this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2024
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Quick reminder that in a liberal democracy, social movements are more important for progressive change than electoralism.
Join a union. Be it trade union, housing union, or whatever (or even any affinity group). And get active.
Complaining about election results achieves nothing, but sow despair.
Also: voting is important because it lets you choose your enemy. Progressive liberals and social democrats won't fight against you as hard as conservatives and fascists.
Putting this here because some people might read this and think "Voting doesn't matter."
Voting doesn't really matter, though.
Edit, clarification: at least compared to bottom-up social movements.
The US supreme court isn't even a democratically legitimized body. Why do you want to take the high road if reactionaries clearly don't care for the rules?
Go to your local library and read a book. Any book.
Ok. I've chosen this one
"Hey guys, plowing this field won't feed you, we should just gather."
Nice strawman, homie.
It absolutely does though. You can’t elect worker ownership of the means of production but you sure can elect anything from fascists to social democrats. I for one don’t want fascists to control my government
But media controls people
If progressive policies were ever put into place by an elected body, it was always merely a by-product of already established social consensus formed by bottom-up politics.
I fully agree. But people get better things. Not voting means they don’t. Not voting means the people who want worse things get what they want
With electoralism, people get complacent with watered down reforms and become politically alienated.
If it doesn't matter, why are so many people afraid when the right wing parties take control? If it's not important why are people so concerned about the supreme Court? Why are women so scared of anti abortion legislation? You vote the legislative and they can simply take the power away from your social movements. So in the end, it does matter.
Voting should not be the main strategy to fight for liberty and progressive change, since the cards in electoralism are way too stacked in favour of the already powerful minority. That's what I meant with "voting is not important".
When Trump lost the last election, MAGA-heads were ready to take up arms against what they considered an injustice. Why aren't progressives ready to do so? How does the "vote blue no matter who" crowd prepare against another Jan 6th situation?
"Progressive" change will only take you further away from liberal democracy and free society.
surpassing liberal democracy is a good thing. I disagree with the free society bit. What definition of "free society" are you referring to?
I'd argue that a progressive country like Denmark with its universal healthcare and universally available college-level education is substantially more free than a freedom-touting country like the United States that limits access to these basics to those with substantial resources.