this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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As the title states I am confused on this matter. The way I see it, the USA has a two party system and in the next few weeks they’re either going to have Trump or Harris as president, come inauguration day. With this in mind doesn’t it make sense to vote for the person least likely to escalate the situation even more.

Giving your vote to an independent or worse not voting at all, just gives more of a chance for Trump to win the election and then who knows what crazy stuff he will allow, or encourage, Israel to get away with.

I really don’t get the logic. As sure nobody wants to vote for a party allowing these heinous crimes to be committed, but given you’re getting one of them shouldn’t you be voting for the one that will be the least horrible of the two.

Please don’t come at me with pro-Israeli rhetoric as this isn’t the post for that, I’m asking about why people would make such choices and I’m not up for debate on the Middle East, on this post, you can DM me for that.

Edit: Bedtime here now so will respond to incoming comments in the morning, love starting the day with an inbox full 😊.

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[–] TheOubliette@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Of course we are talking about politics, not their metaphor. Metaphors break down pretty quickly in politics, as the actual material logic requires more than a five minute toy example.

In our current scenario, the Dems have a genocide candidate. If you vote for that and tell other people to vote for that, you are telling yourself and those around you that genocide is tolerable. Not just tolerable, even - recommendable in certain circumstances, pleading that it is reluctant. You are, in fact, helping to normalize genocide, and with it, dehumanize Palestinians. And if that genocidal candidate wins with your support, what will be the accepted consciousness? What will you and others internalize? It sure as shut will not be, "wow we should not have supported a fucking genocide what the fuck is wrong with us?" It will be, "hey cool we will support you no matter what, 98% Hitler". The party will see this and nod their heads, "let's start doing criminal charges for supporting Palestine" (they are already starting in this direction, e.g. Samidoun) and, "we never have to do anything our voters want".

Basically, y'all have no concept of leverage but you do have a concept of personal morality and are absolutely trashing it. You will, of course, never be forgjven by those who consider Palestinians to be human. One must hope that you overcome this implicit racism.

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 6 points 1 day ago (7 children)

You forgot the other scenario. You talk of not having leverage because of a vote, and yet the other choice absolutely has no leverage at all, and possibly makes things even harder to change.

Let me ask this - would you recommend not voting for either President, but voting on the rest of the ballot? Because telling people to not vote usually implies don't show up at all, and that is part of why nothing changes. Local and state representation can matter more than the President.

[–] TheOubliette@lemmy.ml -4 points 1 day ago (5 children)

You forgot the other scenario. You talk of not having leverage because of a vote, and yet the other choice absolutely has no leverage at all, and possibly makes things even harder to change.

I haven't said anything like, "not having leverage because of a vote". The relevance of leverage is that the entire premise of y'all's framings is that your role is to cheerlead your corronated genocidal candidate and accept anything they do, at least up to genocide. You throw away any concept of your own ability to make demands or organize and subordinate yourself to a genocidal political class. It makes you actively work against those who build leverage as well, you try to sheepdog them back into your self-defeating mindset.

So, having thrown away any real political analysis for building and using power, your vote is really reduced to a reflection of your personal morality. And that morality? To look at Palestinians as subhuman.

Re: harder to change, your electoral logic is already self-defeatjng. What do you think you are changing when your electoral logic is, "fall in line vite blue no matter who" including fucking genocide. Who would ever take you seriously? You think they're going to do anything to "win your vote"? Genocide apologist, they know they already have it. You announced you were giving it to them free of charge, that you will tolerate anything they do and still vote for them, and are actually pressuring others to do the same on their behalf.

You have thrown away any semblance of power or influence, and that is already within the limited confinea of electoralism. We all know that folks who think this way aren't out there working against the party in alternative organizations.

[–] jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It amuses me how rational you think you are while simultaneously missing the point. The gop will collapse, and then the dems will be the right wing party that they want to be. And the fight will begin anew. Harris shift to the right is a fine demonstration of this.

[–] TheOubliette@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not sure what you're referring to. When would the GOP collapse? Dems of course want to move right, there is no capitalist draw to the left, if you can call it a left. They would love to be able to manage their party without a "left" flank to handle and pivot fully to nationalism.

[–] jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

When? Im not an Oracle. May take decades. May get worse before it gets better in certain areas. The USSR took a generation to collapse.

Im hoping harris move to the right enough and manages it. So we can split the dem party finally.

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