this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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I find a lot of people arguing that one shouldn't vote because although easy, it is the least effective form of political engagement.
I'd argue that you should vote because it is the easiest form of political engagment and, if possible considering your material conditions, you should also try to participate in other forms of engagement.
Yep, I think that's uncontroversial...
Slaps table THANK YOU!
Especially since those people refuse to actually provide an alternative form of political engagement besides vague references to a revolution, which has absolutely zero chance of coming out in the Prolitariat's favor in Americas current political climate, because there is nowhere near enough class conciousness for that to happen.
Even when the Proletariat does win, they often still install a dictatorship. Because those are the kinds of people who lead revolutions.
Dictators appropriate revolutions, not lead them. It's much easier to kill a couple leaders than to take over a country, afterall.
Yes, voting is the baseline. It's the least you can do.
I'm sure that there are anarchists out there who refuse to vote out of principle, but they still do activist work such as participating in mutual aid groups and so on. They're wrong, but at least they're still helping society in some way. I think the vast majority of people who don't vote are just lazy, though.
And then there's the marxist-leninists who saw the government ban black people and women from voting, see the Republicans trying to make it harder for black people to vote, and then said "when minorities vote it helps fascists", because they're clowns.
I consider voting to be the minimum buy-in to ask something of your representative. You may not get that thing, especially if your ask is far outside the mainstream. That's part of a democracy. The next part of democracy is protecting its status as a liberal democracy, where the people's freedoms are protected from the government so there is remove for improvement.