The “protest vote” wasn’t very organized. There are many communities of Arab and Muslim people in the States that weren’t influenced by the small number of leftists advocating for votes against Harris. For many people, genocide is a deal breaker without outside influence of any sort.
Why are you able to excuse genocide overseas? Because at least it’s not genocide at home? Why are you allowing the party that supposes to represent your beliefs to enable any genocide?
I never ignored the ongoing genocide in Palestine. But quite clearly, if one believes that “Genocide for Palestine and genocide for LGBT folk” is an acceptable alternative, genocide is not the ‘deal-breaker’.
A vote for Harris was never a vote against genocide. There were many people who found it unconscionable to vote for anyone supporting any genocide. And you’re placing the blame on those people instead of your party that is still supporting genocide.
There were many people who found it unconscionable to vote for anyone supporting any genocide.
And so they chose not to vote; and in not voting, supporting the ascension of the most genocidal candidate.
Inaction is not absolution. People who refused to vote against the Nazis because the opposition wasn’t pure enough were complicit with the rise of the Nazis. It’s the same fucking thing here. Not voting is a choice, with consequences, same as any other choice.
And you’re placing the blame on those people instead of your party that is still supporting genocide.
“I don’t understand why you would blame the voters who chose as much genocide as possible for choosing genocide???”
Why are you allowing the party that supposes to represent your beliefs to enable any genocide?
Because our choices are limited, especially by the dominant opinions of the electorate. Support for Israel was still wildly popular despite the past minimum-20-but-arguably-up-to-75ish-years of genocide before Oct 7. That changed quicker than I expected, but was still far from complete even just within the voters of the Democratic Party, which is considerably less pro-Israel than the general population at the time of the election.
I could throw a purity fit and refuse to support the Dems for every atrocity they support. But that doesn’t improve the world. That, in fact, makes the world worse, considering that the only viable opposition supports all Dem atrocities PLUS a great number more. I could pretend that inaction is some form of absolution, but that’s utter bullshit. No one pretends that the people who saw “Both Sides” as bad were in the right in the parliamentary elections with the fucking Nazis in Weimar Germany. The SDP being anti-LGBT does not justify allowing the Nazis to win on the grounds of LGBT solidarity. Likewise, the Dems supporting Israel does not justify allowing the GOP, which is even more pro-Israel and intent on a few additional genocides of its own, to win on grounds of solidarity with Palestine.
It’s the fucking trolley problem - we don’t always have all the options we wish we had. With that in mind, you must choose what is, to you, the least repugnant option - and you must accept responsibility for that choice. Many, it would seem, want to make a choice and accept no responsibility for it. That’s not how it works. Saying “I didn’t vote” or “I voted for so-and-so who I knew never had a chance” is the same as taking your mail-in ballot, drawing smiley-faces all over it, and signing it with “I don’t mind if genocide happens here or in Palestine :)”. It is an expression of total disdain for consequences. We wield political power as voters. Voting is not some meaningless expression of personal fashion we use to define our style. We make choices, the same as representatives in a legislature make choices. And nothing we do in the political realm - abstaining or participating - is free from that.
I voted for Harris. I voted for, at best, insufficient action to stop the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and at worst, continued support at the current level for the ongoing genocide in Palestine. That’s on my soul, and always will be. But everyone who voted for Trump, or a third party candidate, or didn’t vote? They chose for the ongoing genocide in Palestine to get worse, and for people to be genocided here at home as well. They chose the option which saved no one, and killed as many people as possible. And considering that, in the end, Trump won, they have to live with that. That is on their soul, and always will be.
As long as people refuse to learn the lesson that inaction in the face of fascism is not innocence, and certainly not heroism, I intend on reminding them.
Voting isn’t action. Voting for the party that made fascism sound reasonable to 80 million Americans is still “inaction in the face of fascism”. The only moral choice in the trolley problem is to stop the trolley.
What kind of wierd world view is this? There are 210 million registered voters in the United States. Do you honestly believe that the beliefs of all of them are represented by the two relevant political parties in the United States?
Voting is pick your best option, not pick the one that is your personal Jesus.
Obviously they don’t, that’s exactly why the winner for the past however many elections is “did not vote”
But representing our beliefs is exactly what political parties are supposed to do, so I’m not going to blame people who don’t see themselves represented
The “protest vote” wasn’t very organized. There are many communities of Arab and Muslim people in the States that weren’t influenced by the small number of leftists advocating for votes against Harris. For many people, genocide is a deal breaker without outside influence of any sort.
Why are you able to excuse genocide overseas? Because at least it’s not genocide at home? Why are you allowing the party that supposes to represent your beliefs to enable any genocide?
Oh cool, so they voted to prevent genocide in the US?
… no?
They didn’t?
I guess genocide wasn’t such a deal breaker.
Stop using the threat of future genocide to ignore current genocide
I never ignored the ongoing genocide in Palestine. But quite clearly, if one believes that “Genocide for Palestine and genocide for LGBT folk” is an acceptable alternative, genocide is not the ‘deal-breaker’.
A vote for Harris was never a vote against genocide. There were many people who found it unconscionable to vote for anyone supporting any genocide. And you’re placing the blame on those people instead of your party that is still supporting genocide.
And so they chose not to vote; and in not voting, supporting the ascension of the most genocidal candidate.
Inaction is not absolution. People who refused to vote against the Nazis because the opposition wasn’t pure enough were complicit with the rise of the Nazis. It’s the same fucking thing here. Not voting is a choice, with consequences, same as any other choice.
“I don’t understand why you would blame the voters who chose as much genocide as possible for choosing genocide???”
Yeah, that tracks.
Will you answer this question?
Why are you allowing the party that supposes to represent your beliefs to enable any genocide?
Because our choices are limited, especially by the dominant opinions of the electorate. Support for Israel was still wildly popular despite the past minimum-20-but-arguably-up-to-75ish-years of genocide before Oct 7. That changed quicker than I expected, but was still far from complete even just within the voters of the Democratic Party, which is considerably less pro-Israel than the general population at the time of the election.
I could throw a purity fit and refuse to support the Dems for every atrocity they support. But that doesn’t improve the world. That, in fact, makes the world worse, considering that the only viable opposition supports all Dem atrocities PLUS a great number more. I could pretend that inaction is some form of absolution, but that’s utter bullshit. No one pretends that the people who saw “Both Sides” as bad were in the right in the parliamentary elections with the fucking Nazis in Weimar Germany. The SDP being anti-LGBT does not justify allowing the Nazis to win on the grounds of LGBT solidarity. Likewise, the Dems supporting Israel does not justify allowing the GOP, which is even more pro-Israel and intent on a few additional genocides of its own, to win on grounds of solidarity with Palestine.
It’s the fucking trolley problem - we don’t always have all the options we wish we had. With that in mind, you must choose what is, to you, the least repugnant option - and you must accept responsibility for that choice. Many, it would seem, want to make a choice and accept no responsibility for it. That’s not how it works. Saying “I didn’t vote” or “I voted for so-and-so who I knew never had a chance” is the same as taking your mail-in ballot, drawing smiley-faces all over it, and signing it with “I don’t mind if genocide happens here or in Palestine :)”. It is an expression of total disdain for consequences. We wield political power as voters. Voting is not some meaningless expression of personal fashion we use to define our style. We make choices, the same as representatives in a legislature make choices. And nothing we do in the political realm - abstaining or participating - is free from that.
I voted for Harris. I voted for, at best, insufficient action to stop the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and at worst, continued support at the current level for the ongoing genocide in Palestine. That’s on my soul, and always will be. But everyone who voted for Trump, or a third party candidate, or didn’t vote? They chose for the ongoing genocide in Palestine to get worse, and for people to be genocided here at home as well. They chose the option which saved no one, and killed as many people as possible. And considering that, in the end, Trump won, they have to live with that. That is on their soul, and always will be.
As long as people refuse to learn the lesson that inaction in the face of fascism is not innocence, and certainly not heroism, I intend on reminding them.
Voting isn’t action. Voting for the party that made fascism sound reasonable to 80 million Americans is still “inaction in the face of fascism”. The only moral choice in the trolley problem is to stop the trolley.
What kind of wierd world view is this? There are 210 million registered voters in the United States. Do you honestly believe that the beliefs of all of them are represented by the two relevant political parties in the United States?
Voting is pick your best option, not pick the one that is your personal Jesus.
Obviously they don’t, that’s exactly why the winner for the past however many elections is “did not vote”
But representing our beliefs is exactly what political parties are supposed to do, so I’m not going to blame people who don’t see themselves represented
Stop enabling genocide then.