Curious
I have no faith in the voting system, and I vote anyway. It’s not like you can boycott voting - if both parties truly are in on it, then it’s not like they’re going to change anything just because turnout is low. If the solution lies elsewhere, which I believe it does, then whether or not you’re voting will have no effect on anything. Don’t be so sure you’re right that you throw away what could be a useful tool if you’re wrong.
Hedge your bets and take an hour or two out of your day every year to at the very least try to nudge things away from the worst possible outcome. It’s not like we’re anywhere near actually coming together and enacting our second amendment rights to force real change anytime soon anyway. Apathy got us into this mess - don’t think even more apathy will help; action will be what gets us out, if anything.
Nope, silence only helps the oppressor
lol nice and subtle
Voting just prevents the worst, so I do it. But nothing is going to get better if we just stay at voting, without activism.
This is probably one of the few good answers so far
lost faith: yes
refused to vote: no
Same, lost faith but still, do not give up your right to vote.
Not voting is the equivalent of giving your vote to the winning party.
First Past the Post relies on large turnouts. I’m assuming you’re a troll.
Someone also called me a Russian bot , Someone also said it was bait. You can always be constructive instead of using buzzwords. its simply a personal opnion I simply don’t vote
And it’s everybody else’s opinion that your opinion is the stupidest plan of action that will guarantee that things only get worse for you.
Mob rule got us alot of things , lynch mobs in the south , support for the nazis etc etc etc… mob rule is not exactly the solution to shit policy making we shouldn’t exactly believe that foreign influenced politicians have are best interest
And voting gave us freedom of speech and religion, freed the slaves, allowed PoC and women to vote, allowed LGBTQ to come out of hiding, created labor unions and busted monopolies, and created social safety nets for those in need.
And it took a long time to get from one to the next. Progress is a slow process, but as a species we’ve accomplished MUCH more in the past 250 years than we have in the 4000 years leading up to it.
Is it just a coincidence that all this progress only started once people were able to VOTE?
Every empty ballot is a vote for the tyrant.
No; that’s stupid.
Get outta here, Russian bot. No one here needs to hear your disinformation. Lemmy.ml is that way if you want a “dOn’T vOtE” echo chamber >>
I used to feel that way when I was young and stupid.
People who refuse to vote for the lesser evil, are voting for the greater evil.
Lobbyists control the elections, why the fuck would I vote every single year for some flavor of Pro NATO Pro Zionist official from either party
Because by not voting against them you legitimize them.
Who is them ?? Both parties are run by awful people
I’d still vote all parties on elections, in my country, unused (e.g, blank) paper will be taken by the cheaters.
Both may be awful, but if you really believe they are equally awful there’s something wrong with you. But I’m getting the that you’re just some troll with a pro-trump/putin agenda in which case there’s something wrong with you.
I agree that there’s currently no party that’s going to create what I believe to be a perfect world.
But if you think that they are the equally bad, you’re either completely uninformed, an absolute idiot, or purposely trying to manipulate the people in the first two categories.
So, which are you?
None of the above a nihilist, I’ve known people who died in countries we bombed throughout multiple administration’s. I’ve just lost hope
nihilist
No you aren’t. You seem VERY disturbed by AIPAC and military action in the Middle East. A nihilist wouldn’t care. A nihilist might choose not to vote because any action would be pointless. If that is their philosophy, I don’t agree, but I understand.
You are actively not voting because you are outraged by what is happening.
I don’t see how hiding in the corner doing nothing and convincing others that they should also do nothing aligns with your frustrations with the system. If you’re really as pissed off as you claim to be, then fucking DO something about it. The only people who are going to coddle you and say “There there, you just sit back and relax, and someone else will make it all better for you.” are the ones who want to put you in a cage.
Had you been voting in the primaries?
I voted in state elections and midterms but frankly I’ll never get the guilt , humiliation and shame people have over an election. 98% of the options where democrats or republicans with outliers being the green and libertarian party. The democrats and republicans have the media and the backing of AIPAC their is a reason why presidents that actually challenges the status quo like jfk end up dead ??
But did you vote in any the primaries?
The election rules are stacked against third parties. There hasn’t been a single EC vote for a third party presidential candidate since 1968, and Perot won 19% of the national popular vote in 1992. There are only 3 independent members out of >530 in the US Congress. And fewer than 100 in the more than 7,000 statewide legislative seats.
https://www.ncsl.org/about-state-legislatures/state-partisan-composition
But if you look at the primaries over the last 20 years, you see the Republican shift from neoconservative to Tea Party to MAGA all happening in the primaries from 2008 to 2016. And on the Democratic side progressives gaining ground in primaries from 2018 to present. This year has been really good for DSA-aligned candidates winning primaries in opposition to status quo neoliberal AIPAC candidates.
The primaries have really low turnout, like 45% turnout is really high.
https://statesunited.org/resources/voter-turnout-since-2000/
So your vote in a primary carries a lot more weight than it does in the general election. The status quo wants you to not vote. It wants you to vote third party. It especially wants you to skip the primaries. Focus your effort on supporting better candidates in the primaries, there where the real change is going to come from.
Thank you , noted
You should vote anyway. Even if the election is probably doomed, you gotta try
so what? they can bomb the shit out of another country than blame the other side once it collapses into civil war like Libya or Iraq ??
How does not voting solve that problem?
Not voting at all is a stupid plan.
You need to learn about tactical voting.
Voting is such an easy thing it makes no sense to purposely not do it. You don’t lose anything by voting, but risk losing everything by not voting.
People who refuse to vote as a protest aren’t demonstrating anything. So all they can do is constantly brag about how they don’t vote in an attempt to dissuade others as well.
No , but other people do. I had friends who died in regime changes in the middle east or by the IDF
Kind of sucks I can’t vote from abroad, so I don’t.
