How do y’all cope with this

  • thantik@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Voting is snake oil that keeps a disenfranchised nation from resorting to violence. You’re mad now, so vote for this person who will change things in 30-40 years…maybe…if you’re lucky…if the system lets them…oh sorry we couldn’t do it…maybe you should vote more…

    When these people are holding the American populace under water, we don’t have the time to wait to file a petition of grievances.

    Violence gets things done that voting won’t. Nothing in American politics has changed without it.

    • trailing9@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Then hurry up with riots because drones are coming.

      You don’t have to wait to affect change with votes. Politicians are traders of power. They will implement your request now if it secures their reelection.

      Voting is only snake oil because voters are complicit. If you reduce resource usage to sustainable levels, quality of life will go down massively. Voters know and don’t want that. Blaming billionaires is an excuse.

      • thantik@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig

        This is why voting is snake oil.

        And fuck, this is only 1 TINY video on the topic. There’s a whole iceberg of other reasons why voting is ineffective. FPtP, etc…

        And I’m also not talking about “resource usage” either. I’m talking about wealth-inequality.

        • trailing9@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Voters don’t affect change because there is no influence. Create a voting block and offer votes for dedicated policy changes and you will get the change that you want.

      • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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        1 year ago
        • trailing9@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Where in modern history have voters influenced politicians like lobbyists? That’s what has to happen to get results.

          You are right about the danger of enabling fascists. But insulting me shouldn’t be your refutation of the problem that voters benefit from the current situation.

          Letting voters take responsibility is very difficult because it requires voters to see the details and their own faults. That doesn’t justify the need for establishing a socialist elite. It just shows that it will take more effort than people are currently willing to invest.

        • The_Terrible_Humbaba@slrpnk.net
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          1 year ago

          Looks at the entirety of modern history and lmmfao… 🤣

          I mean, yeah, exactly, look at modern history… People keep complaining about politicians doing nothing, and everywhere you go people complain about how politicians do nothing, and yet those same politicians keep winning elections.

          It’s literally a meme in my country that every one complains about how corrupt, nepotist, mismanaged, and just bad the leading party is, but how they keep winning anyway. The excuse is usually “the other parties are all too extremist”, even when one of those parties are basically the same as the leading party except: so far they have no instances of corruption; they have a very big focus on environmentalism, which is their main platform. And also, guess what? They’re the smallest party in parliament, with just 1 member. The second smallest, but with also 1 member, is a more centrist but also mostly environmentally driven party.

          For reference, there are 8 parties in parliament right now (before the last elections there were 9), and since we’ve been a democracy only 2 of those have ever won elections. We’ve had 16 elections, and 2 parties are 10 to 6. The one with 10 is currently in power after winning with over 50% of votes. And everywhere people keep complaining about them, and you hear scandals and see ministers resigning every other week, and our forests burn every summer, and living costs keep rising, cities are getting too expensive for our citizens, and so on. And so the meme lives on.

          This isn’t some invisible force casting those votes, it’s the people. It’s the people who cast all those votes, and it’s also the people who, by the way, made the far right party the third-biggest party in parliament in the last elections.

          So yes, please do look at modern history, and understand that for the most part people are getting what they voted for. If you want politicians to act different, vote for different politicians, which is what the other user is saying.

          Voting is snake oil, but it’s snake oil because the majority of people stop it from actually working.

          Liberals believe in the invisible hand that will redistribute wealth and regulate the economy; people like you believe in an invisible hand that is responsible for all of the world’s problems, when the reality is that people hold most of the power, but the majority are either complacent, or actively working to keep things the way they are.