids who will die because they didn't get vaccinated, the larger number of people who cannot afford healthcare, thios who pay more for everyday needs because of absurd tariff policies.
Amoshias
in reply to roblosricos • • •@roblosricos @PaulWermer @nikatjef @levitte @zakalwe and you're voting for MORE evil - but doing it in such a way that you get to feel smug about it.
That seems a lot worse.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Amoshias • • •@Amoshias @roblosricos @PaulWermer @nikatjef @levitte @zakalwe
who?
rob by not voting?
or the "you" rob is referring to
Amoshias
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Amoshias • • •@Amoshias @roblosricos @PaulWermer @nikatjef @levitte @zakalwe
thank you
exactly
roblosricos
in reply to Amoshias • • •@Amoshias @PaulWermer @nikatjef @levitte @zakalwe
that's bullshit - neither party has much of anything to offer to me, or my vision of what life could be, here on earth, if there were not so many laws preventing it from happening.
i'm always willing to come to the aid of my neighbors, with a shovel, food, or a gun.
but people keep voting for 'law and order,' and idiotic economic fantasies that never work the way they are described as working.
voting is for 'believers.'
the problem with believers is - they'll believe anygodammedthing.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •@roblosricos @Amoshias @PaulWermer @nikatjef @levitte @zakalwe
Good for you, you're dropped out of society
Some of us want to try to fix it
Do we have your permission Rob?
Or is what is important to you is you planting your cowardly weak "everthing sucks and then you die, waah" ass on online discussions
If you quit society, fine. Good for you.
So prove you mean what you say and fuck off
James Wells
in reply to roblosricos • • •That is an extreme simplification and fails to take the argument to it's logical conclusion. If you continually vote for the lesser of two evils, you are eventually voting for then good, all the way to the two best choices for good, just one of them is the lesser good than the other.
@PaulWermer @levitte @zakalwe @benroyce
Seán Fenian
in reply to James Wells • • •As long as they can make you pick one of two choices that they select in advance, you're lost. This is why they're all so upset about Mamdami. They didn't get to pick him.
The long-term answer here is modern ranked-choice voting, so that you can vote your conscience, the candidate you really want, without penalty, without "throwing away" your vote — and yet still have the 'lesser evil' as a fall-back JUST IN CASE.
James Wells
in reply to Seán Fenian • • •@zakalwe
I have long been a fan of ranked-choice voting, especially in the primaries as it tends to weed out the more extremist members of each group / party... Having said that, we will never get there if people keep choosing not to vote, instead we will keep dealing with the worst of each party
@PaulWermer @roblosricos @levitte @benroyce
Juggling With Eggs
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •My observations from across the pond:
- Canadian politicians and reporting seem very quaint (I mean that it the nicest possible way)
- If you don’t participate, you can’t complain, you are part of the problem
- Playing Reagan back at Trump and the MAGA was an absolute blinder - Brits my age remember him as a B actor who flirted with Thatcher, had dementia while still in office and was talked into ending Cold War by Nancy and Gorbachev. But he’s a absolute GOP hero!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@DarthAstrius
thank you
👏 👏 👏
xs4me2
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to xs4me2 • • •SSFC KDT 💚💙⚽🌹💻🍺✌
Unknown parent • • •@DarthAstrius The primaries don't even matter. First of all, even if you manage to win a primary, you have to have people show up to be delegates through the whole long process, or else those seats go empty and uncounted. Secondly, even if you make it to the end game, in the DNC you have an additional cadre of establishment, party-line insiders with their thumbs on the scales. If you can't win them over, you shoudn't start.
Obama did it -- by making sure he was establishment-friendly.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SSFC KDT 💚💙⚽🌹💻🍺✌ • • •"The primaries don't even matter"
i stopped reading here
you want to tell that to those who showed up for AOC?
for those who showed up for mamdani?
you do not speak of reality
you speak of your own mindless cynicism. you speak for acceptance of abuse
your rationale, en masse- all those who weakly whine and accept via weak, lying cynicism, only serves the MAGA agenda
so fuck off with your mindless acceptance
your cynicism is as bad as MAGA
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
shakethedisease
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to shakethedisease • • •that's exactly it
nonvoters do not have principles
nonvoters have privilege, entitlement
they either don't care because it doesn't affect them
or they are so dumb they think it won't affect them, when it certainly will
people who don't vote are not even on the left
the left is a political position, an ideology, an agenda
what nonvoters have is a psychological position:
self-regard. ego. narcissism
their agenda is "i want to feel good about myself, fuck the real world"
#VOTE!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
xyhhx :bunny_sunglasses:
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •keep telling yourself that. anyway, cool to see you bringing awareness to sudan
@evoluxa
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to xyhhx :bunny_sunglasses: • • •thanks for the slight, and then the compliment
i'd prefer you listen to what i say, and not have a compliment
because i'm right on this
nonvoters are pathetic fucking turds whining on our way to fascism, and helping it along with their nonparticipation
shakethedisease
in reply to xyhhx :bunny_sunglasses: • • •@xyhhx
The only reasons I can think of for when someone is unwilling to participate in order to resist fascism in all forms is that they either support it, feel as though they won't be one of the groups targeted by the regime for persecution, don't believe the threat 'can happen here', or are under the impression that the accompanying horrors are 'worth it' in the hope that when the regime collapses it will be replaced with one that perfectly aligns to their chosen ideology (and that they themselves will survive - basically that the LGBTQ+, minorities, and dissidents killed and tortured to get there are acceptable losses).
We saw the same kind of behavior in the Spanish Civil War, where the more extreme anarchists originally called for people to abstain from voting rather than vote for the Popular Front coalition. Those same anarchists would later be forced to fight alongside the Popular Front in the war against the Nazi-backed Nationalists.
Justin Macleod
in reply to shakethedisease • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Justin Macleod • • •@JustinMac84 @evoluxa @xyhhx
well then you're talking about spineless turds who deserve fascism
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@AeonCypher @admin @john @ShredderFeeder
that's it:
#learnedHelplessness
they see corruption, money in politics, gerrymandering and disenfranchisement, liars who change positions and use waffle words, etc
then they do something inexplicable:
they give up. they accept
they imagine corporatist centrists dems as omnipotent aliens they can do nothing about
no, you spineless turds, you just show the fuck up in the primaries
your cynical weakness is a bigger problem than corruption
#VOTE!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Carolyn
Unknown parent • • •Magical Cat
Unknown parent • • •@mloxton @admin @john @ShredderFeeder
I have another personal cheat for that, and it works worldwide, what to expect from a politician in another country, or here in Georgia country where I am.
See what this politician says about Ukraine, russia terrorist state, and war criminal putin.
I understand that at "the west" many politicians tend to ignore foreign policy altogether and even lack a brief page about foreign policy at their programme websites. But this says a lot to me too.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@admin @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
who fucking gives a shit
you never get perfect
you always get some sort of compromise with the devil
it's *politics* for fucks sake, not a holy purity party
*obviously* mamdani is better, you agree with that and you see that, so you go for mamdani
*then you iterate to better*
*there is no better deal. ever. anywhere*
you don't invent these endless whining excuses for why things are not perfect, then use that as an excuse not to participate
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
SlightlyCyberpunk
Unknown parent • • •Space Burger Steve 🌌🍔🤪
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@ssfckdt @DarthAstrius Despite what anyone says, most of the world doesn't look to the USA as any kind of beacon or leader, especially in Canada, where we get tired of being in your shadow.
Having said that, primaries are one thing the USA has that I wish we had here. To have a say in who a party leader is, you have to join that party, and most parties won't let you join if you already belong to another party. Even then, only parliament gets to vote for who the prime minister will be.
TLDR: Appreciate what levers you have.
Francisca Sinn
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
PetterOfCats
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@AeonCypher @admin @john @ShredderFeeder
you see it with AOC too
"oh no, look at {X}, oh no, she's not perfect"
and then they endlessly whine about left elected officials... and utterly ignore MAGA
da fuq?
navel gazing self-destruction
some of them might be genuinely this fragile and impotent
but they might as well be MAGA or geopolitical troll farm trying to hurt the left with this weak psyop, because that's the only real world effect
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@aapis @RegGuy @zakalwe @levitte
no, you're misrepresenting Joe's words
Joe (TBA)
Unknown parent • • •Joe (TBA)
Unknown parent • • •Democracy Dies in Dumbass
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@AeonCypher @john
I couldn't figure out why I was only seeing half the argument here, then it dawned on me...
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@alexadeswift @evoluxa
well, where are you?
i'm just scoping these words to american nonvoters
no one has a problem with people who can't vote, the problem is people can vote but choose not to
Democracy Dies in Dumbass
Unknown parent • • •@CStamp I've always heard it said "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
it's pretty straight forward. Vote for the best of the available options, or conversely, vote against the worst.
I didn't think Hilary Clinton was the best option we could have fielded, but I fucking voted for her because I knew how this ended even back in 2016.
@benroyce @admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com @AeonCypher @john
Ferret
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@Ben Royce 🇺🇦 🇸🇩 Be honest: If Harris was suddenly magically in office tomorrow, do you think that, in the next three years, she would actually fix anything that Trump has done? Would the tariffs end? Would the support for Israel? Would the oppression at the border, and ICE agents, and military?
No. She'd just keep doing it, only the media would say less about it and her toadies would be so much more hand-wringy about it. The odd time it would get brought up, they'd go, "Well, we're working on it, but these darn Republicans just keep blocking us!" or "We made this one tiny concession!" like they always do.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the Republicans would be storming because the Dems aren't being evil enough, and meanwhile would get even worse for next time.
That's how this works. Ironically, electing Democrats actually makes shit worse. We say "both sides same" because they really actually are.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Ferret • • •"do you think that, in the next three years, she would actually fix anything that Trump has done?"
yes
try harder, "BoTh SiDeS tHe SaMe" lying ignorant troll
Ferret
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@Ben Royce 🇺🇦 🇸🇩 Welp, Biden didn't. Obama didn't. In fact, they both just took what the Republicans before them did and quietly made them worse. Meanwhile, they were called "the wokest president the US has ever seen" and used as an excuse for the following Republican administration to become worse still.
And you call me ignorant? You need to base your rhetoric on reality.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Ferret • • •@ferret
ok "comrade ferret" thanks for the lesson in moronic disinfo based on believing nothing ever changes, deploying mindless denial of the radioactively obvious, and wallowing in zero effort cynicism
sorry, i mean "reality" 🤣
truly the stunning height of intellect, i have been schooled
fuck off you pathetic lying troll
❄️SnowyIn🇨🇦❄️
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@ferret
SlightlyCyberpunk
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder because we all know MAGA fuckin sucks, but so many people pretend the DNC is our damn savior. They're not. They're mostly keeping people trapped in a cycle of voting for corporate stooges. They keep people voting for assholes like Manchin because "At lEasT he'S nOt a RepUbliCan!" and thinking that alone is going to be enough to save us.
Vote for the best person on the ballot regardless of which, if any, party sponsors them. Support the best person running regardless of how much money they've got. And support community groups beyond those owned by a party that's owned by corporate interests. We'd be in a much better place if people did some more of those.
Carolyn
in reply to Democracy Dies in Dumbass • • •John Francis 🇨🇦🦫🍁💪⬆️
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Content warning: channelling Shoresy
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to John Francis 🇨🇦🦫🍁💪⬆️ • • •Content warning: channelling Shoresy
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@mrose @luupies @zakalwe @ssfckdt
mitch a warning: luupies is deploying misogynist slurs elsewhere in this thread. not worst your time
Dave Dee HAS MOVED
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •my god we're glad this f*kin Hoekstra idiot pissed off from the Netherlands. This is a fckin MAGA fantasy book dimwit claiming all sorts of Facebook facts and then imagining stuff of his own.
Imagine when people thought ambassadors were actual ambassadors to build trust and relationships. Nope, not this fckin dweeb Hoekstra.
I'm glad we got rid of him. But i'm sorry this piece of sh*t is now someone else's problem.
Bruce Elrick
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Thanks for being embarrassed and expressing it (on behalf of many Americans is how I'm interpreting it).
As a Canadian it helps me cope.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •@admin @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
yes, yes, i'm well aware of the endless endless "dems are omnipotent beings of power i can do nothing about, and i'll criticize the fuck out of the left side of things and ignore the right literally murdering us" level of brilliance
MAGA and Russia love your broken mentality friend
is it that you don't care about the effect of your rhetoric? or is it that you're deploying this rhetoric on purpose to sabotage the left? which is it?
SlightlyCyberpunk
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder The DNC are the ones sabotaging the left by endlessly convincing people to vote for the kindler, gentler oligarch. The Democrats are still a right-wing party by any objective metric.
If we have the power to reform the Dems, then we have the power to stop fucking around with these corrupt middle-managers and build something better. If we don't, then we need to fix that first before we can do anything else. Either way I don't see where getting in bed with corporate lobbyists and CEOs actually helps us.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •an election:
60% support the left
40% support the right
who wins?
if we #vote, Dems do (the nominal left party in the #USA, as much as they suck, and they do)
what happens in reality?
MAGA obediently votes, whiners on the left go "i want perfect, waah"
40% vote GOP
30% vote dems
20% whine on social media and don't vote
10% vote for stunt unicorn rainbow party
who wins?
welcome to #FPTP voting
nonvote/ 3rd party is support for #MAGA in our shitty system
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
David Bramian
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Taking Hannah Arendt's advice: Vote for the lesser of two evils, and never forget that you voted for evil.
I mean this literally. I never thought I'd support a candidate whose campaign normalized a genocide. But I did vote for Kamala and I would again.
If you feel good about voting R then you're evil and stupid. If you feel good about voting D then you're just evil. Either way you don't deserve freedom.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to David Bramian • • •the problem with this is that every single choice, in every single society, from the dawn of time, to forever, can be phrased as a choice between the lesser of two evils
that's all politics ever was and ever will be
forever
perfection is never on the menu
all you get is better. or worse
that's it
there is nothing else
Hannah Arendt herself would probably say "okay you misunderstood me, we're talking about MAGA you stupid fucks, just vote already" (probably not her exact words)
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
craignicol
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Tobin Baker
in reply to craignicol • • •craignicol
in reply to Tobin Baker • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to craignicol • • •which you get by voting, not by making declarations on social media
everyone hates FPTP. but you have to work through that shit to get past that shit
it's the only way
craignicol
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •@admin @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
again, i told you i am well aware of this endless cynical "BoTh SiDeS tHe SaMe" shtick. it doesn't impress me. you do not speak of reality. you speak of your mindless cynicism and weak helplessness
you speak of your acceptance
"no i don't"
you do
what you do is you fight, and you start with the tools before you
speak of the fight, or be pegged as another whiner helping MAGA. because that is all you are doing whether you are aware of it or not
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Gemma Seymour
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Gemma Seymour
in reply to Gemma Seymour • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Gemma Seymour • • •you yourself can't speak of wisdom if you speak of lack of meaningful difference
i believe there is meaningful difference between the GOP and the Democrats
i don't say there shouldn't be more meaningful difference, of course there should be
but no one serious is saying there is little meaningful difference, which is an ignorant lie
so i will continue to speak and claim wisdom, since your words do not dispute my words, because the basis of your objection is unsound
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
SlightlyCyberpunk
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Ian
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •obscurestar
in reply to Ian • • •@soviut I don't know that it's possible. It may just be part of being on the left. Here's the underlying issue:
The right craves power. They don't dig, they don't question.
The left craves equity often to treating all items with equal weight.
The right will disingenuously use liberal (eg: cishet male 'but lesbians need to be safe from trans') arguments.
The left is diverse, we will consider these arbitrary divides. Investment can make some lose sight of the broader picture.
Ian
in reply to obscurestar • • •@obscurestar I get it; I just think that the left needs to consider how much worse the alternative is.
Unfortunately, you're not voting FOR a candidate, your voting AGAINST the party that wants to destroy you.
obscurestar
in reply to Ian • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to obscurestar • • •@obscurestar @soviut
well said but i'm going to shame the fuck out of nonvoters
if for no other reason than it's a hail mary- one of our few options for a path back to sanity
of course i'll just turn a lot off. but they don't vote anyways, so they're already useless
and you can't cater to their precious feelings, we're supposed to be talking about fucking adults
and their feelings suck anyways, it's all self-congratulation on their precious precious self-regard at the expense of reality
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Alan Campbell
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
SouprMatt
in reply to Alan Campbell • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •you assume non-voters feel shame about not voting.
@obscurestar @soviut
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson @obscurestar @soviut
that's true
narcissists don't care about anything else but the mirror
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •yes, but not all non-voters are narcissists and not all narcissists are non-voters.
@obscurestar @soviut
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson @obscurestar @soviut
absolutely correct
thank you for dismantling your own blanket statements
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •what blanket statements have I made?
@obscurestar @soviut
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Astrius ☭
Unknown parent • • •Another thing, if your state supports ranked choice voting, and there is a more progressive candidate running against the Democrat, rank that candidate first, and the Democrat second.
We need ranked choice voting in the United States, join your state Ranked Choice Voting organization. #USpol #RankedChoiceVoting #RCV #supportRCV
Andy
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •@admin @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
100% false
every single choice, in every single society, from the dawn of time to forever, is a choice between the lesser of two evils
that's all politics ever was and ever will be
forever
perfection is never on the menu
Hannah Arendt herself would probably say "okay you misunderstood me, we're talking about MAGA you stupid fucks, just vote already" (probably not her exact words)
all you are telling me is that you are guided by toxic idealism
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Cap E Bara
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Cap E Bara • • •@cap_ybarra
if you vote, you're doing something right
the problem is all the other assholes around you not voting
you joining them in not voting, because you perceive things are getting worse even though you vote, is misattribution of the source of the problem
the problem is nonvoters
and you joining them won't solve the problem you accurately perceive, it will only make things even worse
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Mark T. Tomczak
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •@AeonCypher
It's fighting when the other side is choosing the greater evil, which they are.
Yes, no argument there. The concern is this toxic pattern on the left of "I hate both choices so I'll stay home" when one of the choices wants to force you to stay home forever.
I think the thing that flabbergasts me most about leftists is that they act like the Dems can't be co-opted and changed from within while, meanwhile, MAGA is the result of the fascists co-opting and changing the Republicans from within. The Tea Party co-opted politics in one party starting at the local and state level and percolating up, until they were electing anti-scientists to state and federal office.
Like... Are the leftists just going to throw in the towel and accept they're less effective than fascists? If so, they'll, sadly, get the outcome they deserve.
They get one Bernie Sanders near the finish line, one time, and when he doesn't succeed they give up and say "I guess everything's doomed forever." Don't declare the hill not climbable because you put your hand on a stone and realized they're made of rock, right?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@privateblack
keep my sober my friend! you're thinking clearly
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •Baron Von J
Unknown parent • • •The primaries are so ridiculously ignored in this country given how many people say they won't vote at all because the candidates aren't good enough.
@benroyce
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@rzeta0 @mark @admin @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
so the democrats suck on gaza
and the GOP sucks worse
right?
but to not vote for the democrats, en masse, means the GOP wins
so, guided by your feeling for gazans, you can wind up hurting gazans even more, if your rationale helps the GOP win
that is not your intention. your heart is in the right place. but sometimes cold strategy and a willingness to accept better instead of perfect might be the best choice for those you care about
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@rzeta0 @mark @admin @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
that's not true
the democrats are *marginally* better than the GOP on gaza
it's perfectly fine to think that is not enough
but then you're saying you don't care to do anything to try to improve the usa's position on gaza, just because all you get is minor improvement
ok then
well i do care
and there's lots of other issues too i care about
so we have "both sides the same, do nothing" vs "not really, also other issues, do something"
🤷
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@jstatepost @admin @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
oh i knew already
i'm the guy who sees the giant nest of wasps and runs into it with a shit eating grin
😅
D Ingram
Unknown parent • • •@AeonCypher @admin @john @ShredderFeeder The $ spent on voter suppression has changed my mind about Australia's compulsory voting (*attendance at polling place). The electoral commission does everything they can to make sure citizens are enrolled, and when counting votes the presumption is the vote is valid if intent is clear.
Not having to spend effort encouraging or discouraging voting changes the influence dynamic. Actual policies matter. And lots of pork barrelling.
Steve Holden
Unknown parent • • •If ever America failed a “lesser ov two evils” decision (usually the only choice) it was the last presidential election. Harris was not an attractive choice, but look at what it got.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@AeonCypher
absolutely
maybe you're cueing me in on a rationale i didn't consider:
do people think "not being a purist" means "no standards at all"?
i guess i have to be explicit about these things because your objection seems obvious to me
but i suppose your right:
some people think that not being a purist means accepting nazis, which seems crazy to me. there is an intermediate road here: rational standards. but i suppose i should be clear
John Mierau
Unknown parent • • •@AeonCypher @jstatepost @admin @ShredderFeeder
I'd like to carve out a small exception in this discussion: I agree purity tests are the moral equivalent of punching yourself in the face...
...but minimal viable standards of not racist or Nazi or Fetterman, please.
libramoon
Unknown parent • • •@tregeagle @admin @john @ShredderFeeder
not voting is letting all those strangers vote for you
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@AeonCypher
both of you aren't helping shit, and only voicing a mindless cynicism that accelerates our slide to fascism
it doesn't matter if your hearts are in the right place if you're not strategizing effectively
if we listen to you two, we might as well just give up and let the world go to even far worse shit. you realize it can do that right? do you care? are you not aware? does the pain of how much it sucks now force you welcome even worse?
SlightlyCyberpunk
Unknown parent • • •@rzeta0 @mark @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder Yup. And supporting them even though they suck is never going to get us a better option.
And hell, even once you get someone through the primary they immediately start shifting right. Dems assume anyone left of center is going to be forced to vote for them anyway, and there's no party mechanism to keep them in line, so they keep moving further right in an attempt to "expand their base". (Or maybe they just do what their big donors say, either way it's the same effect) That's why Harris was literally campaigning with Republicans, touting endorsements from war criminals like Cheney!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •no steve is fine. i think it's just a language thing
"attractive candidate" does not imply physical beauty in the minds of an american english speaker. it immediately brings to mind a candidate attractive on issues
fediverse is international so these things happen, and it's ok. but really, there's nothing in what steve said that you're reading into it
it's just a language thing. it is what it is
Ilka 🌐
in reply to Steve Holden • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@rzeta0 @mark @admin @john @ShredderFeeder
alright, i'll tell mamdani and omar that
come on tariq: posturing amongst bigots and racists for power struggles over the issue of gaza and israel is nothing at all like the principled stand you're looking for. these people on the right have no problem genociding anyone anywhere. you can't look to them for anything. at best you get lies, and then more murder. please, don't misrepresent what these MAGA tools are, and don't fall for their snake tongues
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@AeonCypher @admin @rzeta0 @mark @john @ShredderFeeder
yes you can dig deeper psychologically with these sort of fake leftist nonvoters
does the narcissist looking in the mirror saying the things that make them sound good and pure really care about anything else in life?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •where's the evidence that incrementalism works?
We've seen a decline over the last 100 years, and things have not incrementally gotten better.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson
because people don't vote
you can't look at a problem and misattribute the source of the problem
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •yes, if you wish to destroy democracy, you frame your statements starting with the proposition that that end goal is already reality
but is that reality? or mindless cynicism
and if you've already arrived at "everything sucks and then you die waah waah" why even speak at all?
you have it all figured out
let the silly fools in the mud fighting for something better struggle
and you may laugh, as your propositional empty cynicism requires
i see you
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •you've arrived at the 'we must vote to change things' conclusion when there are other ways, more effective ways, to change things.
edit: I don't think you see me, maybe sometime you will.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson
well that's true: i don't see you if you only allude mystically to "other ways" without speaking on them
you must speak plainly what these other ways are, as i speak plainly on the ways i believe will change things, and let those other ways be criticized as obliquely as you criticize the ways i articulate
otherwise, it's not a matter of not seeing you, it's more a matter of there is nothing to see at all:
you got nothing
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson
Welcome to Pope Bob… you can do anything at Pope Bob… anything at all… the only limit… is yourself…
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •SouprMatt
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to SouprMatt • • •@mls14 yes.
@benroyce
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •YASSSS
@mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson @mls14 no, Jeff Yass will not be at that particular conclave
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Yass
U.S.-American money manager
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •AHHHH but it is! and you should love it!
@mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •i'm waiting.
@mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •what have we started?
@mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •what? OK.
@mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •what is working?
@mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Ashwin Dixit
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson @mls14
If I posted when, you'd have to kill me.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Ashwin Dixit • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •what's the Subject 35b incident? I would like to learn from mistakes.
@purrperl @mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson @purrperl @mls14
There is a 34b and a 36b but there is no 35b
Ashwin Dixit
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@bobdobberson @mls14
Catch-22 ?
Ashwin Dixit
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@bobdobberson @mls14
Nobody can be told what rule 35b is.
Fuck around and find out.
We'll let you know if you've broken that rule.
Then, we'll break you.
https://youtu.be/C-CG5w4YwOI
Ashwin Dixit
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@bobdobberson @mls14
Can I get some Soros bucks too please? Soros is a stoner too. He'll like me.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Ashwin Dixit • • •Ashwin Dixit
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@bobdobberson @mls14
I don't smoke marijuana, only Ganja/Cannabis/Pakalolo.
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to Ashwin Dixit • • •@purrperl Soros wants you and me to be dead.
@benroyce @mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Ashwin Dixit
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@bobdobberson @mls14
EVERYBODY wants to MAGA!
We just disagree on the time-frame.
Republicans want to take America back a century or two, with slavery, and their privilege intact.
Native Americans want to take America back 600 years, before colonists committed genocide and took over the land.
Democrats are the least ambitious. They only want to MAGA to a year ago, when they were all comfy cozy.
Take America Forward, not try to regain some old glory based on lies and murder.
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •lol, MAGA because I see Soros as an enemy? Interesting...
@purrperl @mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Ashwin Dixit
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@bobdobberson @mls14
Weapons of Mass Distraction
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to Ashwin Dixit • • •@purrperl Suck some #DrunkBobDJ ... Weapons of Mass Destruction...
Mass Destruction by Faithless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzgBD2wysuI
@benroyce @mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Ashwin Dixit
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@bobdobberson @mls14
Thanks! Y'all introduced me to faithless tonight. Instant fan!
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •could you be wrong? How does that make you feel?
@purrperl @mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •do you feel that way often?
@purrperl @mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •no. I feel wrong too often to feel too upset by it.
@purrperl @mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •er...? OK... Yes... Soros is just as bad as anyone else who has accumulated wealth.
If you for a moment imagined that I favored Soros for any reason, please take that as a moment to understand that you do not know me.
I've never seen Soros as a 'positive' in any direction.
@purrperl @mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson @purrperl @mls14
I dont really care about your specific feelings about soros
I consider any focus on soros specifically, as opposed to seeing plutocrats in general as the enemy, as a sign of maga indoctrination
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ah, I see. And is there someone you 'suspect' of "MAGA indoctrination" ?
@purrperl @mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •you are a Bilderberg "reptilian"?
@purrperl @mls14
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson @purrperl @mls14
Yes
Now hold still
Psionics are almost complete
And in a moment all of this will be properly psychologically retrofitted and you will be properly tranquilized
SouprMatt
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Chris L
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Chris L • • •pope bob has a narrative to sell that is important to their garden variety low brow retail cynicism
it's a stale dreary flimsy narrative, but let them try their song and dance so we can be entertained by the effort
then cut it down with ease
SlightlyCyberpunk
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@rzeta0 @mark @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder The way I see it you're the one giving up and accepting whatever scraps the billionaires drop for you.
I'm still fighting to build something better. We should have done that fifty years ago, but second best time is now I guess. The rest of the developed world managed to figure it out, why do you insist that America can't ever have anything better than our current two-party system?
Ilka 🌐
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Indeed I have never heard the use in this manner for a male candidate, thus my remark.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •@AeonCypher
oh is that what you're doing?
are you growing this better country in your vegetable patch?
at best you're organizing some local mutual aid, and since you ignored the make up of your politics, the fascists just come and machine gun you laughing, since you let them have all the power without a fight
you're helping the fascists by not participating
and making any other struggle you are doing infinitely more difficult
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Patrick Morris Miller
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@rzeta0 @mark @admin @john @ShredderFeeder
right and how do we make mamdani and omar the majority?
you do so with my rationale
with your rationale, we give up and let even the tiny minority disappear, and then things certainly get worse on everything you care about
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Ilka 🌐 • • •are you german?
i wouldn't be surprised if this made sense, in german
i'm just saying, and i'm being honest with you, when someone says "attractive candidate" in a general political sense in american english (and they aren't in a bar with a drunk lout), that they are talking issues, not physicality
and it's not a big deal
these language barriers are what they are. best we can do is work through them, and be sensitive with our words
Humphrey Archer
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •@admin
They shift right because people on the left stay at home and therefore aren't an influence.
@rzeta0 @benroyce @mark @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Humphrey Archer • • •@screwturn @admin @rzeta0 @mark @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
✅
"i won't vote... then they'll listen to me!"
yeah it doesn't work that way
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Mark T. Tomczak
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •@admin @rzeta0 @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder They start shifting right because the right tends to show up to vote and the left doesn't.
When they're trying to maximize their chance of winning the entire election, of course they're going to drift towards the votes. Failing to vote is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@mloxton @Ilka4You @holdenweb @admin @john @ShredderFeeder
danke!
nein sprechen zie deutsch
ich verstehe nur bahnhof
Matthew Loxton
in reply to Ilka 🌐 • • •@Ilka4You
I think he is using it not in the sense of "attraktiv" like "hübsch" but more like suitable ie "geeignet"
@benroyce @holdenweb @admin @john @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott @bobdobberson
i understand what you speak of, and considering the immense amount of suffering, and the uncertainty of the results, obviously everyone would say "we should have just voted"
because you know what?
imagine you win this struggle (which is not guaranteed), and after all the blood and gore, what are you going to have?
a vote
and you know what you'll also have?
"well i don't think these candidates are perfect" whiny shit
all over again
do you see the real problem?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
James Wells
Unknown parent • • •@rzeta0
Not voting is accepting evil. You are not telling the parties anything, and because you are not saying anything, the parties are free to accept their belief as something you are comfortable with.
@mark @admin @benroyce @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott @bobdobberson
and you're still fucked why?
because of all the assholes around you not voting
Mark T. Tomczak
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott @bobdobberson They literally wrote a song about this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q
Sidebar: I think the Brits have a surprisingly robust thought process about this kind of thing because, among other things, they tried overthrowing their government. Back when it was far less representative than it is now.
What they got was a man with a stick so firmly up is ass that he literally canceled Christmas. He was dictator 'til he died, then they all looked at each other and...
... put Charles II on the throne.
Everyone talks revolution thinking they're gonna be Washington, and history shows they are usually Cromwell.
(... and even Washington should be remembered for cementing a slavery institution that lasted longer than it did in the UK).
Humphrey Archer
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Never has, never will
Not voting and then bitching about the outcomes is the most vain and self-important bullshit ever
@admin @rzeta0 @mark @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
Mark T. Tomczak
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@admin @mark @rzeta0 @AeonCypher @john @ShredderFeeder
and like i said, then MAGA comes in with machine guns, calls you "communist pedophiles" and kills you all while laughing
because you neglected something very important in your struggle, and let it slide to worse and worse
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •correct, you're actually fucked because of both nazis and nonvoters
and you know you can't do anything about the nazis
and you know the other choice you speak of is uncertain outcome and vast suffering
so you should be angry at the assholes who can't be bothered to vote, because they made the difference that put the nazis in power
and if (big if) you were to win via the other choice, it will begin to fall apart again because of the nonparticipatory assholes
Grassroots Joe
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott
Voting is table stakes. Far more than voting is needed, but if people can't even get up off the couch to vote, well, yeah, then we're fucked.
I'm "retired", except I retired to help run my local Indivisible group, help run dozens of phone bank shifts, help organize protests, send out call to action and messaging info emails to our members, collaborate with leaders of sister groups across PA, and more.
Still more is needed.
Who will step up to help?
@benroyce @bobdobberson
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@AeonCypher @admin @mark @rzeta0 @john @ShredderFeeder
the way they speak in such "brave" defense of not voting, one wonders if they are even DSA at all
it's so very easy to cosplay, in order to work the agenda of MAGA or geopolitical designs
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •well we may very well be headed that way
then you can trust that i will be right there with you
do you mind if i try to get these assholes to vote in the interim?
you vote still
so you understand the stopgap value
i mean they still vote in fucking venezuela. it's ignored. but it still matters to make the corrupt forces peddle harder and focus the people's attention on the malice. it matters
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott @bobdobberson
it's ok. so am i. i think of everyone i've encountered on the fediverse, and i think you have the closest temperament to mine
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •yeah
ah, fuck
well at least let me unload on these narcissistic fucking nonvoters who along with maga brought us to this shit
SlightlyCyberpunk
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@AeonCypher Well, to be fair, as I've told you before, I'm *Rhode Island* DSA. RI has been "voting blue no matter who" for fucking decades. We did have one senator about twenty years ago but we haven't voted for a Republican president since the damn 80s. We're as "blue" as it gets and still have all the same problems as everywhere else because these Dems are all in bed with developers and defense contractors. We don't face off with MAGA militias at No Kings, we get heckled by Dems for carrying Palestine flags.
As I've said before, If I were in Texas, I'd probably be a little more open to the "lesser evil" strategy to block the Republicans. But up here, that's a waste of a vote. *Someone* has to be building an alternative, and this seems like a pretty good place to do it.
Democracy Dies in Dumbass
Unknown parent • • •@Osteopenia_Powers We're going to need about 40 years of consistent democratic government to have a chance at undoing the fucking damage this yabos have done...
@benroyce @tk @the5thColumnist
Grassroots Joe
Unknown parent • • •@aapis
Re: That is a binary choice, which I consider to be a one-party state. What would you call it?
I call it making sure that the fascist party is kept out of power.
There are still two parties, one may suck, but they do care about doing helpful things for working people even if they aren't very good at it.
The other party wants to make working people suffer and eliminate any chance of reducing that suffering.
That's a whopping big choice.
@benroyce @RegGuy @zakalwe @levitte
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to SlightlyCyberpunk • • •@admin @AeonCypher @mark @rzeta0 @john @ShredderFeeder
the problem with your rationale is that enough people like you, and safe blue becomes purple, and purple becomes red
you're acting like your rationale is unique to you. your rationale in aggregate with others is doing serious damage
work for the DSA
but do it the bernie/ mamdani way
take over the rotten dems
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •the UK is a parliamentary system
in the USA's fptp voting system alone: a 3rd party splits the left and guarantees a MAGA win
there is no joining forces between parties in coalition like in the uk. our system can't work like that. it's a shitty system
so we have to do it the mamdani way
it's not that i think taking over the dems is easy. i acknowledge all the difficulties
but i'm telling you the third party way is even worse possibilities
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@dnkboston @Wyatt_H_Knott
you're doing fine deb
it's the nonvoting assholes failing you, and us
Deb Nam-Krane
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott I really want to avoid your way. It doesn't play to any of my strengths.
I've showed up in every election since 92, and this is where we are. True. Just as I've been a vegetarian since 1988 and climate change is comically awful. I didn't make anything better, but I didn't make it worse. It's a small w, but I'll take it.
@benroyce
Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Why, thank you. Same to you and @Wyatt_H_Knott
[Insert corollary about meat eaters, except I don't want to start a *real* fight]
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott @dnkboston
you're a fighter wyatt. a better fighter than me
i just want to fight in a different sphere until the last possible minute
which may be foolish
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •right, i wasn't clear:
you have fptp and parliamentary
we only have fptp
the parliamentary part of your system lends stability and feasibility to 3rd parties
we don't have that
3rd party is not feasible in the usa
it has to be take over the dems
not because i like that, or think it's easy, but because it's the only way
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott @dnkboston
hey!
i never purchased an apple product in my life
i never opened a facebook account
just flexing
you're correct in aggregate
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •yes, i use google products
so much for my flex
😆
Democracy Dies in Dumbass
Unknown parent • • •Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott @dnkboston 🤣
Facebookers Anonymous
i suppose that's what the fediverse is
no this is Twitterers Anonymous
Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️
in reply to Democracy Dies in Dumbass • • •@ShredderFeeder @Osteopenia_Powers @tk
Perhaps if things get so bad it will all collapse and the only thing that will save it as a Constitutional Convention to write a new American Constitution not written for 18th century but the 21st.
Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️
Unknown parent • • •@WatchingTVnFilm @tk @ShredderFeeder
That is why ranked ballot voting would let voters vote for their preferred candidate as their first choice but not lose the chance to vote for the better of the two most likely to win candidates.
For elections of legislatures with parties, rotational representation allows all parties to be represented proportional to their support.
Jordi (Tubal Hippy)
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Chris L
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@roblosricos @RegGuy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @levitte
Did you vote?
If you did good
If you didn't you're fine with more executed and abused
roblosricos
Unknown parent • • •@RegGuy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @levitte
due process to send political dissidents back to their countries of origin to be executed?
see, that's how fascism works - it follows the laws it likes, ignores the ones it doesn't, and makes up new ones more to its liking.
none of those executed deserved to die, and came to the US seeking asylum.
Joe (TBA)
Unknown parent • • •@roblosricos
The deportations were done legally. Obama didn't use brownshirts to grab people off the streets and disapear them. There was due process. People can disagree that they should have gotten asylum, but it's not the same.
Clinton made an error in judgment, to be sure, but the situation in Waco needed to be dealt with. He again didn't do so outside the law.
You are missing the point or are willfully ignorant of what is going on today.
@joeinwynnewood @benroyce @zakalwe @levitte
roblosricos
Unknown parent • • •@RegGuy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @levitte
let's see - Obama deported more people than GW Bush, many of whom were taken directly off the planes and executed.
and Clinton had the FBI and BATF murder every man, woman, and child in the Branch Davidian complex, in Waco, Texas.
tell me the difference, again?
oh - those deaths didn't directly involve YOU.
i get it.
Joe (TBA)
Unknown parent • • •@roblosricos
Let's see, Jan 2021 - Jan 2025, no troops in Portland, check. Democratic president
2025, troops in Portland check, Republican president.
Which one is the fascist party?
Gee, really?
@joeinwynnewood @benroyce @zakalwe @levitte
roblosricos
in reply to Grassroots Joe • • •@joeinwynnewood @aapis@mastodon.world @benroyce @RegGuy @zakalwe @levitte
which i which, though?
roblosricos
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@RegGuy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @levitte
i'm fine with a revolution.
to break up this over-powered, racist, oligarchical shit-storm of a nation, into smaller, more controllable pieces.
it is long over-due, and people comfortable enough with the 'lesser evils' are the ones preventing this.
it is inevitable, and needs to happen, and it would be great if you voters would acknowledge that, and vote for parties who support that.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •@roblosricos @RegGuy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @levitte
So you're a cosplaying moron, unaware a revolution would be massive suffering dwarfing anything that bothers you now, and the winner might even be worse
All because voting hurts your precious fee fees
Is there a reason you follow me?
I'd prefer a block, know nothing asshole
roblosricos
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@RegGuy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @levitte
wow - it's hard for me to believe you are literate. you must be dictating this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •@roblosricos @RegGuy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @levitte
Go dude, fight MAGA goons in the streets. All because voting is too hard for you. When it was your nonvote that made ICE the way it is today. You're a genius
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •So here we go with the tired typical "this is what they want to do, and I'm going to assume it already happened, because I'm ruled by fear and cowardice"
Premature capitulation
Cynical acceptance
So fucking weak
This country is 1/3 fascists, 1/3 coherent, and 1/3 spineless turds
The elections are controlled by the states, politics professor. Sure some red states might do as you say, but they're already red
mae :blobcatmlem:
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •if you honestly think voting is still going to happen now, *you're* the moron.
trump will not allow federal elections when his term ends. we should all know this, it's extremely obvious by how he's been calling himself a king, and even how he told his supporters ages ago that they wouldn't have to vote anymore.
so what's the alternative to voting? revolution. we need a revolution, BECAUSE we can't vote. otherwise, we could just vote him out,
but we can't.
Seán Fenian
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •There is totally a place for fighting MAGA goons. But we could have stopped them earlier. It's on us as a nation that we're having to fight them in the streets today.
When I was much younger, I was active in the UK's Ecology Party. I was deeply involved in writing its defense policy ... well, OK, I was half of the team that wrote it. Along the way we came up with the thought concept of democratic war: the idea that a society's citizens will only fight for it (without forced conscription, that is) if it's worth fighting for in the first place.
It never really occurred to us to consider the case of a society whose STATED IDEALS are worth fighting for, but whose citizens will not fight to see them made practice because they just plain DGAF about them.
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to Seán Fenian • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy I don't think it's that Americans DGAF about the stated ideals. I think they don't believe those are the actual ideals any longer and that those who claim to be fighting for them are the precise opposite of said ideals.
It's a toxic blend of cynicism and despair, in short.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •@ZDL @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
here lies the USA:
killed by fascists and the emotionally fragile who can't fight or reason their way out of the wet paper bag that is their navel gazing impotence
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy I think you're overlooking something critical here and thus being perhaps too harsh.
Fight for whom? With what?
Literally everybody who has said they're "for the people" has lied. Literally everybody who has built up the kind of support to effect change has doubled down on the status quo. Remember when Obama, THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT!!!!1111!1!!11!oneone!!, was going to save all y'all?
Remember how he did fuck all?
Yeah.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •@ZDL @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
all there is is the good fight in this world
plenty are deceived
and it's not unique to the usa
doesn't change the need for the good fight
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Seán Fenian
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •Again not wrong. "Hope and change", my ass. Ran as a progressive. Governed as a middle-of-the-road establishment guy. He did get us the ACA, to be fair. And told insurance companies they had to stop denying care for "pre-existing" conditions. But we SHOULD have gotten single-payer.
Again to be fair, Obama's plan (which actually Mitt Romney originated most of, iirc) originally had a single-payer "public option". It was the GOP that killed it and drove a stake through its heart.
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy I'm not saying "stop fighting". I'm saying that the current battle in the current battlefield is a lost cause. The system cannot be changed from within. It has a powerful immune system that attacks change, even if beneficial. (It has autoimmune disorder.)
It's time to look for new strategies, new battlegrounds, with fresh troops who have new ideas rather than doing the political equivalent of WWI trench warfare.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@vor @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @ZDL @RegGuy
everything you said about their control is true, but this was also true long before they had that control
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy I named Obama for a very specific reason.
For two years he held ALL the reins: the House, the Senate, the Court, and, obviously, the Presidency.
What did he do in those two years?
You can't count on the Democrats to save you. They've demonstrated time and again they won't ever save anybody who's not a billionaire. They only back a slightly different set of billionaires than the Repugnicans.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •@ZDL @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
well like what?
i appreciate what you're saying
and we have cosplayers running around talking revolution
but i was wondering if you had something else in mind
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy What I have in mind as the inevitable outcome of what's going on is unfortunately something I hope to die before seeing.
Because this is no longer salvageable in my opinion and will lead to blood.
Lots of it.
And I genuinely don't want to be around when it happens. Because I've read history. I know what it looks like. And it ain't pretty.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •the netherlands just rejected bigot wilders
poland rejected duda and his anti-lgbt bs
brazil chose lula over bolsonaro
heck even the usa chose biden over trump
etc
the point is a country can veer right, and then back
but you want to sell the lie trump is already mussolini and hitler
he WANTS to be mussolini and hitler
and he will be, if people of whiny spineless premature capitulation to fear prevail via not voting
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
mae :blobcatmlem:
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •throughout history fascists have never once respected democracy. hitler got power democratically, yes, but he almost immediately set about dismantling it by passing laws against forming new parties, and sending his political prisoners to concentration camps.
there was also no democracy under mussolini, and franco couped the democratically elected socialist party in spain.
connect the dots, it's really not that hard.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •so you're with the revolution scenario
which of course is hell, and anyone looking forward to it is a fuckwit
do you mind me arguing to vote?
perhaps i'm an idiot because americans are lazy morons who whine and don't vote, and to get effective change we need to sustain, and spineless airhead americans can't do that
well i'm going to try to push it anyways
you're free to shake your head
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @ZDL @RegGuy
and that's part of the problem:
the people talking up revolution are whiny quitters
that doesn't win revolutions
they lack the iota of intestinal fortitude it takes to vote, because it hurts their precious fee fees
so they're throwing their lot in with fucking bloody revolution and what that takes in conviction and sustained effort?
the cosplayers will fold under a light breeze
it's a fucking joke
Seán Fenian
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •I don't read those comments as "with the revolution scenario". I read them as "this has passed the tipping point of where it's possible to fix it again without a lot of spilled blood."
And I dread that too.
We could probably still do it if more of America showed signs of even caring.
Ilka 🌐
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •thank you
so i'll make you a deal:
we both vote
then if the fascist fuckers show up in washington dc or elsewhere with violence when they lose (assuming enough of us vote), i'll stand there with you to meet them in kind
deal?
and yes the system is fucked
*because not enough fucking vote*
mae :blobcatmlem:
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •we're talking about a person who has shown repeated disdain for the constitution and laws, and yes he's been pushed back by judges which is good, but to that he's just threatened to incite the insurrection act after he didn't get his way with chicago, so who really knows how much power the judges have?
and ICE has been given multiple orders by the courts, and has not followed a single one of them, they've kept on doing what they've been doing, and they haven't seen any consequences for that either.
so yes, some small incremental change is trying to happen. that's better than nothing.
keep in mind though, that even if elections do happen, who's to say they won't just storm the capitol again and put trump back in? these people don't respect democracy, they don't respect peace, and that includes peaceful protests.
maybe you're right, maybe we can vote the guy out, but i personally don't hold much hope for it.
and regardless, the whole american system is fucked, so it'd be a bit stupid just to go back to how everything was.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Ilka 🌐 • • •well said
furthermore, "that's just the way it is" is no defense
our language choices should be more precise, and those of us who care should try to choose our words more carefully
not just because of potential miscommunication, but simply because more precise is more precise: we communicate better
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @ZDL @RegGuy
😆
but maga turds can wear a mask just fine: just look at ICE
a mask is fine for them when it's hiding from the repercussions of their fascism
but a mask is not fine when it prevents them from killing their own grandmother
Seán Fenian
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Like all of these MAGA Valiant Defenders Of The Free World And The American Dream who can't mask up in a global pandemic because they're such pussies they can't breathe properly with a surgical mask on.
If you can't walk around the the grocery store in a surgical mask, how are you going to fight in an NBC suit, you muppet?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy @nowayitsmae
yeah
i'm with you
Seán Fenian
in reply to mae :blobcatmlem: • • •🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy I would be disappointed if you didn't. Let me put my (historical) cards on the table.
The USA is not in a "Seize Mai" state here. What's going on here is far more profound: the sclerotic rigidity of late-era Han. The upheaval that's coming is not The Troubles to be put to bed with the Good Friday Agreement.
You're headed for the Yellow Turbans.
With that I've just sent a chill down the spines of any reader of Chinese history.
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy I hope you're not numbering me among those talking up revolution?
'Cause I thought I was clear that I dread the forthcoming orgy of blood. (It won't be a revolution. It will be the Yellow Turbans. That's far more chilling.)
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •yeah
a rot so deep it's beyond addressing coherently, and perhaps even beyond comprehension
i feel that
maybe it's time for the usa's century of humiliation
it's kind of funny how the last century was dominated by ussr/ usa
and now both countries (well russia and usa) are laughingstock basketcases
hubris, pride
it's a hell of a thing
colossal blindness
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •no i didn't think so
your trepidation over that outcome, unlike so many other fools yearning for it, i got that
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@ZDL @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
why yellow turbans and not tai ping?
(asked strictly in the context of horror 😅 😅 😅 )
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
Unknown parent • • •Seán Fenian
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •😆
i'm just glad i got to be Phoenix Wright
Objectionodon
Unknown parent • • •OBJECTION!
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@benroyce @bobdobberson @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
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Ben Pettis
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott @joeinwynnewood @bobdobberson
@objectionodon
Grassroots Joe
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott
Great. Next step is helping increase the number of people commited to voting in every election and helping them expand that universe further.
Network effects can be very powerful IF we work at leveraging them.
IMHO, learning about and using the race-class-gender narrative framework in all of our political and quasi-political conversations makes the task much easier to accomplish.
I put together a curriculum of sorts at https://docs.google.com/document/d/16wE1lysyAkK-17wiMuMXR5O40iOAPV6469x3WHVmpoE/edit?usp=drivesdk
@benroyce @bobdobberson
Introduction to the Race-class-gender Narrative
Google Docs🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@ZDL @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
no
we had the cola wars
that was excellence
(/s)
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
Unknown parent • • •Seán Fenian
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@ZDL @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
you need to change your profile picture (/s)
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to Seán Fenian • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy I very much hope I'm wrong. The problem is that I have a track record of being right way more often than I am wrong when it comes to these kinds of things. It's the old Cassandra Curse. I warn people (employers or nations, doesn't matter) about what's about to happen. I get ignored. It happens. Then I'm asked "well, what do you recommend?!"
"I RECOMMEND, MOTHERFUCKER, YOU BUILD A TIME MACHINE, GO BACK, AND TAKE ME SERIOUSLY!"
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
...
...
...
I hate you so much right now.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •@ZDL @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
yeah
you are wise in the ways of history
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @ZDL @RegGuy
the real t'ing is ting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ting_(drink)
carbonated beverage
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Seán Fenian
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Cola wars? I am one hundred percent with the Big Bald Jamaican Dude from the 7-Up ad.
"Fo' me, Coke isn't de real t'ing. Pepsi doesn't have my taste fo' life. And frankly? I nevah really WANTED to be a Peppah." 😂
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •Objectionodon
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •OBJECTION!
Your video is now ready.
@benroyce @bpettis @joeinwynnewood @bobdobberson @Wyatt_H_Knott
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ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott @bobdobberson @joeinwynnewood
😂
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •@ZDL @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
😂 😂 😂
well i'm also listening to you, so you're not a cassandra in the confines of this thread
so you need to change again to...
(just a joke!)
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy By which you mean "I actually read it".
I mean if the current people trying to use public rage as a tool to gain power read history, they'd understand that once that powder keg's fuse is lit, NOBODY is safe, **LEAST OF ALL THEM**.
The Han court learned that. The French nobility learned that, as did those who thought to use the French Revolution for their personal gain.
To name two examples of hundreds.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Grovewest
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •it's a very cogent insight by ZDL
i'm stuck in this silo of thinking about the left fighting MAGA, who are busy licking the butts of plutocrats
what didn't occur to me is if MAGA wakes up from its zombie stupor
they certainly don't magically become left
but ZDL is right that if that comes to pass, that waking up will unleash a fountain of rage on their former billionaire god emperors
the left is practically completely sidelined by that rage fountain drama
MinmiTheDino
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •I was just talking today about how much I’d rather be a Rockefeller in the 50s and 60s than an aristocrat (or Russian oligarch). And yet how our billionaires seem to craaaaave the latter and are terrified of being the former.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@minmi @ZDL
oh yeah we're all "communist cannibal pedophiles" or whatever
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@minmi Also, obligatory Groo reference:
"I AM NOT COGENT! ... WHAT DOES COGENT MEAN?"
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 • • •nullpotential
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to nullpotential • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •Nobody has one single tiny iota of a problem with people who can't vote
Obviously the topic is losers who can vote but choose not to
In fact, if anyone wants disenfranchised people to be able to vote, they would fucking vote to get that change
LukefromDC
in reply to Objectionodon • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@LukefromDC @Wyatt_H_Knott
Right
And we wouldn't have to fucking play real life call of duty with maga goons if enough whiny nonvoting assholes had fucking voted in the first place
So next election are we going to be having this conversation again about the next fascist maneuver? Or will enough nonvoting shitbags finally learn their lesson?
LukefromDC
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •More exactly, participation
Nonparticipation consists of doing nothing, then whining you don't get what you want
The entitlement of modern alienation
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •huh?
The solution to everything is 'just vote'?
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
YES!!! BOB IS LEARNING!!! WHARGARBBBL
Pope Bob the Unsane
Unknown parent • • •NO... REALLY... JUST VOTE!!!! That's all you need to do!!! JUST VOTE!!!!
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •VOTE YOU LOSERS!!! JUST VOTE!!!
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •voting, itself, is not a bad thing.
If that is the only thing, you lose.
Also, mad props to Whargarbbbl.
Voting, in my opinion, is useless.
Build your community. Bring your neighbors together. Vote LOCALLY (absolutely), but beyond local is lost. Until we fix local.
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •Nobody in a million years thinks you only have to vote
Nobody in a million years said that's all you have to do
It is the most predictable insipid dishonest reply to the call to vote
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •nobody in a million years thinks they should get to know their neighbors.
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •LukefromDC
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott Question now is will there even BE a next election with two or more candidates able to win each of the major offices.
You can't vote if they cancel the election, and if only one candidate or one party is permitted to effectively compete, you are not really being allowed to vote either.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •annoyed by the suggestion you should peer with your neighbors?
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Objectionodon
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •OBJECTION!
Your video is now ready.
@bobdobberson @joeinwynnewood @LukefromDC @bpettis @Wyatt_H_Knott @benroyce
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ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@LukefromDC @Wyatt_H_Knott
the problem is the level of commitment and sustained effort and suffering you are referring to is not well recommended by the weak character of the typical spineless whiny nonvoter
Voting is merely the same motivation delivered easier. Anyone who truly understands the nature of what you are talking about immensely prefers voting
So you're not talking about revolutionaries
Youre talking about pathetic cosplayers
LukefromDC
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott Since we have to assume they will cancel the elections, WE have to prepare to stop the Nazis by other means.
This is not Call of Duty-but it is the call of duty...
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@bobdobberson @miguelpergamon @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Pope Bob is British
Pope Bob the Unsane
Unknown parent • • •shit, no, I lost it, but I found Ellie Goulding... So whwatever...
@miguelpergamon @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Pope Bob the Unsane
Unknown parent • • •I think you may have inspired the next music track for #DrunkBobDJ after this... ... It's on the tip of my tongue... but this post is... .. maybe I can find it... ... I think I can...
We'll see...
@miguelpergamon @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@miguelpergamon @bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
i'm sorry i dropped my stack of punch cards, let me get back to you
no i'm not avoiding you
i'm not avoiding you
sorry gotta run!
quangobaud
Unknown parent • • •How do you feel about standing me up in 1966, Ben? (You were seeing that IBM hussy, weren't you!?)
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@miguelpergamon @bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Eliza!
How are you?
I haven't seen you since 1966
quangobaud
Unknown parent • • •@bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Eliza enters the chat and repeats what people say.
How do you feel about Eliza entering the chat and repeating what people say?
🥸
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
No
But on mastodon political threads, yes
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •do you express yourself as a "jackass" to your neighbors in the physical realm?
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Pope Bob the Unsane
Unknown parent • • •your enjoyment always expresses as being a 'jackass'?
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
Unknown parent • • •what is the purpose or function of being a jackass?
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •why would I not want to peer with neighbors who are 'jackasses'?
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@miguelpergamon @bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Pocoyo is super chill
quangobaud
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Is that HabemoussePapelBobbusUniversus?
I'm sure Popeleo is hispanic. 🤔
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@bobdobberson @miguelpergamon @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ellie goulding, faithless... if you're not british you should be
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •I wish... Then I could be a proper peasant!
@miguelpergamon @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •given the ignorance of this question, I might assume you do exhibit as a 'jackass' in meat-space.
How does that serve you? How does that exhibit? What does a jack-ass in the 'real-world' look like? Should it be seen as a role-model?
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to quangobaud • • •@miguelpergamon could be. I do love tacos.
@benroyce @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
i'm superstylin'
Pope Bob the Unsane
Unknown parent • • •maybe I want to know you?
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Pope Bob the Unsane • • •@bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
you do
we're sharing an intimate shitposting session on mastodon
we might as well be married
could you turn off the bathroom light please?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
well when you ask endless open questions, that's what happens
Pope Bob the Unsane
Unknown parent • • •I mean, if I'm honest, curious.
It makes me feel curious.
What do you want to seemingly hide from me? Why would sharing that somehow hurt you? Is that the concern? Am I projecting? Who knows.
Love,
Bob
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
how does that make you feel?
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •so... Not any questions you want to answer? Why is that?
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
I trained you to sit down to pee
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •I need the night-light so I don't miss the bowl.
@LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
quangobaud
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Ellie Goulding grooving
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to quangobaud • • •@miguelpergamon @bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Now that's grooving
FUCK YOU CAILLOU. YOU CAN'T GROOVE SHIT
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@miguelpergamon @bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Open the pod bay doors, Haliza
quangobaud
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@bobdobberson @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
How does Eliza feel about love-rat Ben's betrayal, Eliza?
I don't know, Eliza, but I've begun talking to myself, Eliza.
How does us talking to ourselves make us feel, Eliza?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •thank you for your wall of text
you vote
always
if you don't, everything you're worried about you are accepting and welcoming
"no i'm not"
you frame the enemy of your rights as all powerful and never defeatable
you are a victim of your own cowardice and cynicism
you think exactly how those who want to oppress you want you to think
LukefromDC
Unknown parent • • •@weyoun6 @Wyatt_H_Knott COMPETITIVE elections is another matter. With enough gerrymandering all seats can be rendered uncompetitive. Outright voter suppression could include ICE at the polls, "motor vehicle safety inspections" on roads between polling places and GOP-unfriendly neighborhoods (which has been done before) and even fake "PSA's" claiming warrants will be checked at polling places.
There's an old quote from Stalin that applies here: "it's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes." Cheating in elections no longer requires openly stuffing ballot boxes.
Then there is the issue of the "opposition party" not really opposing. Lots of the machine Trump is now using was built under Biden and even Obama. Going back to GW Bush every President has deported more people than his predecessor, Biden in particular being a notorious example earning the name "Deporter in Chief."
At any rate, one of the things that got us here was the Dems pulling the football away from progressive voters over and over again. Another was Biden sending his base home by fully endorsing Netanyahu's genocide in Occupied Palestine. Both of these "blackpilled" tens of millions of voters, breaking their morale and sending them home
Finally, Trump knows if he ever leaves power without leaving a handpicked successor in power he will go straight to prison. This time around it will NOT be the 2021-2023 slow-walk. Trump and all his top scum like Stephen Miller will be indicted and held without bond, possibly under Supermax conditions.
If National Guard occupations of cities blow up into battles with even a few hundred dead, outright Nuremburg style war crimes trials would be on the table.
Trump will do whatever he deems necessary to avoid all this. We stay nonviolent, he will make up his own excuse to start the civil war himself, then he has a much better chance of cancelling an election or just pulling another J6, this time knowing what he is doing.
Trump II is NOT a normal presidency. the Old Republic is dead. He is defying some courts and getting favorable rulings from handpicked judges in others , notably the Supreme Court. Now he is probably using the "shutdown" to wrest control of the budget away from Congress entirely. Notice ICE is not shut down.
CONCENTRATION CAMPS are now up and running, and nobody ever voted one of those away. Trump is an open Nazi, and he is doing the things that Nazis do.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@weyoun6 @LukefromDC @Wyatt_H_Knott there will be elections
Anyone who says otherwise is working a learned helplessness trollfarm agenda or is a victim of it
Weyoun 6
in reply to LukefromDC • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •that's awesome
so the real reason you put down voting is because you look forward to violence
just fucking vote
if it comes to violence, we'll deal with it
until then we fucking avoid it
scattered violence is normal
mass violence is not like a fucking tacticool movie. it's fucking hell
LukefromDC
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@weyoun6 @Wyatt_H_Knott
I spend a decade in DC 1989-1999 bottomlining physical defense of the "P st Beach" Gay cruising area. I trained my dates in basic rough ground defense tactics, mostly about light/shadow/cover/concealment and that sort of stuff. All shit I learned from common Army handbooks. I led in person when I was there and shit happened, but the fact that I didn't do this solo meant the fight went on when I was elsewhere too,
The result was a string of defeats for the US Park Police trying to arrrest us for using these dark woods for our purposes at night.
We held P St Beach for a decade against the entire strength of the US Park Police, rarely with more than 15 insurgents on any one night.
Neither legalizing woods cruising nor legalizing "backroom" Gay bars was ever on any ballot. Yet every Gay man using the woods was a vote for "Cops out."
No, I didn't learn to fight playing fucking video games. "No-Go zones" remain an objective and speciality of mine. Today the idea is to create no-go zones for ICE, like people are doing in every occupied city today,
When I got my degree in government and politics back in 1994, I remarked that my specialties are "extra-parliamentary opposition, counter-law enforcement, and insurgency warfare."
The war in El Salvador and Reagan's failed attempt to bring back the draft to support a conventional forces invasion there were what brought me into politics.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@bobdobberson @miguelpergamon @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
how does the distraction make you feel?
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to quangobaud • • •@miguelpergamon nice distraction. :)
@benroyce @LukefromDC @joeinwynnewood @Wyatt_H_Knott
Dźwiedziu
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •> poland rejected duda and his anti-lgbt bs
Imma gonna stop you right there.
Duda's two terms have ended, so he couldn't be eligible to run anyway.
Poland has chosen the far-right candidate, Nawrocki. A part of this was because the other right-wing party (PO) decided that issues of Poles expressed in the surveys were not real by the party higher-ups.
Instead they opted for mimicking the far-right hate »
@nowayitsmae @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @roblosricos @RegGuy
Dźwiedziu
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •People who's main political driver isn't ideology vote for their self-interest.
That's why Madmani is so successful. This is why Democrats paved the way for Trump.
Until this is understood asking to vote is like asking to pray: voting will make you feel good and you won't need to lift a finger doing anything else.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Dźwiedziu • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •Dźwiedziu
Unknown parent • • •« and reproductive rights.
So this is how much Poland got from the electoral process: more wanking from the (faux)fash and more fash.
And this is including the votes from people voting in their self-interest of those 70% promises wanked away publicly.
(With the notable exception of empowering the most radical mainstream furthest-left-wing party, the Razem socdems.)
@nowayitsmae @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @roblosricos @RegGuy
Dźwiedziu
Unknown parent • • •« fash-parroting.
Today the current PM is sliding out of reality so fast that he tells that he implemented 30 of 100 promises because he had 30% of the vote (and he's being a smug wanker that his math checks out) and replying with almost a “fuck you” to young women who were asking him about the still lacking prospects of having a house.
And the lacking 70% votes, apologies, promises? They included housing, LGBTQ+ »
@nowayitsmae @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @roblosricos @RegGuy
Dźwiedziu
in reply to Dźwiedziu • • •« against LGBTQ, migrants (including Ukrainians, who became one of the main scapegoats in fash propaganda), “woke”.
Thus the Poles sliding far-right have chosen the fash instead of (faux)fash.
An this was a second time that Trzaskowski lost to the further right presidental candidate because he had nothing to offer besides not being the other party. Which was such a thin veil the second time with all the »
@nowayitsmae @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @roblosricos @RegGuy @benroyce
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@jonesmurphy @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
Fucking Lieberman. I hoped to have forgotten that name
Jones Murphy
in reply to Seán Fenian • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @ZDL@mstdn.social @RegGuy it wasn't just the GOP that killed the public option. It was racist, right-wing Democrats like Joe Lieberman. They did the same to everything else Obama tried to do. Yet you blame Obama for being too right-wing and are silent about those racist white Dems(who are still very much here starting at the voter level):
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletter-article/senate-democrats-drop-public-option-woo-lieberman-and-liberals-howl
Jones Murphy
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Ilka 🌐
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
1. the democrats suck
2. we are in an fptp voting system. 3rd party vote divides the left and guarantees a maga win. that's not my opinion, that's not due to corruption, that's just math
thus the only path forward is to take over the democratic party
3rd party only helps maga
3rd party in the usa is folly until we get ranked choice voting
i want viable 3rd party
i hate the 2 party system
but i live in reality
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law
principle in political science
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
SlightlyCyberpunk
Unknown parent • • •@MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder Love how folks are so captured by Dem propaganda that any talk of voting for someone else gets interpreted as not voting at all. I'm talking about building a new party that will actually represent working class interests. How do you think that's gonna happen without voting?
Just don't think voting *by itself* or voting *for the same assholes that are already running things* is going to change much. It won't.
Menno
Unknown parent • • •Or that it can't get worse.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@AeonCypher @alexadeswift @evoluxa
which makes it all the more important that those who can vote do vote. to move in the direction, at least, to bring back voting rights for those who don't have them
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •not only is your observation insightful, it is what happened
MAGA cannibalized the GOP
MAGA calling people "RINO" was a big thing ("republican in name only")
it was calling out a republican for being centrist, and thus "unpure" according to the zombie MAGAs. i say "was" because MAGA finished the purge
the left needs to do the same with the democrats
that's hard. but MAGA did it
3rd party meanwhile is suicide for the left
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C. R. Collins 🌳 🐸
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
Would ranked choice vote help with this problem? I see a lot of people recommending that. As an independent, I would love to see more valid ballot choices.
BlueDot🇺🇦
in reply to C. R. Collins 🌳 🐸 • • •@crcollins
Yes, #RankedChoiceVoting would help. It would permit a left third party to compete in elections without helping right wing parties. In an election with more than two candidates, ranked choice is the one voting system most likely to produce the correct result, which is the candidate supported by the most people.
This is why Republicans are on record opposing ranked choice. They want minority rule.
@benroyce @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to C. R. Collins 🌳 🐸 • • •@crcollins @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
ranked choice allows you to vote your conscience free and clear, without dreary strategy that kills the soul
3rd parties would flourish and be stable
when you vote, you rank your favorite party 1st, then the dreary democrat 2nd as a fallback, and not worry about sabotaging the vote and allowing MAGA to win
how do we get it?
we vote for dem candidates (some dems oppose it, all GOP opposes it)
it's creeping in in a few places
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@admin @crcollins @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
we already have ranked choice in some places. some dems support it, all GOP opposes it as of 2024 (they put out a national statement against it)
it is the only way you're going to get 3rd parties that are stable and viable
voting 3rd party *before* ranked choice simply means you help MAGA win. then we'll never get ranked choice
so we vote for dems who support it
only dems
and we better fucking show up
3rd party is suicide, now
SlightlyCyberpunk
in reply to C. R. Collins 🌳 🐸 • • •@crcollins @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder Ranked choice would definitely be great, but you won't see the major parties supporting it any time soon since it only weakens their position. Some states can do that through ballot initiatives I think, but not all have such a process.
Of course, the other thing to remember is that many parts of the country don't really have a functional two party system -- they basically only have one right now. Around here it's pretty common to have the Democrats be the only candidate running -- and they *still* struggle to get more than 75% of the vote! :)
We're not gonna win the presidency tomorrow, for sure, but about 2/3 of the races for my state legislature went unopposed in the last election. That's where we need better options. And you can't argue that this is just gonna hand a win to MAGA in races where the Republicans aren't even running!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@nuintari @BlueDot @crcollins @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
agreed and well said
The Psychotic Network Ferret
in reply to BlueDot🇺🇦 • • •@BlueDot @crcollins @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
In addition to ranked choice voting, I have always believed this country should pull an Australia (and many others), and make voting mandatory. You can abstain if you want, but you have to show up to do so. You have to fill out a ballot and select all the abstain options.
But you can bet your bottom dollar the GOP will hate this idea, too.
Also, voting should be a two day affair, with mandatory time off guaranteed for all employed persons so everyone can find time to fulfill their civic duty, while not forcing everyone to be off work at the same time.
maya_b 🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •It was used in the London UK mayoral elections until the conservatives in parliament banned it - basically no conservative mayor was ever going to get elected again so they had to eliminate a system that didn't work for them.
my fav variant of ranked choice also allows for a blank 1st choice signalling that no candidate really does it for you, but as a 2nd choice I'll pick X. I've never had the experience of it, but some on fedi has it in their local jurisdiction.
@crcollins @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@the5thColumnist @steverocky @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
you can do all that comparing that you want. but it's an academic exercise, not a useful one
the point is improving the usa, right?
so what value is in "both parties suck" exactly?
a voter is faced with a choice of two directions
ideally sustaining and iterating to better
meanwhile saying the choice doesn't matter just destroys the path forward. it's a gateway to lazy cynicism, which is a gateway to acceptance
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️
Unknown parent • • •@steverocky @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
Up until now at least, America has always considered itself a western democracy. So for matters of politcal comparison it should be compared to other western democracies.
Howard Cohen
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Howard Cohen • • •@hoco @crcollins @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
that should be able to be improved
it is true tabulating ranked choice is far more intensive than tabulating fptp
but we're not living in an age of people sitting at tables, we have computers
is there something i don't understand? like: there's a lot of confusing ballots that need manual intervention? are people writing "2" with a trailing line and it might be a "3"?
Howard Cohen
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •"well maybe if i just lie in this pile of maggots i'll somehow develop the will to keep fighting for life"
what?
developing vitality and vigor and the will to fight through resignation and cynicism?
all that happens is MAGA gets more and more powerful and then there's no ability to choose
you fight. every day. that's the only way
what you're articulating is acceptance. in effect if not intention
Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@steverocky @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
Perhaps hopeless optimism, but hopefully at some point the lack of real choice will suck enough to change the system.
https://the5thc.blogspot.com/2025/10/three-ways-to-improve-american-politics.html
Three Ways to Improve American Politics
the5thc.blogspot.comMenno
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Exactly. Until the voting system changes drastically, not voting, or voting for another party only helps the other side. Especially if that side is actively suppressing votes.
For the US, voting for the lesser evil seems smart, at least until you can fix the system.
I'm from the Netherlands. We have proportional representation. That means that in yesterday's election there were 27 parties participating.
1/2
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Howard Cohen • • •@hoco @crcollins @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
i didn't see "delayed vote results" as a problem but you made me think about it. yeah, it opens the door to mischief
Androcat
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@the5thColumnist @steverocky @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
The Dems for sure need fixing.
The party has for all intents and purposes been taken over to a large degree by craven corporate lackeys, whose real loyalty is to their corporate donors and AIPAC.
That needs to be changed.
But the only way to change it is through grass roots involvement.
Shouting about it won't help, because the US media is also run by craven corporate lackeys, whose real loyalty is to their corporate donors and AIPAC.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Androcat • • •exactly
1. 3rd party divides the left in our rotten fptp voting system, and thus is political suicide
2. the current democrats are spineless milquetoast corrupt corporate lackeys
so the only way forward is to take over the democratic party
but too many americans instead choose whiny lazy cynicism and disengagement, which they apparently don't understand is just a form of acceptance
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •if you fight you may lose
if you don't fight you will lose
are you listening, whiny ass Americans?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
maya_b 🇨🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •"if you don't vote, you get the government you deserve" was the lesson I always had growing up.
now, unfortunately even if you do vote, you may not get the gov't you want, but at least you didn't sit it out only to then complain afterwards that it didn't work out the way you wanted it.
@androcat @the5thColumnist @steverocky @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •i really have no problem running 3rd party in a safe dem district
but airhead people will glom onto this approach in unsafe districts
at best you have an extremely limited approach that applies to few races
at worst, what will happen is the GOP will gleefully jump in and help you, because they know what you don't know, or you know but refuse to accept out of pique:
you provide a way for the GOP to win
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
SlightlyCyberpunk
Unknown parent • • •Menno
in reply to Menno • • •It will take at least 4 parties to form a majority. But some are polar opposites, so it's going to be a tough negotiation to get something going.
2/2
Log 🪵
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Log 🪵 • • •@log @androcat @the5thColumnist @steverocky @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
Right but taking over the Democrats alone is exceedingly difficult. What you're proposing might as well be "i want a unicorn for christmas"
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •Log 🪵
Unknown parent • • •@androcat @the5thColumnist @steverocky @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder Crowd out the candidates, and the voters can't choose a MAGA.
This is the lesson of AIPAC. Pay all the candidates in both parties to unquestioningly support Israel, and the policy of the US will be to support Israel. If you own both parties, you always win. If you own both parties, everything you do gets the "bipartisan compromise" credential.
Androcat
in reply to Log 🪵 • • •@log
You only need one of them.
The rich needed to control both because they wanted to prevent taxation of their assets.
The Magats are completely mind-controlled by the entertainment media known as faux news. It is unlikely that they can be crowded out.
@benroyce @the5thColumnist @steverocky @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder
Log 🪵
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@androcat @the5thColumnist @steverocky @admin @MennoWolff @tregeagle @john @ShredderFeeder But I *do* want a unicorn for Christmas. And a cavalry saddle.
The (R) are now in a position where they are refusing to seat a rep-elect, solely because one more vote could force a vote on revealing Epstein accomplices. *Any* weakening of the (R) vote-in-lockstep discipline forces more horse trading and log rolling.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Log 🪵 • • •and i want a buddhist at the synod of bishops in the vatican
about the same chance of happening as "sneaking" a nonMAGA into the GOP house
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •"some non-MAGA Republicans, are not ideologically racist"
no
"i have nazis over to my house, i make excuses for them, and i fall silent when they commit violence, but i'm totally innocent"
yeah fuck that bullshit and fuck the GOP
Grassroots Joe
in reply to Jones Murphy • • •@jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
I've been trying to find the right place to jump in again, and maybe this is it, maybe, not.
Either way here's the thing, that big toxic group of voters, some Democrats, some independents, some non-MAGA Republicans, are not ideologically racist.
They *have* accepted as true a long list of racist and also anti-semitic, homophobic, transphobic and xenophobic tropes because the regressive-right has very effectively sold them, and ...
Grassroots Joe
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •There's a huge difference between a Nazi and someone who, having only what they hear said all around them to go by, have accepted what they have heard over and over and over again as true.
The difference is also extremely important, because there's zero chance of getting a Nazi to believe something different, a much larger than zero chance of getting the others to believe something different if you can change what they hear. ...
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Grassroots Joe • • •I believe everything you wrote is bullshit
It's not hard for a child of normal socialization and moral reasoning skills, nothing spectacular, to reflect on and easily reason that the attitudes around them are suspect
Bigotry is bigotry. There is no excuse. All bigots need to be ostracized and excoriated and nothing more. Enough of this "they just need a little understanding" crap. They're just stupid vile turds
Grassroots Joe
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
I think you may have to own some bullshit here. People don't reflect on 2nd order implications of what they do. Call it self delusion or whatever you like, but it is what it is. People look at their personal actions and stop at "I haven't done outwardly racist things, I'm not a racist."
Beyond that is a big pile of cognitive research into how people receive & process information; it's unfortunately rarely a rational process.
...
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •I read your critique of their cognition and I agree with it
But while you find the details excusing I find them more damning
There is a deeper decision point that is culpable here: "I am fine with degrading other people on shallow aspects of their identity"
Everything else is just window dressing
I think you damn them even further by describing the dimness of their cognition
They're just shitbags
That's it
Fuck bigots
Grassroots Joe
Unknown parent • • •@jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
benefit them and people who don't look like them, you're going to have to get over this hump.
There's no path if every eligible voter who believe themselves to not be racist but is complicit at some level is written off as an unredeemable bigot.
Grassroots Joe
in reply to Grassroots Joe • • •@jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
There's no part of "a little understanding" in any of what I'm trying to get across. It's entirely about what works to move people out from under layers of cognitively effective dog-whistles & scapegoating and into solidarity with other middle/working class people who may look different but are really the same.
If you're serious about the goal of getting people to vote *and* vote for politicians/policies that ...
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@joeinwynnewood @jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
Furthermore I see no path to redemption for them
Or rather, no obligation for you or I to reach out to people of such vicious intent. Why do we owe anything to people who create such harm in society?
Let them redeem themselves
All I see of our obligation to them is to reject them, ostracize them, despise them
Bigots are the toilet of humanity. We only improve society by walling them off
Jones Murphy
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy grassroots Joe is dead wrong about "difference between Nazis and Americans who vote GOP". The folks who elected Adolf Hitler were seemingly more liberal than the ones who elected FDR while conducting hard core Jim Crow and lynching blacks nonstop. US Jim Crow heavily inspired the Nazis of Europe:
https://www.history.com/articles/how-the-nazis-were-inspired-by-jim-crow
How the Nazis Were Inspired by Jim Crow | HISTORY
Becky Little (HISTORY)ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@jonesmurphy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
i'm with you
i just... i can't handle bigotry
i think some people look at society, and think about healing divisions and wounds
what they don't understand is that some wounds and divisions are permanent
if someone denies reality on vaccines, russian imperialism, climate change, etc, this is not someone you sit down with and have a nice chat. this is an ignorant moron you sever all ties with
likewise with bigotry...
Jones Murphy
Unknown parent • • •Jones Murphy
in reply to Jones Murphy • • •@joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy we have a lot of folks today who describe genocide, slavery & apartheid (which inspired the European Holocaust) as #MAGA. Grassroots Joe believes that such horrible bigots are so numerous that we need to pander to them. Republicans know that this is not true, so for the last 12 years they've been rolling back the Voting Rights Act and increasingly suppressing the black vote.
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/15/nx-s1-5575101/scotus-voting-rights-arguments
Dźwiedziu
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Where you got that?
Doing so would wreck his radical catholic base support. In a debate he used the pride flag to shame Trzaskowski and Rafał fell for it.
One example with a Grok-generated image, of RT with a pride flag, as RT wouldn't be caught dead with one:
hxxps://niezalezna[.]pl/polityka/nie-beda-mieli-zadnych-hamulcow-nawrocki-ostrzega-przed-skutkami-zwyciestwa-trzaskowskiego-wideo/540236
(Breaking the link »
@nowayitsmae @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @roblosricos @RegGuy
Jones Murphy
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@jonesmurphy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
you're dealing with people whose entire essence is built on disrespect
you can't respect disrespect. there is no "healing wounds" rationale that will ever work with that
you simply exclude all ties with them, *and* you do your best to utterly exclude them from society
if someone considers that harsh?
do they consider the harshness of bigots?
bigots deserve what they give. and i'm happy to give it to them: 🖕
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@jonesmurphy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
what a bigot needs to do is change who they are
and that's not our job
no one can hold their hand and whisper sweet nothings in their ear and commiserate on their precious feelings about their need to hate
if they are going to change, they need to do it on their own time, and learn themselves what most morally normal people learn before the age of 10
if they can't do that?
fuck them forever
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Jones Murphy • • •@jonesmurphy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
we'll tear it down and put a memorial up to these genuine americans instead
Jones Murphy
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@dzwiedziu @nowayitsmae @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @roblosricos @RegGuy
again i plead dumb american. i open my ignorant mouth and speak on things i don't know
i apologize
and thanks for educating me
Dźwiedziu
in reply to Dźwiedziu • • •« because this is a fash rag.)
@nowayitsmae @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @roblosricos @RegGuy @benroyce
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •The 1964 Civil Rights Act made the Dixiecrats, the racist southern democrats, feel "betrayed" by LBJ and so they began to migrate to the GOP
The racist south votes Republican now, not Democrat
You understand that right?
So are you lying or are you ignorant?
Do you have a path forward?
Or is this pointless hopeless "everything sucks" just you telling us you're fucking useless except for whining
roblosricos
Unknown parent • • •@jonesmurphy @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @levitte @RegGuy
people don't seem to remember that the US South was solidly Democratic until Reagan wooed them over to the newly over-the-top racist GOP.
Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas who stood on the steps of a schoolhouse with a baseball bat to prevent a little black girl from setting foot inside? Democrat.
George Wallace opposed desegregation and supported the policies of "Jim Crow" during the Civil Rights Movement, declaring in his 1963 inaugural address that he stood for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever."
He was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the longest-serving governor from the Democratic Party.
btw - the democratic party did not change, forcing them out. they were seduced away by someone even more racist.
Jones Murphy
Unknown parent • • •roblosricos
Unknown parent • • •@joeinwynnewood @jonesmurphy @zakalwe @levitte @RegGuy
the democratic party machinery will never allow that.
Grassroots Joe
in reply to Grassroots Joe • • •@jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
the center-left has done a piss poor job of selling a far different, true story.
What if there were an effective way to sweep away the regressive-right's dog-whistles and scapegoating?
What if we could, using it, build widespread support for serious progressive reforms and make the Bernie/AOC wing of the center-left a majority?
Yeah, I'm wildly optimistic, except the way exists and works, it only needs one thing to succeed at ...
Jones Murphy
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Jones Murphy • • •@jonesmurphy @roblosricos @joeinwynnewood @zakalwe @levitte @RegGuy
You're right it wasn't just the south
It's just interesting to me to see an account calling itself anarchist spouting MAGA disinformation
Rob is either extremely ignorant or a cosplaying MAGA troll spreading MAGA lies
Jones Murphy
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •roblosricos
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@nowayitsmae @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @RegGuy
i will never agree with your stance on voting - not the way it's done in the US. i would totally participate in a parliamentarian type election - where the offices are divided according to how many people voted for which parties.
i'll sign up to vote if trump allows the midterms, but it's too late to register now.
AOC would totally win my vote, especially if trump runs for a 3rd term. if he's still alive. he seems to be fading.
i'm too old to be a front-line soldier. i'd best serve as a logistical support person, preparing to evacuate - and protect - our own.
i'd be doing that now, if not for my complete social isolation. portland is hell on people who don't run with the 'right' herds.
roblosricos
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @ZDL @RegGuy
just when i think we've reached some kind of understaning, you have to shit all over everything.
little known fact - we won the revolution in 1974. and by 'we,' i mean I did - me and 300 kids out in the high plains of texas.
and just when it looked like we could just declare the revolution and the government would surrender, the fucking communists started assassinating anyone they could not control, including members of rival communist sects.
so, when the pentagon declared a unilateral cease-fire, we did, too.
fuck, i've had to live with this shit my whole life.
did i do the right thing? if we had pressed ahead, very likely communist infiltrators would have been part of the main attack force, and who the fuck knows what would happen then.
would the maoist declare Mao to be their leader? and invite the chinese people's liberation army in, to deal with the "reactionary forces' within the revolution?
roblosricos
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@ZDL @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @RegGuy
the USA - killed by cowards who were comfortable enough in their lives, they didn't care that the police kill black youth with impunity, and didn't care that the US healthcare system was put under the control of corporations. and that the production of food was likewise corporatized.
who cares? as long as the idiot voters are fat and happy in front of their big-screen TVs, with a hand on their phone at all times? who cares that those phones cause genocide and mass extinction in africa? fuck africa, give me my smart phone, motherfucker, and i'll vote for a brain dead hyena, just let me have my stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you fucking pig.
voters are just another type of consumer, an insect-being, hellbent on consuming everything in the entire fucking world, like a plague of locusts.
so, get out there and consume something already, and shut your bigoted mouth.
locust boy.
roblosricos
Unknown parent • • •@jonesmurphy
most people considered to be 'latino' are mestizo - part european, part indigenous to the western hemisphere.
white-identified latinoes are WAY the fuck more racist than most americans ever were.
Jones Murphy
Unknown parent • • •Grassroots Joe
Unknown parent • • •@jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
The data collected says otherwise as does the fact of 15+ million Biden Skippers, including a lot of Black and brown people, who if they voted for the center-left in 2024 would have put Harris in the White House.
https://mstdn.social/@joeinwynnewood/115459568531374441
Grassroots Joe
2025-10-29 21:26:41
Jones Murphy
Unknown parent • • •Grassroots Joe
in reply to Grassroots Joe • • •@jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
scale, and that's widespread use.
The way is readily available in the form of the Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit, https://bit.ly/freedom-toolkit, and I put together a doc with background material on what the underlying framework is, how it came to be and a bit of the reams of research that went into it and is ongoing to ensure the effectiveness of new material which is at https://docs.google.com/document/d/16wE1lysyAkK-17wiMuMXR5O40iOAPV6469x3WHVmpoE/edit?usp=sharing
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
Google Docsamalia
in reply to roblosricos • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@joeinwynnewood @jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
well then i should be yelling at them
what purpose does soothing the precious feelings of people who don't care supposed to achieve exactly?
not that I think yelling at them works. but it's the proper foundational attitude towards nonvoting shitbags
and it's neat how "yelling at nonvoting lumps" is a problem and not, you know, the nonvoting lumps
why are we placing these entitled assholes on a pedestal to be catered to?
Grassroots Joe
Unknown parent • • •@jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
alert, it isn't sending Ben over to yell at them.
Should anyone care to hear about/see their work, Way to Win dug into this with Lake Research Partners/Celinda Lake, Catalist's Michael Freas, Dan Pfeiffer, Terrance Woodbury, Cornell Belcher and Chuck Rocha.
You can find all of these episodes at https://chartingthewayforward.buzzsprout.com/2415376/episodes
Written material:
https://chartingthewayforward.substack.com/p/what-we-know-about-the-millions-of
https://archive.ph/aDSim
https://waytowin.docsend.com/view/rnv5sptpzsqxy6k4
https://waytowin.docsend.com/view/f2az34zw5azsbgzv
What we know about the millions of missing Democrats and why they skipped 2024
Way to Win Staff (Charting the Way Forward)Grassroots Joe
in reply to Jones Murphy • • •@jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
The Missing 19 Million Biden Voters and The Pilgrimage Out of Flatland
https://chartingthewayforward.buzzsprout.com/2415376/episodes/16490801-the-missing-19-million-biden-voters-and-the-pilgrimage-out-of-flatland-feat-mike-podhorzer
Podhorzer piece discussed in that episode is at https://www.weekendreading.net/p/how-trump-won
I'm pretty sure that early calculation has been paired down using Catalist's data, but definitely over 10M.
Regardless, the analysis of who is in that cohort, why they sat out and what it will take to get them to vote moving forward is what matters.
Spoiler ...
How Trump “Won”
Michael Podhorzer (Weekend Reading)ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @roblosricos @levitte @ZDL @RegGuy
Rob says they are 63 but has the fantasy life of a 12 year old. Part of me thinks they are an agent provocateur
Seán Fenian
in reply to roblosricos • • •Three hundred? Seriously? Three hundred kids in rural Texas are going to overthrow the Man?
Look, all due kudos to your spirit and determination, but that's straight out of Red Dawn.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to roblosricos • • •@roblosricos @ZDL @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @RegGuy
Rob have you ever heard of the Reichstag fire?
Are you just as ignorant as you present yourself? Or are you an agent provocateur who actively intends to help fascism, rather than merely helping it unknowingly?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@roblosricos @zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @ZDL @RegGuy
Its like dealing with boyscout with an active fantasy life who thinks they live in a movie
You're 63?
That's embarrassing Rob
roblosricos
in reply to roblosricos • • •@zakalwe @joeinwynnewood @levitte @ZDL @RegGuy
and what if we had been lucky, and kept communists out of the initial attack force?
would the pentagon renege on their ceasefire if we suddenly had nuclear weapons? (that was the core of our strategy)
would i have started a civil war, with nuclear weapons?
would ultraconservative, reactionaries have fought us tooth-and-nail, so that the US became a killing field for a few centuries?
dude - that was a lot of decision-making for a 14-year-old.
the stupid thing i thought was that we won once, and it would easy enough to put it all together to do it again.
but, that turned out to be impossible. because 'vote.'
it's easy, it's convenient, and gives one a feeling of superiority over non-voters, even though there is never a candidate i would feel good about voting for, at teh state and national levels. never. i'd put damn near all of them in front of a firing squad if i could.
but, get out and vote, it's better than thinking, and a lot safer than a revolution. for you, the voter.
until it isn't.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@joeinwynnewood @mls14 @jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
joe i feel you
i get you
the problem is we're entering a profound period
1/3 have become fascist
1/3 don't give a shit anymore
1/3 are sane
this is well and beyond normal political science
this is more like an era of psychological disorders
Grassroots Joe
Unknown parent • • •@mls14 @jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
Have any of you taken the time to read or listen to the material I've linked to?
Have you read Heather McGhee's book The Sum of Us?
No, I can't convey the reality of what RCGN is, how and why it works in a few 500 character posts on Social Media. It takes at bare minimum an hour plus interactive session.
If you'd like to do an hour+ video conference with me, DM your email or Signal info and I'll be happy to set it up.
SouprMatt
Unknown parent • • •Grassroots Joe
in reply to Jones Murphy • • •@jonesmurphy @zakalwe @roblosricos @levitte @RegGuy
Please don't put words in my mouth I did not say. Not even close.
I am not talking about Republican no matter who for decades voters.
There is this thing called political science. They study why people vote as they do.
There's also people who study how people process information.
And there's a messaging methodology constructed using the all of that work that could move millions of voters who don't have fixed positions/ideologies...
Jones Murphy
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Wendroid 🇺🇦
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Poul-Henning Kamp
in reply to Wendroid 🇺🇦 • • •You do never get closer, by voting for a party which helped create the problem.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Poul-Henning Kamp • • •you only get better or worse in life. at first, the choice is barely noticeable
you can sustain and iterate to even better
or you can give up and whine cynically like a coward
which has what effect?
it makes things even worse. you giving up helps the plutocrats bigots and fascists
why do you think you understand your world when all you offer it is the most pedestrian insipid "everything sucks and then you die waaah"
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Vive Levant
in reply to Wendroid 🇺🇦 • • •Magical Cat
in reply to Vive Levant • • •Sounds as a good metaphor, but there are whole countries where it is not clear how that "walk a bit" done?
In case if ruling party rigged elections and does not allow my candidate/party literally exist in legal space, and now arrest people for peaceful protest?
This is how terror in Georgia country happens.
How to "walk a bit" done in the latter situation?
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Magical Cat • • •@koteisaev @Vive_Levant @wendinoakland
well yeah, the analogy has its limits
if someone is shutting down bus lines, there's a lot more walking
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@brad @A_Minion @nikatjef @phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
you at least have parliamentary, which does lend some stability and viability to 3rd parties
we don't even have that
but don't misread me: it's not a contest, the uk and usa are fucked in many ways, some unique, some similar
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@brad @A_Minion @nikatjef @phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
copy australia
do ranked choice
what they call "preferential voting"
Brad Macpherson
Unknown parent • • •@A_Minion @nikatjef @phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder There is also a movement to bring in proportional representation which the New Tories ("Reform") made noises in favour of before they gutted the Old Tories ("Conservative and Unionist Party"). Now they're cold on the idea and could win power with around 27% of the vote under FPTP.
Only hope is for Labour to bring in voting reforms. So, I guess the UK's fucked.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •every #vote counts
https://alaskapublic.org/elections/2024-11-20/alaskas-ranked-choice-repeal-measure-fails-by-664-votes
Alaska's ranked choice repeal measure fails by 664 votes
Eric Stone (AKPM)ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@CStamp @A_Minion @brad @nikatjef @phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
"VoTiNg DoEsN't MaTtEr"
🤦 🤦 🤦
Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️
Unknown parent • • •@CStamp @A_Minion @brad @nikatjef @phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @ShredderFeeder
Why would people vote against having more choice. What type of campaign did NO run to pull that off.
I can see PR not winning a vote because it can be difficult to explain and has some issues but ranked choice is what we used to call a No Brainer.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •the thing is, republicans are not disenfranchized, but they do lose with more choice in ranked choice
this is a threat to the GOP establishment
why any individual voter would want less choice is simply a matter of being incredibly stupid and brainwashed, or malicious
also, i am certain some idiot is confused by ranking choices rather than making a checkbox
like that fucking matters
Carolyn
in reply to Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️ • • •@the5thColumnist @A_Minion @brad @nikatjef @phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @ShredderFeeder "After an August 2022 special general election for Alaska’s U.S. House seat, Izon, who is a registered nonpartisan, said Republicans in the state felt “disenfranchised” because of ranked-choice voting."
Another comment was about older people not understanding it.
https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2024/why-alaska-voters-want-repeal-ranked-choice/
Alaska voters enacted ranked choice voting. Why do some people want to repeal that? - Poynter
Sara Swann (The Poynter Institute)ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@A_Minion @CStamp @the5thColumnist @brad @nikatjef @phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @ShredderFeeder
well we got you! you're thinking clearly
A_Minion
in reply to Carolyn • • •|| I'm old and had to explain it to the younger folks. But again our red to blue ratio is right at 60/40, One of our state reps got elected because he was at Jan6th(and a west point grad, shunned by his follow grads).
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@A_Minion
never let them shut you up
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@Wyatt_H_Knott @phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @the5thColumnist @ShredderFeeder
love me or hate me
Grassroots Joe
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Your assessment of that middle 3rd is awfully generalized.
There's a whole lot of opportunity inside that 3rd.
Either we work to realize that opportunity or else maybe the "we should give up" folks are right.
I think this clip of Graham Platner from the 10/21 Pod Save America episode encapsulates my view pretty well.
James Wells
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@CStamp @the5thColumnist @A_Minion @brad @phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @ShredderFeeder
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to James Wells • • •@nikatjef @CStamp @the5thColumnist @A_Minion @brad @phloggen @roblosricos @dnkboston @ShredderFeeder
problem is they don't do much but whine
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •some of the anti-vote voices are really this dumb
some are organized troll psyop
some are pathetic victims of the psyop
Deb Nam-Krane
Unknown parent • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •Deb Nam-Krane
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Democracy Dies in Dumbass
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •Ranked Choice Voting is probably the single biggest thing we could do to improve our democracy and give third parties a chance...
The problem is, by the very nature of the way our democracy was built, a third party would have to still manage to get a majority to govern. While there are some "coalition governing" tricks that can be done (choosing to caucus with, etc) the third parties will always be at a disadvantage just by virtue of the fact that it takes 270 electoral votes to win. And given that it takes 2/3 of states and 2/3 of congress to undo that, i don't see fixing the electoral college as doable in our lifetimes..
If we vote for the "more left" of the two parties in every election, eventually the government will legitimately move left. But if we keep letting the right-wing win because the left leaning candidate 'wasn't lefty enough" we're doomed to fail forever.
@CStamp @the5thColumnist @A_Minion @brad @nikatjef @phloggen @roblosricos@vivaldi.net @dnkboston
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Bent Chinrest
in reply to Democracy Dies in Dumbass • • •@ShredderFeeder @CStamp @the5thColumnist @A_Minion @brad @nikatjef @phloggen @dnkboston There are state-level adjustments to the EC that could ease this - proportional electors, for instance - but power only changes when challenged
There's nothing in the US Constitution to require all of a state's electors break for the plurality
but yeah, third party is a non-starter presently
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Bent Chinrest • • •@paneerakbari @ShredderFeeder @CStamp @the5thColumnist @A_Minion @brad @nikatjef @phloggen @dnkboston
correct me if i am wrong, but if blue states apportion electors proportional to the votes, because blue states care about fairness
while red states do not, because they are happy to cheat and give all of their blue voters to red electors
then this is self-defeating, no?
that is not to say that we shouldn't fix the EC
but that it has to be a whole fix, not piecemeal
Bent Chinrest
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •federal supremacy could impose that without the high bar of Constitutional action, unlikely as that seems
I guess my point is that there are loads of things that could be done, so it's disappointing how infrequently we do and how stubbornly we hold to the unattainable
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Bent Chinrest • • •right, and my intent is not to shut down discussions. there is plenty to do piecemeal, and plenty of good new ideas out there
we just have to be mindful of the pitfalls. ideally we force nationwide change, somehow, but that bar is high
James Wells
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •This is why the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) hasn't been enacted yet. Once they get enough states to break the 270 EC votes, then the NPVIC goes into effect and the EC votes, at least from those states who follow the NPVIC, will be allocated based on the winner of the popular vote.
Right now there are enough non-NPVIC states to pull some shitnanigans.
@paneerakbari @ShredderFeeder @CStamp @the5thColumnist @A_Minion @brad @phloggen @dnkboston
James Wells
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@paneerakbari @ShredderFeeder @CStamp @the5thColumnist @A_Minion @brad @phloggen @dnkboston
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@the5thColumnist @nikatjef @paneerakbari @ShredderFeeder @CStamp @A_Minion @brad @phloggen @dnkboston
we elect coroners 🥴
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️
in reply to James Wells • • •@nikatjef @paneerakbari @ShredderFeeder @CStamp @A_Minion @brad @phloggen @dnkboston
Do Americans really elect dog catchers. I always thought that was just hyperbole.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Unknown parent • • •@CStamp @the5thColumnist @nikatjef @paneerakbari @ShredderFeeder @A_Minion @brad @phloggen @dnkboston
there is some logic to it
like in some places they are the only one who can arrest the sheriff, who is also elected
*some* logic
Edelruth, PBS Passport Holder reshared this.
Bent Chinrest
in reply to James Wells • • •Local candidates campaign through FB and IG (*maybe* TT), websites are platform-exercises wholly dependent on boot-licking search engines, and the party apparatus is usually buttoned up by "professionals" contented with salary-secure losses
It's not hopeless, though
Bent Chinrest
in reply to Bent Chinrest • • •VulcanTourist
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@the5thColumnist @nikatjef @paneerakbari @ShredderFeeder @CStamp @A_Minion @brad @phloggen @dnkboston
More conservatives are coroners because they LIKE seeing other people die. Also, it puts them in a key position to help their cronies when they get caught.
Oliver Pfleiderer 🇬🇱
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Oliver Pfleiderer 🇬🇱 • • •probably the map maker gave up, the data exists
or maybe they use a different title or a different system where the duties of the coroner are spread out. like medical examiners and justices of the peace
Oliver Pfleiderer 🇬🇱
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •That's it. It's stated in the article for the map.
"Note that all the states without county breakdowns on the above map use a Medical Examiner system." Meaning that they have someone professionally trained to so the job... A coroner doesn't need to have medical training as far as I understand - amazing or in other words WTF.
https://mcimaps.com/halloween-2025-my-latest-deep-dive-into-the-election-of-coroners-in-america/
Halloween 2025: Coroner Elections in America- MCI MAPS
Matthew Isbell (MCI Maps | Election Data Analyst | Election Targeting | FL)ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Oliver Pfleiderer 🇬🇱 • • •@LinHead
some places you don't even have to be trained in the law to be elected judge
Oliver Pfleiderer 🇬🇱
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Oliver Pfleiderer 🇬🇱 • • •well in the usa you have rfkjr making healthcare policy, a man who doesn't believe in healthcare, only snake oil nonsense
there are indeed americans who would prefer a popular "pilot" over a competent one. maybe flying the plane on the power of religious faith
we are deeply stupid country
Oliver Pfleiderer 🇬🇱
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Oliver Pfleiderer 🇬🇱 • • •