Anonymous cheese_of_the_world_unite 16h

Part of me is like, but fascism is already here tho. Like we just keep getting more elements over time. It’s not like one day it’s suddenly oops all Nazis yknow what I mean? frogs boiling in water; that’s our perspective collectively. Like yeah we’re def not at full blown Nazi fascism yet but where somewhere on the fascist pipeline. And trying to wait until we meet all the criteria to act would be a silly and pointless endeavor

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Anonymous fuuuckyikyak 16h

I can see abstention being a reasonable thing in places where the vote is so uneven that you know the outcome before you cast it. I always said, back when I lived in North Carolina, “I’d vote 3rd Party if I didn’t live in a swing state.” But yeah, being in a swing state, I couldn’t bring myself not to vote Democrat in 2024. Not out of any love for Kamala and Stein, but out of disdain for Donald Trump and Mark Robinson.

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Anonymous .gaia. 16h

I agree, but it’s also just plain easier to organize outside of the system under liberals than it is under fascists. Kamala Harris would not have put out the NPSM-7 that openly designates every left-wing organizer in the country as a domestic terrorist threat. The left does not have the capacity to DO something at the moment, we lack the strength of numbers that we need. In the meantime, I’d prefer to have a President who lets us organize.

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Anonymous cheese_of_the_world_unite 16h

That’s funny I started to type out my default swing state caveat statement but I’ve said it so many times and didn’t feel like making it again lmao. Cause yes I agree, if you live in a state that’s impossible to flip I can’t blame you for a protest vote. If you stay home and let trump win in a swing state that’s a different story

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Anonymous cheese_of_the_world_unite 15h

Potentially. I’m not sure if history agree; FDR, LBJ being good examples of that. And they were some of the most liberal presidents

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Anonymous .gaia. 15h

*agrees

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Anonymous fuuuckyikyak 15h

My stance is that I don’t really see any harm in voting. I’d never tell someone to not vote because voting is bad. My mantra here would be that we should expect so little and that attention should be spent on more impactful things

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Anonymous .gaia. 15h

Ok yeah I agree as far as it goes about how it can’t hurt to vote, but I’d take it further and say that it’s worth actively encouraging people to vote in swing states, and that not voting in swing states is a moral failing. Because those people could’ve prevented all the suffering going on under trump rn, if we had instead successfully gotten a centrist like Kamala elected instead. Do you agree with that part of it or feel differently?

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Anonymous fuuuckyikyak 15h

Cause yeah other things are impactful too but the difference between 2 electable candidates for folks in ice camps or dead from aids is pretty impactful

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Anonymous fuuuckyikyak 15h

I honestly haven’t decided. I’m on the fence on that front. I see what you’re saying and there was a point when I said the same but I’m not so sure anymore. Personally, while I’m partially inclined to see that position, I can’t say i feel inclined to cast my own vote for someone I generally don’t agree with on any front

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Anonymous fuuuckyikyak 15h

Best I can say with full certainty is that I wouldn’t vote against them without someone I generally do agree with on the ballot. Which is to say you’ll never see me voting republican or libertarian etc just bc I don’t like the Democrat running

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Anonymous fuuuckyikyak 15h

I see why people may engage in strategic voting but it’s not something I’m so willing to do

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Anonymous .gaia. 15h

I mean, when socialist organizing reaches a critical mass, the liberals definitely turn on us. That is true. But I don’t think we’re even at levels of consciousness that the 1930s or 60s saw. Liberals generally leave socialists alone until we’re a genuine threat, which as of right now we are not yet. Also, with the Soviet Union gone, there’s not as much Red Scare fervor in the West as there was in the 20th Century.

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Anonymous cheese_of_the_world_unite 14h

I don’t think voting for liberals really *helps* tho. Lesser of two evils is less of a draw each time. They don’t really turn out to be much less evil, just sneakier. I truly do not expect a liberal government to really roll back much of what Trump did. When the powers of the president and courts have expanded they do not shrink again by any meaningful amount

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Anonymous .gaia. 8h

Yeah I mean that’s what I just can’t get behind, cause really no candidate is ever gonna advocate for even half of what I (and I would imagine you) want out of a democratic president. But we do agree with them on some fronts in that we want less abuse of immigrants and not more, we want less slicing of important programs and not more…etc. I just don’t get how you could abstain, even between two very bad candidates, when the difference in suffering is so significant and voting is relatively easy

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