From a former pastor who knows what the insiders talk about: a warning we would be foolish to ignore.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    To third-party voters: I fully believe in votes of conscience and there will be plenty of time for you to create an alternative to the system we currently have in place—but now isn’t that time. A protest vote now isn’t a protest, it’s reckless and wasteful and it will cost you any future opportunity you’re hoping for. You will lose the voice you have.

    [emphasis mine]

    • Facebones@reddthat.com
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      1 month ago

      If my choices are “the end,” “the end slightly delayed because we’ve no interest in preventing it,” or “worse than the first guys because I didn’t worship the duopoly” I’ve already lost my voice, havent I?

      Democrats have shut off all paths to move them left, including having it ruled in court that the DNC can do whatever they want. Democrats spend more energy attacking leftists than they ever do Republicans.

      If leftists are such a critical threat to Democrats they probably should have courted those voters instead of the cycle of telling them to eat shit for 3 years then spending a year blaming them for dem losses. 🤷‍♂️

    • TheOubliette@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      If you are voting for genocide with “lesser evil” logic then you have already lost any voice worth having.

      There is a reason these cowards can’t even describe the basic facts with explicit terms. They know what it means to say, “vote for a gemocider” so they hem and has and play with euphemisms.

      But you don’t need to be convinced by these shills. You can do better than support genocide.

      • Tahl_eN@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Even if I accept your framing that a vote for Kamala is a vote for genocide in Gaza, literally any other action is a vote for that genocide, plus one in Ukraine, plus one in the US. We know this because that’s what Trump has said. We know this because that’s what he tried to do the last time. And we will have this problem until Trumpism is soundly defeated. You want a real left choice sometime in your lifetime? We need to vote Dem hard enough to make it clear that Republicans can’t win. We’re not there yet.

      • averyminya@beehaw.org
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        1 month ago

        Can’t vote Democrat because support of Israel. That means you also can’t support Republicans, because they support the full extent of the genocide even more with Trump telling Israel to finish the job. And that means you can’t support (most) 3rd party candidates, because the Green Party is primarily funded by Republican donors, and the candidates themselves have investments that go against everything the Green Party is supposed to stand for.

        Where does that leave us? You say it’s hemming and hawing with euphemisms. Right now, all candidates lead down the same foreign affairs path. Not all candidates lead down the same road on policies regarding education, corporate regulations, federal health regulations. All things that were decimated under Trump’s presidency. Not to mention, the sheer amount of hate crime that conservatives feel more comfortable doing with Republican presidents in office, leading to people of color and queer politicians stepping down from fear of their livelihood.

        But I guess Trump saying he wants to deport protestors and moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, on top of everything else his administration did to the U.S. is completely reasonable.

        • TheOubliette@lemmy.ml
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          1 month ago

          Can’t vote Democrat because support of Israel. That means you also can’t support Republicans, because they support the full extent of the genocide even more with Trump telling Israel to finish the job.

          Yes you should work against both major genocidal capitalist parties. To do otherwise is to facilitate the primary forces of oppression and mass death on the planet. They, particularly the Democrats, will tell you they are here to reduce harm while they starve entire countries. They just want public support and consent and believe, often correctly, that this can be purchased solely with PR firms.

          And that means you can’t support (most) 3rd party candidates, because the Green Party is primarily funded by Republican donors, and the candidates themselves have investments that go against everything the Green Party is supposed to stand for.

          Voting Green at least opposes the normalization of genocide among liberals. Y’all are going to pretend you were against it in a few years just like you did with the war on Iraq. Rather than try to save face, just be on the right side when it actually matters instead.

          Also the greens are not the only third party and you can also leave the line blank. Furthermore, you can decide, ever minute of every day, to shut that mouth and stop typing those keys to normalize and justify support for genocide.

          Where does that leave us? You say it’s hemming and hawing with euphemisms.

          It is hemming and hawing with euphemisms and vagaries. None of you will sat, “yes I will vote for those doing genocide”. You get close to it, but usually bail because you know what you are doing is wrong but wish to project the usual righteous smugness that being slightly to the right of Reagan, i.e. a Democratic voter, provides. Most won’t say the word genocide at all. IRL they go quiet. It shatters this illusion of being the good guys, and personal moralizing and identity is the primary aspect of Democrat ideology nowadays.

          Right now, all candidates lead down the same foreign affairs path.

          This is obviously untrue.

          Not all candidates lead down the same road on policies regarding education, corporate regulations, federal health regulations.

          Yes I am aware of the tried and true lesser evil sheepdogging. It does not excuse supporting genocide.

          All things that were decimated under Trump’s presidency.

          Biden has done little to reset this and even normalized a pandemic while slashing benefits. That had a massive material detriment to the public, especially poor people who were forced back to work during a panddmic in less safe conditions just to prop up capital. Trump’s COVID pandering, while still capitalist and sociopathic, was objectively better for working people.

          Do you see what impact liberal normalization can have? Look at how you all went to sleep under Biden, even justifying these kinds of things. Palestinians, the immunocompromised, impoverished service workers, the hyperexploited undocumented immigrant labot underclass? Under the bus.

          Not allies at all.

          Not to mention, the sheer amount of hate crime that conservatives feel more comfortable doing with Republican presidents in office, leading to people of color and queer politicians stepping down from fear of their livelihood.

          Palestinians and advocates for Palestinians are routinely hounded out of their positions by Democratic Zionists. The state apparatuses they build criminalize solidarity activity and call Palestinians and their resistance organizations terrorists, repeating racist rhetoric. They have doubled down on massively ramping up the police rather than address root material causes of poverty and deprivation, choosing capitalist-friendly violence instead. Cops terrorize neighborhoods routinely, generally along racial lines.

          And then Democrats come along and say, “vote for a genocide or it will be even worse”. Listen to yourself. Your case is that of a mob boss. “Pay us for protection or something bad might happen”.

          But I guess Trump saying he wants to deport protestors and moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, on top of everything else his administration did to the U.S. is completely reasonable.

          Please do your best to reply to what I actually say and not silly things that you invent.

          You should oppose genocide.

        • spaceghoti@lemmy.oneOPM
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          1 month ago

          Nevermind that. He said he wanted to call out the military on anyone who didn’t vote for him on live television. Why isn’t the NYT reporting on that?

          Oh, it’s just Trump!

          At this point, I’m fairly convinced that the people trying to argue that we shouldn’t support Democrats because of a single issue, no matter how important that issue, are Russian assets.

          • TheOubliette@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            What’s the single issue? Why can’t you describe it?

            You admit your complicity in genocide by these behaviors. You know it is shameful.

            • spaceghoti@lemmy.oneOPM
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              1 month ago

              Your trolling is tiresome. I’m done pretending you’re discussing anything with any integrity.

              • TheOubliette@lemmy.ml
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                1 month ago

                Please engage in good faith. I have challenged you to name the genocide what it is and explain the evasive. You should meet that challenge, not invent reasons to dismiss me.