Disengage.

“If enough people stop cooperating with it.”

That is what the hangup is. Crossing your arms and refusing to cooperate based on principle, and expecting others to do the same in the same way, is not the move right this second. We can still do all of the organizing and striking and educating while still doing our due diligence in making sure that the united right wing does not remain in power. It isn’t all or nothing. We have to be realistic in how much change we can make in 2 years - can we ACTUALLY make a 3rd party president, or can we work from the ground up, starting with local governments and communities and working our way up without shooting ourselves in the foot when it comes time to vote for president?

Throwing votes at a 3rd party in the current state of US elections is wasting a vote because you were privileged enough to do so. I presume that is why you get yelled at - your priority this election was yourself and your opinions rather than trying to protect the safety of your fellow citizens. Granted, this election was a bureaucratic mess, but choosing not to vote Biden/Harris in 2024 signaled to others where your loyalty was (or rather, wasn’t). We knew what was coming if Trump won, we warned about it, we begged everyone to vote to prevent this. It wouldn’t have been good, but it wouldn’t have been this.

I think everyone is misunderstanding me and skipping over the fact that we cannot afford to lose another election to the right in 2 years. This seems to have instead been taken to mean “we have to keep mindlessly voting blue forever and never organize or revolt and passively hope we get a good leader” and I feel I’m having to defend a point I never made.

The difference nowadays is honestly the internet and age of disinformation and psyops. People’s brains are so physically damaged from being chronically online, plus the older generation increasingly losing their minds to lead poisoning and Facebook AI slop, and they are STRONGLY united. People don’t leave their houses anymore, third places are dead, we have to completely remodel our if we are to take this on. I am not disagreeing with anything you are saying or the need for revolution. The issue arises that we cannot make this change happen quickly enough. We cannot change the sociopolitical system of an entire country, again with half of it brainrotted by cult ideology, within 2 years before the next election. Even if we have the biggest turnout of 3rd party votes in history in 2028, the right wing and capitalist class is united under their lord and savior, even if not all of them agree with him. The left is fragmented and cannibalizing itself, as we are seeing in this thread right now. We seal our fate if we vote a bunch of different ways while the right does not. We have to break out the bandaids and stop the bleeding. We absolutely can and should do all of what you’re talking about - but we can’t afford to lose another election while we do.

Now, if (when?) no elections happen at all in 2028, then all bets are off and the game changes completely.

We can talk about these simplified analogies till we’re blue in the face, but there is no substance behind it. How exactly do you propose we stop the arsonist then? If all we have to do is stop the arsonist, then how do we do it? Do we storm the capitol? Oh wait…

There is no “just overthrow the government!!1!1” It’s not that simple.

Not directly going for the throat of the two party system =/= pro status quo. I’m saying we cannot skip over everything else before we can take that on. If you truly believe that we can just jump to that complete overthrowing of the government rather than first address immediate dangers on smaller scales and building up what’s been destroyed, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Correct, it’s not voluntarily given. I’m not saying we should keel over and die. I don’t know what’s so hard to understand about that. I’m saying right now we have much more dire issues than the two party system. We can’t skip to that. Everyone loves to say “but there will never be a good time, you have to do it now!!” Okay, do WHAT now? Like I asked the other person under my reply, what exactly do you think we should do to completely skip over the shit that’s close to home and attack the two party system? We have to address the issues that are plucking us off one by one before we as a nation can have the strength and unity to take on the core principle of our government.

And what exactly do you propose? How do YOU think we unite the entire country in making this change? Because right now, half of it is brainwashed by a cult. Things in 2026 are completely different from revolutions in the past and need a different approach. So if I’m so ignorant, then please, enlighten me on how we invoke change on such a massive scale right now, today, instead of focusing on getting to a mediocre point where basic rights aren’t being stripped away one by one. Because as someone who has a life outside of the internet and isn’t a straight white man, I have much more immediate concerns for the safety of myself and my loved ones than a grandiose plan to overthrow the government. So I implore you to give me somewhere to start.

Precisely. We are not in a place where it is possible to make a different choice. Other countries seem to not understand it - do you know how massive our country is? How inconsistent our education is? How divided we are? We are not, under any circumstance, uniting half of the country in voting 3rd party, especially not now when tensions are so high. We have to get past the point where being picky dooms us to the greater of two evils. Should it work this way? Of course not. Should we try to change this stupid two party bullshit? Absolutely…but not right now. Right now, there is too much at stake.

Also, for reference, you won’t really have an issue switching between everything. I work on Windows, have a Linux server, my personal machine is Linux, and I have a Mac for all my on the go work. I have an iPhone because it is convenient for me, and I know how to work with it rather than against it, but I was an android user for many, many years before I got sick of Google everything.

I think it won’t be terrible as Mac and Linux share a common ancestor. A fair bit will feel familiar, but it is fundamentally different in some regards. The Finder system may confuse you for example. But it sounds like you don’t really use it for much, in which case, I don’t think you will run into issues. It will probably require less tinkering than Linux. But at that point, if all you need is a browser, why not just get a Chromebook? If you really want Apple though, the Neo would be perfect for you. You are the target audience.

That’s an impossible question to answer. Just join anything you see and like.

Ohhhhh. That’s not what read-only means. Read-only means you can’t interact or comment or post. If you aren’t getting any video content you might just not be subscribed to places that are posting videos. If you view the same community from two different instances, does one lack videos while the other doesn’t?