• brianary@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    Voting is a practical, political act, not a moral one. Anyone that tells you different is tricking you.

    • brianary@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      If people critical of this could organize something more useful than lemmy downvotes, that would be a start. I’m just genuinely confused by anyone that feels like not voting accomplishes anything. By definition, it is inaction. And mathematically, voting third party is the same as not voting. Why not at least defend gay and trans people? You can still do whatever non-voting-related actions you were planning to do to improve things. I guess you’re making your trolley problem choice. Honestly, the moral purity that has no impact just reads as vanity to me.

    • Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      So, you’ve got zero problem with Trump voters on moral grounds, correct?

      How could one possibly twist themselves into believing that a political act can somehow exist outside the realm of ethics and morality? Politics is ethics. Ethics are political. Why are you you trying to decouple these? Oh wait… its because yall will do whatever mental gymnastics are needed to justify voting for a genocidal, former cop.

      • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Genocidal former cop.

        Felon rapist pedophile fraud who threatens to wipe civilizations from the face of the Earth while robbing us blind and destroying all our alliances.

        Man. That’s a tough fucking decision.

      • punchmesan@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        In America’s general election you get two choices for president, the bad choice and the worse choice. That’s the undisputable reality. As South Park once elegantly put it, choose between the giant douche and the turd sandwich. Now, often times which candidate is which is a matter of perspective, but sometimes it’s pretty clear to see who the worse choice is.

        For instance, so many people got on a high horse against Kamala for supporting Israel, and they weren’t wholly wrong, but her opponent was very well known for being an admirer of Netanyahu and never took a stance against the genocide either. So considering both parties seemed likely to let Israel keep on keeping on it was a very strange thing to get hung up on electorally; there was little to no chance that we’d have an election outcome would have ended well for Palestine regardless, and having lived through Trump’s first term and his attempted coup there was plenty of evidence to suggest that he would be the worse choice.

        Now, many people used the argument that politics and ethics are completely inseparable, saw that both candidates would be bad for Palestine, then refused to vote on moral grounds, thereby doing their part in condemning America to its current circumstances of grappling with human rights crises at home. Thousands brutalized by ICE and CBP, shipped to torture centers for crimes the didn’t commit (e.g. El Salvador) children separated from parents (again) and effectively orphaned (again)… Much of this very much predictable given his first term. I’m not seeing this supposed moral high ground.

        The act of voting is indeed a political act, and not a moral one. One’s politics and ethics may intertwine, but at the end of the day you only get two choices and chances are that in order to avoid the greater evil you need to ensure the lesser evil prevails. It shouldn’t work this way but sadly it does.

      • brianary@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        That’s you reading into it, I think. I’m just tired.

        Labels feel like a substitute for argument and thought.

      • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Well at least we ended up with the felon rapist pedophile fraud who threatens to wipe civilizations from the face of the Earth while robbing us blind instead of the flawed but highly educated black woman with no criminal record.

        We really dodged a bullet, right?

        • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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          3 days ago

          Sure, but if you care about slowing the America’s descent into fascism, voting should not be your primary focus.

        • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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          3 days ago

          Genocide is by far one of the worst crimes against humanity. If someone supports genocide they are morally corrupt to the core. They don’t care if you live or die. They will sell you out the moment it gives them a personal advantage. What kind of democracy forces it’s citizens to choose between two such people?

          Americans generally don’t support genocide nor do they want a leader who would treat them like chess pieces. Unfortunately, the American electoral system is incapable of reflecting popular sentiment. If it can’t do that, then it’s not a real democracy. Change can only come to the US if people learn to wield their collective power in ways that don’t depend on the elections. Barring that, Americans are fucked regardless of who they vote for.

          • OCTADE@soc.octade.net
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            13 hours ago

            @brianary@lemmy.zip

            “Change can only come to the US if people learn to wield their collective power in ways that don’t depend on the elections.”

            No, change can only come if people repent of their political and religious idolatry and abandon their factional and sectarian creedos and turn to God the Father through his Son Jesus Christ. The nations are failing because the nations have abandoned the truth of God for humanist and sectarian lies, which are their idols. Man is worshiping himself, money, and power, which are the main idols causing all the madness. Madness is a spiritual condition, not an electoral one.

            Everything else is worldly-wise mind-poison.

            #Repent

          • brianary@lemmy.zip
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            2 days ago

            And what about gay, queer, or trans people? Have they not died enough? Because there absolutely is a difference between the parties for them.

            • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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              1 day ago

              Why, if the majority of Americans are against genocide, does democratic leadership support genocide? If they don’t think Palestinian lives matter why would they think gay, queer, and trans lives matter either? Vote for democrats all you want. I don’t care. Just don’t be so self righteous to think your vote meaningfully protects marginalized people.

              • brianary@lemmy.zip
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                13 hours ago

                Your speculation doesn’t match the observed history, though. Even if you don’t agree that Democrats have made progress in recent years for labor and gay rights, at least they haven’t actively rolled them back like Republicans. Police were out of control, but people weren’t disappearing at scale into black sites and being shuffled around to prevent any legal recourse.