#I don't wanna vote for Biden either!!!

[ryuseitai]

Twitter is unbearably annoying ever since the attempted Trump assassination but I jsut rkbred I can block whoever I want❤️ Yay

[aquasendou]

People of Tumblr, what should I do in these uncertain political times?

[elwolfen]

I really hate politics, man...

[naivety]

man if you're voting for biden just to vote against trump, just say that. we have got to get over this harm reduction shit when what we really mean is harm reduced for us, me, mr american and literally nobody else on this bitch of an earth. if the only and most emphasized thing we do to reduce the harm our president and their platform does to the living is vote, we are reducing nothing. for anyone or ourselves, because voting alone doesn't challenge the trajectory of anything. it buys 4 more years before we have to do it all again, if that. thinking this way is what promises having to think this way again, and again, and again and again. in 2024, who american leftists vote for 1 day of the year matters little compared to what we do the other 364.

[nothorses]

youre the first person ive seen since biden drop out who seems genuinely positive abt it, everyone else ive seen is being rlly negative or making jokes and it scared me a lot.... can you explain, or link to another post or article, that explains why its good that he dropped out? i keep seeing everyone saying that biden didnt do anything, then that he did so many things, thrn stuff saying kamala is a bad choice to endorse then you sounded so positive abt her and im very confused ): i avoid politics a lot cuz i live w a very protrump dad and its so difficult to find accurate information that isnt seaped in memes and sarcasm and pessimism but you sounded very genuine! thanks for any help <3

I went into more depth over here! I also wanna share a couple of videos I've been getting these perspectives from, because these folks are a lot more educated on the topic than I am.

I first heard the perspective that Biden was woefully unlikely to win from Olayemi Ulurin, in this video. She has a kind of "I can't blame anyone for not voting" perspective that I do think I agree with, largely because she's coming at it with nuance: Biden is not a compelling candidate, he's not likely to win, it makes sense people don't wanna vote for him, and the Democrats need to get their shit together and pick someone else.

She also posted this video (below) that goes way more in-depth into the issue, and which I think reflects (and GREATLY expands and adds to) my personal stance on the "vote blue no matter who" thing: i.e., voting is ultimately about making the fight easier for activists who are working for real change. It's important for that reason, not because the person you vote for can be trusted to do anything helpful of their own volition.

If you're gonna watch any of the videos I link here, watch that one.

The other source I've looked to a lot recently is Some More News, which is where I initially heard a lot more detail on the "Biden should drop out oh god oh please it's our only hope" perspective.

First was their podcast episode immediately following the recent Biden/Trump debate, in which they delve (somewhat casually, but thoroughly) into why Biden's 2024 campaign was so fucking terrifying for everyone who needs a Democrat win:

They also get into more detail on the topic here, in another podcast episode:

Those two videos are great just for understanding this election and why Biden dropping out is very much the best thing that could have happened. That's basically the topic for the full length of both podcast videos (where Olayemi just kind of touches on that specific question, in comparison). If you just want more details on that question and only have the capacity for one of these, you could probably watch either podcast video (I personally have only watched part of the second one, and all of the first one).

I'd also recommend these two channels for political insight in general.

Olayemi is great because she comes at things from an explicitly activist perspective, and she has a huge personal background in very grounded, concrete political activism, especially as a black immigrant woman. She brings in a lot of other experts as well, often themselves marginalized political activists, which is just a fantastic way to be exposed to a really awesome diversity of knowledgeable perspectives without having to look very far on your own. She's also relentlessly hopeful- and grounded in that hope- which is so, so important and refreshing.

Some More News is a good supplementary to Olayemi, imo, just in that they have a good, upbeat (and again, very grounded) energy, and they cover a lot of very current political stuff in an easy-to-digest kind of way. I find both them and Olayemi really fun to watch, but the vibes are definitely different between the two, and they're good counterpoints to each other- plus they tend to cover different stuff, which just helps broaden your awareness of what's going on, again without needing to look super far.

I know this is a lot of information; hopefully I've made it possible to sift through for the piece you actually want to start with, though. If nothing else, I really encourage folks to check out Olayemi and see if any of her videos catch their eye. She's really fantastic, and her stuff scratches my "video to do laundry to" itch while also being, like, a really valuable watch overall.

Best of luck!!

[decolonize-the-everything]

Rewatching Bo Burnham's Inside.

I'm never ever gonna get over how everyone watched this and wrote essays and how even liberals were watching it and how white people STILL posted tiktoks about how THEY were socko (a clear representation of PoC experiences in liberal spaces) and now people are like vote for Joe Biden!!

Like I???????

these people could literally have the problem blasted directly into their fucking brains and treat it like a personality for a month and they would STILL yell at me when I say our government is the problem and that we need to address it from outside their white comfort zone. That their comfort zone is in fact holding progress back.

I frfr can not believe the reality I've found myself in as a disabled native

'What can I do to help?'

'Read a book or something, I don't know Just don't burden me with the responsibility of educating you. It's incredibly exhausting'

'I'm sorry, Socko. I was just trying to become a better person'

'Why do you rich fucking white people insist on seeing every socio-political conflict through the myopic lens of your own self-actualization? This isn't about you. So either get with it, or get out of the fucking way'

'Watch your mouth, buddy. Remember who's on whose hand here.'

'But that's what I- Have you not been fucking listening? We are entrenched in a way- (starts to put Socko away) Wait, wait, no please! I don't wanna go back, please! I can't go, I can't go back. Please, please, I'm sorry!'

'Are you gonna behave yourself?'

'Yes'

'Yes, what?'

'Yes, sir'

'Look at me'

'Yes, sir'

'That's better'

Like what level of dystopian is that this was Everywhere just a few years ago and STILL people are saying shit like 'i think the brown ppl's expectations should be more realistic cuz we definitely need to vote to keep killing them overseas to save the white gays on us soil'

[lakemojave]

I keep seeing posts like yours regarding the state of elections and I ask this genuinely but what exactly do you expect people to do when it comes time to vote? I'm aware the situation is shit whether you vote red or blue but it feels like voting anything outside of that is pointless. Biden fucking sucks, but what do I do? I just feel frustrated when people are getting so angry at others for voting blue but not provide any information outside. I sincerely want to know without being called an idiot. I don't even know how to begin to search or where to look.

The purpose of being very vocally against voting for Biden is not necessarily about withholding your vote entirely or to encourage people to vote for trump (though if you live in a supermajority state like California I'd suggest voting for a green party candidate). It's a specific tactic meant to apply pressure to the Biden administration--if your policy does not change, I will not vote for you. Consider the uncommitted campaign that's already gained some enormous ground. I honestly couldn't give a shit what people put on their ballots either. If you wanna throw in with a candidate that has alienated both his opposition and his constituency if you think that's proper harm reduction, more power to you. Just listen to peoples' anger and express your own, don't talk down to people expressing grievances and disappointments with the current president like many liberals online will often do. Those grievances are based more in reality than any "vote blue no matter who" lecturing.

[strawberryamanita]

Y'all I'm sorry but this is making me freak the fuck out

I know this is gonna probably cause people to call me a terrible person, but I'm just gonna risk it anyhow because this is getting really scary.

If you are a USAmerican,

Please vote for Biden this year.

I am 1000% aware that the genocide in Gaza is being perpetuated by Biden's administration. It's not good at all. I don't like the guy either, and like every President the US has ever had, he will burn in Hell, guaranteed.

But if we don't vote, then Trump is gonna win. This sounds rhetorical, but I ask genuinely: do you think Trump is gonna stop the genocide?

Has Trump ever shown that he cares about a single human being besides himself? The level of misanthropy that idiot is on is remarkable. I personally cannot see him slowing the flow of genocide in any direction; if anything, he might redouble the effort.

I think it was Warren who is tryna warn people that if Trump gets elected again, he'll never leave. I think back to a time during his first term where he said there might one day be a "forever President", and that makes me sick to my fucking stomach. That's not a presidency, that's a monarchy or a dictatorship. That would be the de-facto end of having a say in who's in control until he finally fucking dies -- and not even then, because then the mantle will be passed down to one of his children.

I know the US shouldn't exist in the first place. I am 100% aware of that. They say that empires fall after 250 years, and the US is gonna be 248 years old in July. But unfortunately, it exists right now, and it's full of people who will not survive another four years of Trump.

Again -- I will say it as many times as I need to -- I don't like Biden. I don't like him. He's done some beneficial things, but using his executive powers to speed up a genocide tips the scale completely over back towards hating him.

But Biden will step down when his term is done. I know the bar is in the fucking Mariana Trench, but for the love of God I do not wanna be under Trump for even a minute more. I hate Biden, but I hate Trump more, and that is fueling me, personally, to show up to vote.

At the end of the day, the problem is systemic. Every single authority over the US, since even before Washington, has only cared about hurting people of color and churning up the earth to make money. Our taxes could help improve the lives of US civilians, but instead they are funneled into the trillion-dollar War Machine aimed in every direction, including the US itself. The US commonwealth doesn't matter to the US government. We are human livestock who generate revenue; no matter how many changes of hands our money makes for hopes of a better cause inside the US, every last penny will find its way back into the War Machine or under the dirty ass of a billionaire who should be tarred and feathered in oil and their own paper money.

With all that said. There are US citizens who are enthusiastically pro-Biden right now, and siding with them might just keep us from living in Trump Hell all over again. The bigots have gotten too proud around here, and it makes my blood run cold. My mother doesn't show enthusiasm for ANYTHING the way she shows it for her freedom to hate people loudly and proudly. It makes her come ALIVE. And I know I'm not the only one who's been subjected to this kind of horror show for the last 9 years. Every state of mind curated by the US is a cult, and there is no escape outside of moving away.

Please. Vote. For Biden.

[reasonandempathy]

Didnt Biden say not to vote for him if one believed in the sexual assault allegations though?? https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/ 497930-biden-people-shouldnt-vote-for-me-if-they-believe-sexual-assault/

Like I'm not voting for either piece of trash. Not voting is just what it is- not voting. Stop trying to guilt people into voting for a pos.

First, the literal first lines of that article are about sexual assault allegations against him by Tara Reade. Which is actually the correct stance. "If you think I sexual assault people you shouldn't trust me to be President. " That's not the wrong stance to take.

Secondly, let me try it this way. Silence in the face of oppression is siding with the oppressor. It reeks of a sheer unwillingness to learn about history or engage with anything in the real world if you are fundamentally against voting itself in this situation.

What do you think that phrase means?

By not voting you are choosing to be neutral (on neither side) when directly faced with the choice of "neoliberalism" and "actually a far-right religiously-aligned fascist wannabe" you are are looking at the gulf of differences between them and deciding "I don't care about the in-between."

Mother Fucker appointed 3 of the Justices on the Supreme Court that already have, and are actively going to, do everything they can to make this an actively worse place to live for everyone who isn't a right-wing, rich, cishet white guy.

I do not know how to not get frustrated when I see shitty takes like yours. And I'm not "guilting" you.

I am explaining the real-world actual implications of the action you're proposing.

If you see what I'm saying, you can't find anything factually incorrect or logically inconsistent, and you still decide not to vote then that is fully your right.

And I will fully think less of you.

Whether or not you care is up to you. But if you're feeling guilt then you probably agree with what I'm saying, you're just too god-damned selfish to do something you don't wanna do.

[determinate-negation]

I don't think voting is the ONLY means of change, but I do think that unfortunately the people in power rn have too much power...

And at that point, I would much rather exercise my right to vote to at least prevent some harm over saying voting is useless... Because it's not. It's not useless. And believe me, I wish it was. As it stands, I think it's naivety towards the state of the world, hidden by your fancy words. I think it's idealist bullshit. Hate the system all you want, it exists.

Of course, if you can change things w/o having these all powerful men do what they want, I welcome the change.

We've all seen the crap Trump got up to round 1, and frankly, I don't wanna see what he'll do round 2, or the comparatively many more people he'll kill than Biden - either directly or indirectly, on a global basis.

No vote is passive support for the winner.

its a shame people think this way

read marx

[chase-omega]

The problem with discussing politics is neither side is willing to admit when the other side actually has a point, or when their own side was wrong about something.

You will never be truly "awake" in this world until you realize the right is correct about some things while being incorrect about other things, and the left is also correct about some things while being incorrect about other things.

You wanna have a correct political opinion? Do not attach a label to yourself. Don't claim to be on the right, don't claim to be on the left. Don't go full centrist either. Attaching a label to your beliefs only creates an "us VS them" mentality for yourself, and will cause you to pull out any "you're not like me" argument that you can think of. Simply think for yourself by accepting both right and left wing ideas that you DO agree with, while rejecting the ones you DON'T.

Do not vote based on just which political wing a candidate is running for, just to stick it to the other side. That's how we wound up with Trump, and then later, with Biden.

You should instead vote based on the things a candidate actually says, does and thinks. Even if that means sometimes voting for the other side.

The goal in voting should not be to get your candidate to win. The goal in voting should be to better the lives of your nation's people.

I am literally too intelligent for this world of simpletons. If I said any of this to any non-internet person in the flesh, I'd be screamed at and assaulted.

Because people, right or left, absolutely refuse to handle the objective truth, and will only accept narratives that fit their warped worldview.

I've went on a long long long political journey shifting my views back and forth drastically over the years as I went until I finally realized the truth.

It's not about red vs blue. It's all about the average citizen VS the rich and the corrupt.

[tehjmastuh-rants-101]

Voting in the election?

If you are a democrat, vote for Joe Biden. If you are a republican, vote for Donald Trump. If you are independent, that means, don't vote for either one of these assholes. But if you are independent and say that you are gonna vote for Trump, Then you need to be better educated on what all parties represent. When god created the heaven's and the earth, he did Not put people on this earth to be governed, judged, or bossed. Voting either Middle, Republican, or Democrat, will not vote for anarchy in anyways. And you are a dumb ass if you think that we can vote anarchy, I encourage everyone to vote, and vote for Who ever the fuck you want to vote for. I don't care if you vote for Donald Trump, or Joe Biden. I am not gonna tell you to change your vote. Because suppression. Please do not feel antagonized by people telling you how, who and what you need to be voting for. Contact your local authorities if you feel you're being publicly attacked about voting. EDITED! This vote is not to tell you who you need to vote for. This post is telling you to vote who ever you wanna vote for, but every vote has different policies and comes with the consequences.

[like-this-post-if-you]

Okay: I wanna open the inbox up so you guys can send in post like mine.

Inbox Status: Taking Like post now!

First though: Ground rules.

If any rules are broken in the ask your ask will be deleted. Read carefully.

Send them through the Inbox or Submissions. If you send through Submissions tag your post appropriately the best you can.

Nothing about government politics. I don't want manhunts over people political aligents or for people to stay tying to use this space to encourage bigotry. This blogs meant to be fun and possibly so people can find blogs with people like them! -Ex:"Like if you voted for Biden!" or "Like if you think Immigrants should stay home."

No troll/rage bait post.

Format it just like the ones I have. "Like this post if you ___./!" This also means only 1 thing per ask.

You can send in multiple, but try not to come in and just spam me with 5+ a bunch of times. You can send in one or two a day though that should give me time to tag and queue em up. I don't want the inbox to get overwhelming. (Though no matter what, there may be closing of the Inbox if I get a lot. I don't want to overwhelm myself.)

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More will be added as needed.

[cleoselene]

I find it frustrating that you assume I’m seeking attention and refuse to earnestly engage with my feelings when I say I don’t wanna vote for the guy who is actively helping Israel commit genocide. Also, as a disabled person like me, why aren’t you mad at him for pretending the pandemic is over and removing all covid mitigations and making society unsafe for us?

if you're voting for Cornel West, you're voting for whoever Harlan Crow wants you to vote for. If you're voting for Jill Stein, you're voting for whoever Vladimir Putin wants you to vote for. Either way, it's nonsensical and useless. My first election was 2000, go read the wikipedia article about Florida and Ralph Nader, it's not my fucking job to educate you on the meaning of a third party candidate in an electoral system that is a Single Member District Plurality.

As a disabled person on Social Security and living in the bottom quintile of this economy, the Biden Administration has made my life MARKEDLY better. Medicare improvements alone have been a revelation. I now have so much more money in my pocket, no copays on my medications or any of my doctor visits ever, my food stamps have gone up. We are the only major economy in the west that is experiencing economy growth.

Biden has been dealing with a 50-50 Senate and has accomplished more than Obama did with a Supermajority in 8 years. I'm sorry that you probably learned about foreign policy three months ago, but if you think literally anyone else who has a snowball's chance in fucking hell will be better for Palestine, you are delulu as all fuck. Biden is not helping commit genocide, you are spouting internet catchphrases. Biden is not even on speaking terms with Netanyahu at the moment. Blinken has been repeatedly pressuring Israel to pause the fighting because Americans are being held hostage in Gaza. You speak like someone who learns literally all of their information from social media.

You're disabled like me, why are you giving away your country to fascism for one foreign policy issue you probably barely understand and literally no other viable candidate will be to the left of Biden on? Do you think Trump, who your vote will actively assist, will be any better? The guy who literally moved the American embassy in Israel to Palestine in a move designed to be deliberately provocative to Palestine? That Donald Trump?

Assume Biden literally told Netanyahu to stop. Netanyahu would not stop. It would not happen. We have not approved any aid to Israel, even, because guess what: Congress hasn't approved anything whatsoever.

And that is more words than I have been willing to give to anyone who responds to this post because in 2016 I gave a lot of words to people who ended up being Russian psyops agents, and I am tired.

But hey, vote for Jill Stein. Women dying in Texas of miscarriages going septic clearly mean fucking nothing to you, as long as you can keep your Internet Moral Purity Fad Of The Moment.

edit: re Covid that was a global loss and it sucks and I have no Immune B cells and I don't go out anymore but that is hardly uniquely American. Everywhere is pretending it's over. no one cares about sick people anywhere. anyway grow up and realize the world is complicated and if you're a single issue voter like this you are cutting off your nose to spite your face

[queerchainsaw]

I'm not American but seeing the rhetoric of voting blue no matter what here on Tumblr and other social media has definitely confirmed for me that liberalism is a disease and that the US is patient zero. These people are so lost in their own shallow bipartisanship they fail to understand that the months before an election are quite literally the only time politicians will "listen" (and using the word "listen" is generous), the only power, and I mean only power, one has in this specific case is to threaten to withhold the vote, but these dumbfucks are like "so you want Trump to win?" No, shitface, I want Trump to drop dead, but right now you're pledging undying support and allegiance to an administration that is overseeing a literal genocide, and it doesn't matter how many times Harris says "we need to stop the suffering" or some other innocuous bulshit, she, as VP, literally signs off on millions of tax dollar every single week that go, you guessed it, to the Zionist Occupation Project (aka "Israel"). I wonder if these blue-magas understand that "Israel" relies almost entirely on US support, they are not a self-sufficient "nation", if the Biden-Harris administration actually threatened to pull all support, Israel would have no other option but to stop the assault on Gaza and the illegal settling of the West Bank because without American Handouts it would cease to exist within a month (assuming European backers like the UK, France etc. tried to keep it afloat, if they also backed out, Israel would vanish in less than a week), but since all that's been happening is empty threats from the UN and the ICJ, Israel keeps on keeping on, because it has the United States' blind support, and with the world's biggest superpower backing your every move, there isn't a security council or international court on this earth that can stop you.

ALSO, it boils my blood when democrats pretend to care about Palestine while treating it as an "issue" within the grand scheme of some election campaign, this is not an issue, this is the issue, has been for the past 75 years, people are dying every day, land is being stolen, a people is being annihilated, their representatives wiped off the face of the earth and their culture bulldozed and misappropriated by colonizers, this is an American project, Zionism is baked into the Modern American Political System, it's something the two-party system has no disagreements about - Republican or Democrat, money will continue to be funneled into the Zionist Occupation. When people are accused of both-side-zing the Presidential Election (as though it's the biggest sin since Eve decided to have a snack) I have to give a big hearty laugh, because these democrats actually think they're denouncing some obscure resurfacing of the horshoe theory when in fact, in the grand scheme of political stances, Democrats and Republicans are basically on the same side of the aisle, they're both right-wing parties, one is just proto-christofascist conservative capitalist monsters and the other is just faux-progressive diehard-liberal (still christofascist) capitalist monsters, obviously nuance is necessary, and the Republican party is objectively worse (it's their whole shtick), and so when the bar is 6 feet below Hell, obviously one is forced to say the Democratic Party is "better", but that, by no means, makes it a good party. Democrats who say "let's elect Harris and then we'll focus on all the problems of the two-party system and the blatant support of genocide" clearly don't understand that by blindly supporting either candidate, the two-party system has won already and so has the Zionist Project. You wanna do better? : fight the system. Agreeing to fall in line with the expectation of "dealing with these things later" is the biggest bulshit cop-out in the history of human mediocrity, if American "Progressives" weren't, by large, so terminally-liberal they might have understood that over the summer they had an unprecedented opportunity to make the two-party system shake in its boots, by turning away from the democrats, but it only took some light fear-mongering from the Biden-Harris administration for liberals to fall in line and forget all about the inherent injustice of a system that regularly and consistently forces you to chose between the lesser of two evils. Wake the fuck up and smell the tyranny that your day-to-day lives are built on.

It is a tragedy in and of itself that the fate of Palestinians and Palestine is largely in the hands of forcefully-uninformed Americans, but it's important to realize that as long as the US keeps dolling out money, weapons and overall resources, the Zionist Occupation has next to no reasons to stop the Genocide, the power rests in the hands of the current administration, and who in the hell do you think puts the power in the hands of any administration if not the people? get wise dumbfucks

[emilyrox]

Can anyone give some guidance on how I should proceed with voting in the US Presidential election nexy year? I just realized we are in a huge predicament.

I don't wanna vote for Trump (or any Republican) because they are against basic human rights in our own country and want to get rid of abortion access, lgbtq+ rights, and basically any human right you can think of. From what I've seen I also don't believe they'd call for a ceasefire in Gaza. (I know the Democrats are currently funding the genocide but I've seen no Republicans say they'd call a ceasefire. Their silence is just as loud).

I don't wanna vote for Biden because he is currently actively funding the genocide in Palestine and the current government is giving the Israeli government billions of dollars to bomb Gaza while also claiming that we can't afford to wipe student debt or provide free healthcare in our own country. This isn't mere hypocrisy. It's outright malice.

The other democratic candidates from what I've seen also don't seem to be interested in calling for an immediate ceasefire so I don't really wanna vote for them either.

I would vote for a 3rd party but both the left and the right say that voting for a 3rd party is basically throwing away your vote (though imo that is a self-fulfilling prophecy; 'voting 3rd party is throwing away your vote. they never win' > they don't vote 3rd party > the 3rd party candidate doesn't win and either the democrats or republicans win > 'this is why voting 3rd party is throwing away your vote. they never win.' > repeat). I also don't know if the 3rd party candidates would call for a ceasefire.

So...any advice?

(I'm not accepting 'just don't vote' as advice).