#was any of it strictly necessary? afaik NO. was it necessary to ME and how I would have behaved? YES

[psychokillermp4]

“Anything for your gongeous” extremely relatable

LISTEN! FR!! The way Gideon Nav has me down bad is catastrophic. I'd do anything for her. However much of a loser simp she is about the beautiful women of Canaan house, I'd be THRICE as bad in the presence of her. I'm not arguing with that buff redheaded lesbian and her GOLDEN BEAUTIFUL EYES, WHATEVER YOU SAY GOREGUS!

[triviallytrue]

something i dont understand about your points on voting; the one example ive seen people use is that biden has significantly decreased drone strikes (which is a good thing!! obviously!!!) but what i dont understand is how that is related to voting. to me it looks like that was essentially a personal descision that the commander in chief made; afaik biden didn't campaign on reducing drone strikes and he certainly hasn't been advertising the fact that hes been doing that; its not something that was relevant to most americans choice of who to vote for. idk if this makes sense but like, i voted for biden and i don't think i had a single scrap of input on his choice to reduce drone strikes. it seems to me like american politicians are willing to lean on warhawk shit at the drop of a hat, and not enough americans really give a shit about it for it to be relevant to voting choices at all.

Absolutely, yes. Your vote will not affect Biden's decisions in office, and the left is generally not organized enough, large enough, or unified enough in its demands to influence politics on a national level.

I think instead you should think of voting in as detached and instrumental a way as possible. Vote for the politician that you believe will do less harm. If you asked me which candidate's administration was more likely to end the drone war, I would have said Biden, simply because of the people who are more likely to be advising him and Trump's terrible record on it.

If you want to really get involved in politics and actually influence things, you have to organize on a local level. Start paying attention to school board elections, join the DSA, vote in primaries, learn about all those random city government positions no one gives a shit about, etc etc. But voting on a national level isn't really about influence, it's about getting a little more marginal value by pushing for the better of two bad options. To me, that's worth spending half an hour to vote.

I don't think any of this relies on the belief that voting will create the reforms leftists want to see in the world, or that you need to have some sense of loyalty to the Democratic Party, as an organization. I'm with the democrats until the marginal value of supporting them is exceeded by the marginal value of supporting someone else, and I hope to one day live in a country where they're the center-right option that my candidates look to defeat.

Politics is about a lot more than voting - I think unionization drives, mutual aid networks, and grassroots organizing campaigns are all necessary and important components for anyone who cares about leftist politics. But voting is free money - it's influence that you don't have to work for. A leftist movement that has no electoral strategy at all is strictly inferior to one that at least thinks about harm mitigation.