Protest Voting and Electoralism: Burn the Witch!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Protest Voting and Electoralism: Burn the Witch!

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

nepetaMisekiryoiki posted:

You are being very confusing. First you say protest votes are good, now you claim to be loyal democratic voter? These are somewhat at odds from what I know about how American voting system works but I am not from your country. From what that I see, Democrats and Republicans are the two major parties in a first past the post system, where refusing to vote for one implicitly benefits the other.

The only threat you make is that you will support Trump or a Trump lackey, which seems quite the counterproduct? Unless goal all along was just to punish yourself like the masochist fetishist wants.

Allow me to be clear: I am propose that if you truly believe you cannot vote for a party that can win or hold political office at all, then protest votes and refusal of voting is not a working threat. Violence would be, and actual threats of violence - these are things that can change the situation for one who refuses to engage in constructive voting.

This is many words to say "I will refuse to do anything, but demand people accord me respect as if i did". Protest votes do not work in voting systems that prevent them from working and America's system certainly prevents it, most countries do as well.

here's the threat: the democratic party eats poo poo and disbands

the democratic party has been the party of kicking the can down the road, and from what it looks like, it will continue to be the party of kicking the can down the road. being told to "vote blue no matter who" leads to arguments of harm reduction, softening the blow, and a host of other platitudes that seem like they boil down to a return to "normal". that return to normal includes being stymied at every avenue by republicans or just passing legislation written by conservative think tanks. the republicans are the party of ripping the copper wiring out of the walls, the democrats are the party that makes sure that the drywall gets patched up and goes to the home center 6 times to make sure that the paint matches.

the two options for destroying the democratic party (note: this largely means the institutions and various apparatus orgs like the dnc and dccc) via playing the rules hinge on participating or not participating. by participating, you engage with the party and change from within and explicitly tell all of the ghouls who feed on earned income tax credits to get the gently caress out. by not participating, you stop voting for the lesser of two evils and remove the momentum of kicking the can down the road another 5 years. i don't see the benefit of keeping a deeply rotten political party around indefinitely because on a cosmic scale they're marginally better than the gop, something that people will act as if it's a huge bar to clear. if the dems just keep on barely winning every 4 or 8 years on a platform of returning to 4 years ago/normal, they can keep it up indefinitely against increasingly unhinged gop opponents until they start stringing consecutive losses in a row. i have no interest or desire to return to 4 years ago.

# ¿ May 18, 2019 20:20

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 10:53

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

it�s not a binary, you don�t have to choose between the fascists and the fascist-enablers

like a valid solution to the trolley problem is to challenge the constraints and tell the proctor to gently caress off

# ¿ May 18, 2019 21:31

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

Remember, the actual nothing matters nihilists are the people who take issue with the �vote blue no matter who� mantra.

# ¿ May 31, 2019 03:26

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

oh my god, all of you are absolute loving turds

well actually all democratic candidates for office and the democratic leadership are all actually all a schrodinger experiment if you think about the extended democratic party universe. did you know that america has this thing called first past the post!?!?? what about that republicans are bad?

like no loving joke, the response to a democratic governor rubber stamping one of the most aggressive and regressive abortion limitations is unironically �well, what are you gonna do? maybe it�s called flyover country for a reason� jesus loving christ

# ¿ Jun 1, 2019 04:15

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

Biden winning the primary isn�t going to repudiate poo poo lmao

If Biden wins, it�s going to be filed as more evidence that the democratic party as an institution cannot not lean on the scales, and furthermore not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It would become next to impossible to refute the argument that the democratic party is controlled opposition.

Phone fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Jun 2, 2019

# ¿ Jun 2, 2019 00:51

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

KingNastidon posted:

not all primaries

thread title please

# ¿ Jun 3, 2019 05:04

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

i kind of want to start grilling this person about jupiter's policies and approval ratings

in other news,

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1137881330740539393

the adults in the room have decided that talking about climate change isn't on the menu, sorry for the convenience.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2019 06:16

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

are you doing a bit? like are you doing a gimmick right now?

# ¿ Jun 10, 2019 06:28

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

# ¿ Jun 22, 2019 14:49

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

Voting for biden is voting for kicking the can 5 years down the road

He loving sucks and you loving suck if you�re already trying to justify why pulling the lever for biden isn�t completely antithetical to your personal beliefs

# ¿ Jun 24, 2019 00:15

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

lol going to bat for the boy scouts

is there any reactionary person or group that you won�t stand up for?

# ¿ Jun 24, 2019 15:28

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

wow after tonight I don�t think I can�t not vote for biden

# ¿ Jun 28, 2019 05:02

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

Solkanar512 posted:

It�s really loving ableist to talk about anti-vaxxers as though they don�t cause any harm.

i understand that words no longer have meaning, but even i'm struggling with this one

# ¿ Jul 2, 2019 16:17

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

Solkanar512 posted:

Among those who are at serious risk of being harmed by vaccine-preventable diseases are folks who are immunocompromised for some reason. Cancer patients, poo poo like that. This is why herd immunity is so drat important. There are also folks for whom the vaccinations just don�t take.

By being an anti-vaxxer, promoting anti-vaxxer conspiracies and so on, you reduce the level of people being vaccinated. This can be seen in specific communities, social groups and so on.

So maybe take this poo poo seriously instead of pretending it�s no big deal. We�re having record measles outbreaks all over the country this year and it�s not likely to stop anytime soon.

alright, fair enough

however, this avenue of attack isn't really worth pursuing. and i'm going to bold and underline this one just to make sure that we're all on the same page, I THINK VACCINES ARE IMPORTANT AND THE ANTI=VAXX "COMMUNITY"/"MOVEMENT" IS ACTIVELY HARMFUL AND NEEDS TO BE DEALT WITH YESTERDAY, but acting as if 50% of the dem field is going to do anything about it (as opposed to the greens, or whatever other 3rd party that polls in the low single digits) is naive. every single time you hear a politician talk about choice and access, you can ctrl+h that poo poo and easily make their position on mandatory vaccines come out as "as a democrat, i believe families should have the right and freedom to choose their vaccinations".

marianne williamson isn't going to be president. jill stein is not going to be president. the green party is not going to seize control of the federal government.

this also doesn't mean that the green party's platforms writ large are head and shoulders above any given democratic candidate's platform.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2019 16:36

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

VitalSigns posted:

Yeah but if your defense of the Greens' platform is "well they'll never win anyway", then there's no need to vote for them, you can vote for someone actually good who will also never win if that's what you want to do.

it's not my defense of the greens' platform, it's a push back on people missing the forest for the trees and pulling out a new variation on the "if you don't vote for the D nominee, you're voting for trump" canard.

when the democratic forest is

Flowers For Algeria posted:

Meanwhile Democrats are killing millions by refusing them free and full health care but ya know...

and the tree of the day is oprah's spiritual adviser

# ¿ Jul 2, 2019 16:45

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

i agree skex, we need to all rise up and vote for some neoliberal dumbass who will get us into 3 more wars, ignore america's crumbling infrastructure, hire more women guards, and give massive handouts to the FIRE sector.

and then when they inevitably lose to some colossal dipshit like tom cotton in 2024, we will finally have the fascist authoritarian we deserve.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2019 21:54

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

Voting for Biden in November is useless because he�ll be impeached and removed from office within 3 weeks of being sworn in.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2020 15:02

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

Since Joe Biden has come out of hiding over the last 48 hours as his handlers pump him full of stuff that you used to only be able to buy on The Silk Road and the 100% credible rape accusation by Tara Reade where he pinned her and shoved his hand down the front of her skirt, anyone wanna extol the virtues of voting blue no matter who?

Any takers?

# ¿ Mar 25, 2020 20:56

Phone: Jul 30, 2005; 親子丼をほしい。

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