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.
Oh, is it inaction? If I do nothing, I automatically vote?
Voting for the party that made fascism sound reasonable to 80 million Americans is still “inaction in the face of fascism”.
I didn’t realize that I was advocating voting for the GOP.
The only moral choice in the trolley problem is to stop the trolley.
Okay. Did these people refusing to vote for “Less death” instead stop the trolley, acquiring “No death”?
Or is what you’re really saying “Letting minorities be genocided is okay so long as you feel heroic about choosing a course of action you knew had no chance of succeeding”? Like seeing the Nazis march into Ukraine in WW2, and instead of choosing to support the lesser evil of nationalist partisans or the Sovs, you choose to dance naked under the moon every month in the hope that the beauty of your performance will bring peace to all the world? As long as you feel good about your dance, fuck those Jews and homosexuals who got sent to the camps, right?
Oh, is it inaction? If I do nothing, I automatically vote?
Aren’t you making that argument? That not voting was a vote for Trump?
I didn’t realize that I was advocating voting for the GOP.
You’re advocating for the party that boosted trumps popularity and legitimized his views in formal debate, and so much more.
And I was thinking in this analogy that stopping the trolley equated to ending capitalism. That’s what I’m really saying, not your bullshit. (I’m not saying that’s the mindset of those who didn’t vote, but that that’s the only way to end genocide)
But really, you shouldn’t be surprised that the party of maintaining our current level of genocide didn’t inspire people to show up at the polls.
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
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.
Oh, is it inaction? If I do nothing, I automatically vote?
I didn’t realize that I was advocating voting for the GOP.
Okay. Did these people refusing to vote for “Less death” instead stop the trolley, acquiring “No death”?
Or is what you’re really saying “Letting minorities be genocided is okay so long as you feel heroic about choosing a course of action you knew had no chance of succeeding”? Like seeing the Nazis march into Ukraine in WW2, and instead of choosing to support the lesser evil of nationalist partisans or the Sovs, you choose to dance naked under the moon every month in the hope that the beauty of your performance will bring peace to all the world? As long as you feel good about your dance, fuck those Jews and homosexuals who got sent to the camps, right?
Aren’t you making that argument? That not voting was a vote for Trump?
You’re advocating for the party that boosted trumps popularity and legitimized his views in formal debate, and so much more.
And I was thinking in this analogy that stopping the trolley equated to ending capitalism. That’s what I’m really saying, not your bullshit. (I’m not saying that’s the mindset of those who didn’t vote, but that that’s the only way to end genocide)
But really, you shouldn’t be surprised that the party of maintaining our current level of genocide didn’t inspire people to show up at the polls.
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