#rather than vote for no one

[medicinemane]

I want to preface this post by saying I'm not trying to paint the world as bleak and hopeless, this is just something that's been on my mind

With all the horrible things in the world right now, it's struck me just how much the people who've died are dead, and no matter what we do now there's no turning back the clock

That may sound obvious, but what I mean is that nothing we do will ever be able to make these wrongs right

Which ironically just makes it all the more important to fix things as soon as possible, both to prevent more irreversible damage, and also because if we can't do enough then we're obliged to at least do what we can

I know that none of us here are heads of state, or major politicians, or billionaires who bought a social media platform to avoid the FTC beating us into a fine paste for insider trading due to non disclosed shares of said company while driving up the price by saying we were thinking about buying it; so I get that there's a limit to what we can do and out governments are filled with dumb assholes who refuse to do anything to help (some seem to want to, but there's enough people blocking them a lot of the time)

So I don't... I don't have a direction here... I assume you're already doing what you can when you can, and keep it up. I don't know... it's just horrific how many people are suffering and how we'll never be able to take it back

That's what's on my mind with all this and... and it's very frustrating and I'm not even the one in danger with any of it

Keep trying to do better I suppose... and it's not something I have much hope for, but I guess vote in any upcoming elections, given that if there were less awful people in office maybe a few more decent things would get done

Like be a single ticket voter, take what's important to you and say "I only vote for people who support what I want supported"... and then vote for those people

I have no faith in it, but I think you gotta at least try it

(Bonus suggestion, think it's particularly hopeless but vote in the primaries cause that's your one chance to get a trash candidate off the ballot)

[spacedlexi]

the way the ericson group were at the outbreak just a bunch of troubled kids who made various mistakes or committed crimes and were judged by a system that punished and abandoned them instead of giving them the support and love they needed, are then nearly a decade later put into a situation where now they must judge a troubled child for the mistakes and crimes hes committed against them. and 5 to 3 vote them out 😭

[kyluxtrashpit]

Been hearing from multiple people I know and trust in the fandom that apparently people have been botting that hottest man poll that everyone’s been yelling about? And that kylux fandom specifically is the one guilty of it

And honestly I’m extremely disappointed in anyone who thinks that’s appropriate. These are supposed to be fun and you’ve gone and ruined it for everyone participating AND made all of us look like assholes in the process for being unable to be normal about a harmless, just-for-fun poll

Hope you’re proud of yourselves. Genuinely pathetic behaviour. I expected better from the fandom I’ve called home for nearly 10 fucking years

[bennidraws]

yeehaw 🤠

full ADULT ver

[hussyknee]

Y'know, when the choice is between voting for one of two tyrannical war criminal genociders and overturning the government, the "lesser evil" is, in fact, overturning the government. That's the difficult but necessary choice, especially since your country is holding most of the world hostage to its interests. Libs just know that their own lives might be part of the collateral, and worse, that their comfort will definitely be. That's what this is all about. After decades on decades of sacrificing Black and brown people in exchange for the stability of their power structures, they've realized that it's finally their turn.

[gibbearish]

btw its interesting the way james tries to imply that like. well the videos that have plagiarism are the ones our dumb stupid annoying patrons requested about bad topics that didnt deserve to have the effort put in to covering them well so basically its fine. like obv thats interesting on its own but moreso the fact that he doesnt actually /say/ it, or like. give a list of the videos hes referring to, just says "those videos are very clear on which ones they were" i think as a nod meaning like "yknow the ones everyones talking about". unless what hes meaning is that like they put a note in certain videos saying "this video was requested by a patron, we here at james somertom incorporated do not espouse these views" which seems unlikely to me. idk methinks maybe it's because there is indeed a lot more than people think and with all the buzz he's not sure which ones have been discovered yet or not, so putting down a solid list that missed some would look like he was still hiding things whereas putting down a fully sourced list would be admitting to wayyyy more than anyone's found yet

[akuma-tenshi]

*logs onto twitter*

*people are complaining about the upcoming essence again*

*my tl is completely infested with rp accounts again*

*netease is reworking florian's s-tier because his b-tier is apparently too similar to it*

*joseph fans on the chinese server are rumoured to be going onto global to mass vote him in nymph awards and he's shot up from ninth to fourth place overnight*

*closes twitter*

[xxlovelynovaxx]

The point of vote blue no matter who at this point isn't even about getting our needs met, especially as minorities

It's about picking the less autocratic fascist option, the party that would rather neglect us to death rather than outright kill us, so that we're still ALIVE come next election cycle and can continue building community resources independent of our passively genocidal state!

Like, yeah I'm a profoundly disabled trans crip. My vote doesn't "not matter" because politicians will never, EVER give a shit about me. That much is true. It matters because I remember how suicidal I was when Trump wanted to pass legislation that would have made even people like me ineligible for SSI, and how the Biden administration just. Hasn't bothered with SSI. It matters when Republicans are openly trying to force queer people into hiding by way of military dictatorship, and democrats sometimes use lip service in favor of some of us for their platform.

Like. I get it. It's not much of a lesser evil to be left to die than to be murdered. But goddammit, when you ARE building community and organizing and doing the other things to survive as best you can...

Idk. I'd rather that than actively looking death in the eyes. I do in fact think that the preservation of life, no matter how thin the pretense which causes it, still fucking matters

[yardsards]

lake holding blåhaj because they both got voted off of @askerror87's transmasc swag poll (i had considered drawing them w a shiny sylveon plush, bc sylveon ALSO got voted off, before remembering that sylveon is really hard to draw)

edit: look in the reblogs of this post, there is a Very Good drawing of lake w a sylveon

[chiarrara]

I don't know I just feel like....

We just watched a man self-immolate in his military uniform. And I don't want to sound like an idiot, because it's much more than this but, couldn't you say that was a very extreme form of conscientious objection?

He could not be complicit anymore, but there is literally no way out of being complicit in this genocide if you live in America. For him especially, being trapped in military service. But for all of us. All of us are trapped in complicity in some way, and we can try to counteract that sin with as much meaningful direct action as we can possibly do, but all of that action comes with some proportional level of risk.

So, a man burned himself alive in an extreme form of conscientious objection (the only form available to him - one of great violence)

And people are still on here telling people to suck it up and vote for Biden.

I just... maybe I'm really stupid and I just can't see the logic y'all are putting forward. Because the way you lay it out it all seems to make so much sense to you. I understand we're trapped in a two party system. I understand the Republicans don't have the same consciences we do and are gonna vote en masse for Trump. I understand Trump is a danger globally and domestically. I understand all that, and I don't want his second term to come to pass. I'm not ignorant of how dangerous he is.

But a man self-immolated to object to the system of complicity he's trapped in, and the most logical response y'all have to a bunch of people wanting to opt out of complicity in this election, and the next four years of horrors that will be done in their name is to tell them, you just have to suck it up and be complicit. Your only tool is to make a phone call. You can try to protest, but there's a non-zero chance you'll be beaten and arrested and have your life ruined, by the way. You can donate to try and put a bandaid on the horrors you're seeing through your phone screen everyday (and you should, but God it's sure not stopping anything). But you're not allowed to object to being complicit in the selection of the Genocider-In-Chief.

It's not going to stop the genocide. We know this. It's not going to stop the election. We know this. It's not going to change anything directly, and Trump is going to get elected (which he will either way. most people who would vote against him are doing it anyway, y'all are fighting a very very small online minority).

But a man self-immolated in his military uniform. He didn't think that act was going to directly stop aid from going to Israel, or stop the genocide, or destroy the US military industrial complex. He didn't think his one small (but extremely brave and impactful) act was going to solve everything. Everything that was going to happen is still going to happen just with one less man in uniform.

But it wasn't nothing. It didn't do nothing. It's not his fault that the military will keep on chugging. It's not his fault that things are getting worse in Gaza every day. But he's not complicit anymore and he sent a message. And he had to die to achieve that.

And y'all are telling us we can't even do the very small act of not being complicit in the presidency. It's a less effective act of protest, but I also don't have to die for it.

It's not a boycott (I've seen this strawman, i don't know why you think we think that). It's not going to "send a message to the government" (obviously, we're not ignorant). It's to the Party that runs these candidates, and makes money off of "pick us because we're not the other guy" then commits crimes against humanity. I don't want to roll over and be fucking complicit in that.

Parties and candidates look at those numbers. they see how many people voted for them last time and how many people this time.

They don't care about our voices, and our protests, and our emails. They care about donations, and they care about votes. That's it. That's all they look at. If the emails and the phone calls and the protests don't result in a drop in one of those two things, they don't fucking care.

I don't know. This is a long ass ramble, but I'm trying to work out my feelings about this. Because we can't opt out of paying taxes, we can't really opt out of the benefits of living and being born in the Global North, we can't opt out of work, we can't opt out of the military, we can't opt out of following the law without extreme violence being brought against us. We can't do a whole fucking lot besides call, email, donate, and protest in a way that doesn't get us beaten and arrested, and if you do get beaten and arrested, you'll be dealing with the legal consequences for years or potentially the rest of your life.

And a man burned himself to death to object but I can't withhold my vote???

[dreadfutures]

I do get very frustrated with the "how can you tell me to vote for x dem/leftist" and "I'm not going to vote for anyone" takes because like

demonstrably, one side at least entertains the possibility of governmental reform and freedom of speech and anti corruption laws and undoing gerrymandering and voter suppression. another side is adamantly against it and has spent countless millions to make an environment where violent racism and voter suppression and domestic terrorism against minorities is PROMOTED and UNPUNISHED.

during Trump's election I told all my friends after a certain point: "if you vote third party or for Bernie because of principle, knowing that they will not have a chance to become president, or if you sit out, you are saying to me that you are okay with what Trump is saying about Mexicans. You are going to have to look me in the face when the day after the election, a crowd walks through town and chants "go home" to every person who isn't white. You are saying you would rather give up and let it happen than accept that this is what we have to work with in our society as it stands. And if you decide to not vote because you want to keep your moral purity you better sign up immediately to go into policy and change our electoral college, and change how government officials are paid, and to work on anti corruption laws. You have to put in the work somehow to prove to me that you actually want the world to be better, because by putting trump in office you are making it HARDER and MORE DANGEROUS for me to do that activism."

and guess what fucking happened. the day after the election. in my town.

guess whose friends don't do anything but complain on the internet. Who don't call their politicians and who don't donate and who don't volunteer.

by sitting out and for voting against the nominee they said they would rather put trump in the office than to put a stop to white nationalism. they would rather put trump in the office than empower an administration that wouldnt gut the EPA (which by the way got investigated for misuse of funds and embezzlement under trump lmfao). they would rather put trump in office than empower an administration that probably would leave the majority of the state department alone to do effective work across the globe on most issues.

there is no moral choice except to keep that party out, and go leverage the tools we have to push the more malleable party to be better. And you know what, every us president is going to have blood on their hands until the day we dismantle the whole fucking military. None of us are going to live to see that day so we owe it to the future generations to set up a world where that WILL be possible.

WHO actually chased down the big banks? WHO actually chased down sketchy political donations? WHO actually enshrines laws that protect whistleblowers at least in name?

Getting big money out of politics, getting lobbyists out of politics, getting whistleblower protections and getting more independent-thinking government officials who are of minority backgrounds and empowering them to do the work they are experts in -- that is how we change the US society. And that will never happen under a conservative republican government.

Working for a government agency now I hear about how hard it was for good people to get good work and changes made in their jobs, even if it wasn't political at all! Because promoting better workplaces and a safer environment and green energy and food security and better infrastructure and better healthcare is all, apparently, Political. People were moved, fired, hushed up, and replaced with stooges during the last presidency. On the ground levels of government where people are really trying to make a difference.. And now they are ABLE to do the good work bc this administration is a) more inclined to want those things and b) is more inclined to keep its nose out of that, since they actually tend to respect the hierarchy of government.

If you DONT vote, or if you vote third party, the statistics and history show that we will end up with increasingly fascist and hostile government from top to bottom, that is NOT malleable to public opinion in any way shape or form.

We live in a terrible fucking world, alright? The rich protect their own interests and old white men protect the Norms and Biases that have kept them in power and kept the world quiet for so long. We don't have a lot to work with but the option to sit back is to allow another monster like Trump and Bush take over, who will UNDO many great improvements normal people have worked so hard to get implemented into policy, get rid of the people YOU WANT to be making policy on the ground, and IMPOSE WORSE POLICIES for everyone.

There is only so fucking much we can do with this fucking mess of a world where the figureheads are all rich buddies at the same country clubs and all of them laugh about arms deals like it's a trade on free and for sale, but like. Demonstrably. Demonstrably the only way to make sure the government gets incrementally better is to keep democrats in office.

And yes if you locally have a democrat up and comer who you like better than your old rep then yeah vote the old bastards out of office. But fucking hell literally when you are voting for a president you're voting for a whole administration and ideology about government. And sitting out IS LETTING SOMEONE ELSE'S VOTE FOR FASCISM COUNT MORE THAN YOURS!

Everyone has the potential to be a single issue voter. For a long time it was whether a politician was pro choice or not. Remember? But when the choice is between a Democrat who is prolife and a Republican who is pro life, you can't sit out. Because when the republican is in office, they are more likely to put in judges and officials and policies that will be incredibly restrictively prolife, and the dem is less likely to do that and more likely to leave it up to the states.

like god I hope we get an anti war presidential nominee, I hope we get a pro choice nominee, I hope we get a pro labor nominee, I hope we get someone willing to buck decades and decades of fundraising and lobbying and form their own moral stances but most of all I hope we don't end up with another round of hobbling government agencies, and silencing any and all dissenters and whistleblowers, and putting in even more conservative judges across the country and in the supreme court, and I hope we don't give a green light to fucking fascists everywhere to run rampant and hurt people and promote hatred because we're too busy eating each other alive about moral purity.

I hate the world we live in. I know the most important differences we can make are on the ground, volunteering with each other and doing actions in our communities. But it becomes infinitely harder to do that under certain administrations.

And if you still don't agree then you better fucking get out there on your hands and fucking knees to make the world better.

Yeah it's fucking unfair to ask minorities to do the work. But the other option is what?

Sitting in your internet armchair being angry at people and refusing to act because *they* should do it hasn't done fucking shit in your community. Yeah *they* should be better. That doesn't mean we get a free divine indulgence to let things get worse.

Take breaks? Sure. Tell people to do their own research and growth? Sure. But when it comes to bettering the world and there is a choice to potentially maybe make it better or definitely make it worse you have to act.

[andromeda3116]

this is my 68-year-old former republican, former pro-life, deep-south-resident father. he left the party when it became the party of trump in 2015, and has since grown from a centrist-conservative never-trumper to being more and more liberal and thoughtful. this is an argument i have made in the past, which he previously bluntly disagreed with, but clearly has since thought more about it, and now here we are.

people are capable of changing for the better, even at his age. i do grant that, as i said, he never drank the trump kool-aid and was so disgusted by the man from the start that he changed his party affiliation, but he proudly supported bush and mccain and romney at their times. not everyone is beyond the point of listening and changing their minds, not even when they're approaching their seventies.

it is not okay to dismiss or come down on people for past viewpoints and arguments if they have since reconsidered them and changed their minds. you have to let people grow. and of course you can't always have the spoons for political debates and considering all sides and where the other party is coming from, and it's easy to lose your temper and assume that the other party is acting in malice, but -- genuinely, honestly, spoken by someone from the bible belt -- most of the time they aren't. yes, some people are beyond listening and would take the work of years to chip away at the cult conditioning, but you have to be able to tell the difference between those people and the ones who simply have not been exposed to this perspective.

people can grow at any age. it's part of being human.

[spacedlexi]

people dont talk enough about how heartbreaking the marlon betrayal mustve been for clem too,,

this dude saves the life of her and her kid. takes them in has them patched up gives them their first hot meal in who knows how long. gives them a safe place to stay. possibly permanently. confides in her that hes trying to be a good leader but feels like and fears that hes failing. asks her to help him take care of the rest of the group. helps her get over her fear of dogs by asking her to trust him. and things go well. she feels safe. like this place could really finally be the home shes been looking for

but as soon as she finds out what happened to the twins. that marlon planned on giving up her and aj too. she immediately becomes a liability to him and he attempts to kill her for it. locks her in the basement to die by walker. then tries to turn the group against her so he can shoot her instead when the first method fails. and he nearly succeeds

then a majority of the group turn against clem the minute aj kills marlon. ignoring marlons mistakes but condemning aj for his. like clem wasnt betrayed by marlon in the exact same way he betrayed the twins. like she literally wasnt almost killed twice? and how long had he been considering giving her up? was it always some contingency he planned? did he truly want to keep them around and things only changed when he feared the raiders had returned? she'll never know

[butchhansolo]

as we approach the bad batch s3 release date, quick reminder to pirate the show if you watch it! we have a million reasons why atp between the flagrant, unapologetic whitewashing and disney being a pressure target of BDS. i know it's fun to watch at midnight release but each viewer is a vote letting them know they can keep getting away with it, and that you'll keep watching and giving them money regardless or what they do. we need to make it known that this behaviour is not just unaccapteble, but Not Profitable, since that's the only language they speak.

[im-a-freaking-joy]

Okay so. I'm doing some reading on the 2024 presidential candidates because this is the first year that I'm able to vote and I want to know as much as possible. So im on this website, ballotpedia, and tell me why LITERALLY ALL OF THE CANDIDATES SUPPORT ISRAEL?? literally all of them are like "well israel is all good and dandy and has the right to protect thenselves (:" and like??? HELLO?? THEYRE COMITTING GENOCIDE??! I'm so tired of this fucking country good god, we cant even get one cadidate that opposes genocide and war crimes?? What the fuck.

[worstloki]

Thor, rambling while Loki reads: --and yes, we are brothers, but I would kiss you if you asked!

Loki, suddenly much less interested in his book: What?

Thor: What?

Amora: *'sneakily' watching with her head peeking over the librarian's desk* HE SAID HE WOULD KISS YOU IF YOU ASKED.