Americans, in general, are incredibly apathetic about the elections. I don’t have exact numbers at hand, but every research that I saw indicates that very little amount of people actually vote in every general election, and there was like a single digit percent of people who both remember that locals, primaries, and general exists.
I don’t blame progressives in red states for failing against the crushing machine of authoritarianism, in a theocratic regime it might be outright impossible to win. I’m blaming Americans, all of them but especially progressives, for throwing away the unique mechanisms of democracy they had in favour of dreaming of firebombing a wallmart or yelling at strangers on the intetnet.
Ever since I become interested in the American politics, I can’t get away from the stream of anti-election rhetoric, that seem to culminate in, well, this.
You all are at fault proportional to your share of power that you didn’t use.
“Yelling at strangers [on the internet]” is the Soap Box, and while we’re pretty well past that as a country due to social media echo chambers and the like, it’s still useful. If there’s enough social pressure on a given topic, we can change policy. At the very least, being vocal (including online) lets other people know they are not alone.
I believe that we have effectively lost the jury box at this time. The supreme court seems to have abandoned rationality in a variety of cases to-date, and even in a best case, the judicial system works far too slowly compared to how fast new bullshit gets thrown at them by the current executive. Not to mention the cost to an individual average voter to try and sue would be prohibitive. Groups like SPLC and ACLU are helping here, but see point 2 (too slow).
I don’t need to defend myself, but I have voted in every municipal election I’ve been able to since my early twenties in 2004. About the only way I haven’t used my power here is by running myself, but I don’t think I’m qualified for public office and would only siphon money from someone better who might win.
That leaves us with the ammo box. For progressives in solidly blue states, whose votes were counted, but ultimately found irrelevant, this is the next step, hence firebombing tesla dealerships (Can’t find a recent walmart news article, but the idea is still there). In my purple state, I’m in my local precinct org and canvassing, but that doesn’t really help when the margin of victory for your party is like 20%.
I will acknowledge the point that Americans – in general – are apathetic. I have a significant amount of distaste for anyone who says they are ‘not political’ or who didn’t vote in 2024 or earlier. Sometimes though, you get a wake-up call after the fact. Anyone who didn’t vote or voted for trump in 2024, but is now pissed off has been awakened (dare I say, “woke”) and that should be celebrated, not derided. I love the leopards-eating-faces memes, but we really need to be reaching out to these people instead of mocking them. There is now a chink in their ignorance-armor.
You got a lot of anger in responses to your posts in this thread. The ‘in general’ phrase carries a lot of weight, but isn’t all that applicable here. This community is likely to be like me and very involved or at least informed. Phrases like “You are all at fault…” is going to raise hackles, even when clarified by ‘proportional to your share of power that you didn’t use.’
Americans, in general, are incredibly apathetic about the elections. I don’t have exact numbers at hand, but every research that I saw indicates that very little amount of people actually vote in every general election, and there was like a single digit percent of people who both remember that locals, primaries, and general exists.
I don’t blame progressives in red states for failing against the crushing machine of authoritarianism, in a theocratic regime it might be outright impossible to win. I’m blaming Americans, all of them but especially progressives, for throwing away the unique mechanisms of democracy they had in favour of dreaming of firebombing a wallmart or yelling at strangers on the intetnet.
Ever since I become interested in the American politics, I can’t get away from the stream of anti-election rhetoric, that seem to culminate in, well, this.
You all are at fault proportional to your share of power that you didn’t use.
As a description of the levels of power I personally have: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_boxes_of_liberty
I’m still at ballot box myself.
“Yelling at strangers [on the internet]” is the Soap Box, and while we’re pretty well past that as a country due to social media echo chambers and the like, it’s still useful. If there’s enough social pressure on a given topic, we can change policy. At the very least, being vocal (including online) lets other people know they are not alone.
I believe that we have effectively lost the jury box at this time. The supreme court seems to have abandoned rationality in a variety of cases to-date, and even in a best case, the judicial system works far too slowly compared to how fast new bullshit gets thrown at them by the current executive. Not to mention the cost to an individual average voter to try and sue would be prohibitive. Groups like SPLC and ACLU are helping here, but see point 2 (too slow).
I don’t need to defend myself, but I have voted in every municipal election I’ve been able to since my early twenties in 2004. About the only way I haven’t used my power here is by running myself, but I don’t think I’m qualified for public office and would only siphon money from someone better who might win.
That leaves us with the ammo box. For progressives in solidly blue states, whose votes were counted, but ultimately found irrelevant, this is the next step, hence firebombing tesla dealerships (Can’t find a recent walmart news article, but the idea is still there). In my purple state, I’m in my local precinct org and canvassing, but that doesn’t really help when the margin of victory for your party is like 20%.
I will acknowledge the point that Americans – in general – are apathetic. I have a significant amount of distaste for anyone who says they are ‘not political’ or who didn’t vote in 2024 or earlier. Sometimes though, you get a wake-up call after the fact. Anyone who didn’t vote or voted for trump in 2024, but is now pissed off has been awakened (dare I say, “woke”) and that should be celebrated, not derided. I love the leopards-eating-faces memes, but we really need to be reaching out to these people instead of mocking them. There is now a chink in their ignorance-armor.
You got a lot of anger in responses to your posts in this thread. The ‘in general’ phrase carries a lot of weight, but isn’t all that applicable here. This community is likely to be like me and very involved or at least informed. Phrases like “You are all at fault…” is going to raise hackles, even when clarified by ‘proportional to your share of power that you didn’t use.’