Comment on Misinformation spreads in China on ‘civil war’ in Texas
TheFriar@lemm.ee 9 months agoThis is something I’ve thought a lot about in my life, and I’ve gone back and forth as I’ve gotten older. I believe in anarchism. I consider myself an anarchist. But—and although this is quite unpopular in anarchist circles—i agree with Chomsky. I don’t think voting is a betrayal of anarchism.
The problem with the American left is we don’t do anything. We aren’t a force to be reckoned with in any way. So not voting doesn’t help anyone but the person not voting, because all it does is put you on a higher road than even the democrats. You’re just washing your hands of the blame when all we leftists do is turn around and bitch about voting on the internet.
Praxis. It’s the only way. But in the meantime, there are far right, well, fascists trying to amass more and more power.
I get it. It’s frustrating. But we only have ourselves to blame if not voting is about all we are offering. It’s not helpful. It’s just doing nothing.
TheGreatFox@lemm.ee 9 months ago
The problem there is, the DNC are the very people helping promote these far right fascists in an attempt to foster that attitude of lesser-evil-ism. There’s been a bunch of leaks on that topic, but still by far the most prominent was 2016 Trump (if you want to know more about that, google “pied piper trump hillary”), and there’s no reason to think they’ve stopped.
I don’t know what the solution is. Voting for any good candidates in local elections, and green in the general (unless one of the other parties does something to earn your vote) maybe? But the problem is so entrenched that I’m not sure it even can be solved by voting. Situation just sucks in general.
TheFriar@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Well another problem is that they raise more money when there is a loathesome Republican in office. So, losing elections is actually very profitable for them.
The system itself is unquestionably broken. But there are more people suffering under harsh Republican rule. Yeah, plenty of people suffer under democratic rule too. Voting democrat won’t fix capitalism, it won’t fix electoralism, it won’t fix anything. But it will keep the incredibly harsh Republican wishes that see women lose healthcare, or trans people lose healthcare, or making it legal to run over protestors…there are objectively worse, more harmful policies for marginalized groups under Republican rule. They shove through hyper conservative judges that strengthen their ability to make these laws. The democrats put judges on benches that will be middle of the road in an attempt to appeal to “fairness.” But there is measurable damage done to an already incredibly fucked up system when republicans win.
We need to do more besides voting, no question. But not voting and then not dedicating your life to helping vulnerable people just isn’t nearly acceptable. Anything less than complete devotion to righteous action when railing against voting is completely unconscionable.