I've been shushing people who say there won't be free #elections in the #USA anymore

#Cynicism leads to #prematureCapitulation: "if the #vote is corrupt, why vote"

Americans are lazy about voting as it is. Weak whiny "the sky is falling!" statements just because malicious intent exists is enough to make some give up

Besides, elections are controlled by the states

On that note (they won't succeed):

"#Trump urges #Republicans to 'take over' and 'nationalize' voting"

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-urges-republicans-nationalize-voting/story?id=129793658

@Asbestos @benroyce also, even if true, why NOT vote for a lesser evil? 🤷

@benroyce @Asbestos as if there's something wrong with wanting less evil.

@rupert @Asbestos

Nevermind that a lesser evil is all you will ever get, in any timeline, in any country, in any election

Now and forever

If a literal demigod descended from the heavens with angels singing and ran in an election, typical politics would paint them as evil one way or another in contrived fashion, people would nod along in the usual lazy cynicism, and thus they would just be the lesser evil

Toxic idealists and mindless cynics are fucking stupid losers

@benroyce @rupert @Asbestos This is why you prepare to fight no matter who wins the election. In the election itself you are attempting to choose the weakest of several opponents.

In 2016, nobody thought Trump could actually win. Problem was, Trump and Hillery Clinton were BOTH candidates considered "unelectable" by conventional wisdom. If two unelectable candidates face each other in a US style general electio, both of them become electable folks!

Right up to Nov 8 2016, we were all preparing to fight Hillery Clinton and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. We all hoped to hell Trump was stopped, but we knew we'd still have a tough fight ahead no matter what. That TPP may have benefited Trump: both candidates claimed to oppose it (a big win for the anti-WTO movement), but many white working class US voters expected Hillery to go back on her word. Obama had been a big booster of this treaty, chock full of the usual GMO, drug patent, and even US cigarette export provisions promoted by USTR.

The other big fight was Standing Rock, we had already sunk the Keystone XL. Heroes stood their ground at Standing Rock and slowed the project to a crawl as the world looked on. We had it beat, it was to be another KXL.

Then we got the worst possible surprise: Trump "won" the election! Instantly Standing Rock become almost impossible to win. The TPP was gone, but a vicious campaign of racism and hate was coming. On top of all else, Trump packed the Supreme Court, putting in cronies like "Frat Boy" Kavanagh and "Handmaid" Amy Coney Barrett. "Witchburner" Samuel Alito was already there thanks to GW Bush.

A year and a half after Trump left office post J6, Trump's SCOTUS picks threw out Roe V Wade. The resulting abortion laws were quickly castrated by the abortion pill networks, but this decision also unleashed a wave of anti-LGBTQ hate that is still going on today.

I think a lot of us in 2016 were looking downfield at the end zone without first having the football caught and securely tucked away prior to taking off running.

@LukefromDC @rupert @Asbestos

you always fight

and the fight has many avenues

voting is just one of the avenues

and morons who ignore it are failing simple strategy and tactics, and losing the fight

@benroyce @rupert @Asbestos @LukefromDC thank you, yes, as someone who's been a pragmatic movement person for years...yes

I had some serious fights with the Biden administration, I know they weren't my friends

but they also resourced some things I found extremely useful, as opposed to this "knock everything over and piss on it" strategy we saw last year from the feds

@benroyce @rupert @Asbestos I have long said "EVERY tool in the toolbox" means exactly that.

Also note that even if Trump himself could be on both sides of the ballot, there would be all those referendums and downballot races to consider. It's worth your time for instance to take a few hours to look at every candidate for school board, and find out who is backed by Moms 4 Liberty or other Fundamentalist Christians. Then vote for their opponents, excluding any other extremists calling for things like mass drug testing or more prosecutions for truancy.

The corruption DeSantis had to resort to do defeat an abortion rights referendum in the last election now threatens to derail the rest of his agenda. That referendum got just under the 60% needed to win-and DeathSantis stole millions in taxpayer funds to blanket the airwaves with deceptive ads against both the abortion and cannabis referendums.

@dlundh @Asbestos

Because if a candidate is not perfect I can't taint my perfect soul. And before I vote I have to feel like my vote is a statement of eternal love. Only then will I vote

Oh if I don't vote I help fascism win?

Well my holy sense of self-regard and my perfectionist ego masturbation is far more important than my entitled lazy inaction resulting in goons murdering people in the streets, don't you know

🤮🤮🤮

@benroyce @dlundh @Asbestos

Don't hold back Ben, tell us what you really think. 😉

@mastodonmigration @dlundh @Asbestos

I've got 50k such comments under my belt

I've got 200k more to go

Until my anger at nonvoting assholes who helped get us MAGA in power is quenched

@mastodonmigration @dlundh @Asbestos @benroyce I realise your fiery rants about voting abstention aren't meant to be amusing, but they do often make me smile in a "batten down the hatches, folks, Ben's off on one again!" kinda way. 🤭

@benroyce @mastodonmigration @dlundh @Asbestos I want a device to summon Ben irl so that whenever I'm having an conversation with someone and it comes up that they don't vote I can sic him on them and watch the ensuing carnage like a bloodsport

@renardboy @mastodonmigration @dlundh @Asbestos

i'm an old man, you'd just watch me get beat up

but if i can hide behind a door i can give them a proper tongue lashing

@benroyce @mastodonmigration @dlundh @Asbestos fine I'll just @ you whenever I see someone here promote not voting.

@renardboy @mastodonmigration @dlundh @Asbestos ✅

@ApostateEnglishman @mastodonmigration @dlundh @Asbestos

every tragedy is a comedy and every comedy is a tragedy, it's just a matter of perspective

it's why we can laugh so hard we cry and why we can cry so hard we laugh

and thus that people are laughing at this shitshow of a country is perfectly appropriate

us living in it though better feel the tragedy enough to show the fuck up and vote

@benroyce @ApostateEnglishman @mastodonmigration @dlundh