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Sage Rue's avatar

it’s not that people who are pissed off at biden will hand trump the presidency. it’s that (mostly yt) people who are encouraging others not to vote at all in november or to vote third party are going to hand him the presidency. as a black woman and a communist, I’m pissed at every politician constantly, but voting is the bare minimum alleged allies can do. what those people should be doing is extra-electoral work, but because they’re lazy and think that voting is the only form of activism they don’t even consider that.

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Ro's avatar

Based on conversations I have with some people who aren’t intellectual or political in the same way that most people online tend to be, it seems like the the problem is definitely NOT caused by people are encouraging them not to vote.

It is much more that they do not see that they have anything to vote FOR, and they don’t know what they are voting against (which is shocking but it’s like a bulb burnt out in their mind and they can’t see what’s in the closet).

An existential philosopher would rail at them as the worst kind of people, with their anomie and refusal to take responsibility. But the existential philosopher also knows that people get like this. They get paralyzed and don’t make choices, don’t think about responsibility but simply let life happen as it may—often after something bad happens.

It might be a self-protective mechanism, I don’t know. Or they are just very tired of everything.

Nobody has to do anything at all. It is going to be EXTREMELY difficult to get some of these people to vote no matter what anyone does.

It is not ‘the left’ this time (in fact, it wasn’t so much them in 2016). It might not even be ‘the youth.’ People think there is politics behind it, and project many thoughts into their heads, and rage at these thoughts and these imaginary people but I think this might just be a way to find a container for feelings because this is not an act of defiance on most people’s part. It’s a non-act of hopelessness.

There isn’t politics behind it but antipolitics where they don’t have the feeling politics will solve anything. )As we know, this isn’t true.

There is disaffection, hopelessness, pessimism, disengagement, etc. Calling them lazy will definitely not make it better, and might make it worse. Some people I talk to *genuinely* don’t see the point. The have lost all faith in the process, and they feel hopeless.

It’s hard to get hopeless people to do ANYTHING.

This is likely one of the effects of politicians not listening—after awhile you say ‘what does it have to do with me?’ The politicians don’t seem like they want to have anything to do with you, so you do not want to have anything to do with them.

Some of the people affected this way might have voted Republican (not the ones I know) so it’s possible they cancel out the other ones, and Biden still wins.

But people feeling liike they are stuck in a ditch and it expending to politics is something we have to work on in our country. It’s very dangerous.

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Sage Rue's avatar

we’re talking about people online.

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Ro's avatar

My point is online people are probably not going to have a substantial effect. They create a zeitgeist among themselves but this energy probably won’t move the larger public. If they blather nobody should vote or whatever they say—voters we need aren’t going to listen to them. If we tell everyone they should vote —they probably won’t listen to us.

Something could happen that could shift the tone of things for everyone, put the fear of god in people or make things look differently to people than they do now. Some of this could be post-pandemic malaise.

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Sage Rue's avatar

online people are people and a quick search on google tells me that the penetration rate for social media use in the US is 91%, behind only China and India. most americans are online, and most americans are also media illiterate. so, no, I don’t accept your premise. this is the same shit people said in 2016 about “vocal minorities”. I’m going to push back against those people who you think don’t constitute a “substantial effect” because every bit matters when we’re having elections determined by votes in the hundreds or even tens of thousands and my literal life is on the line.

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Ro's avatar

Can we do anything besides the usual things-registering people to vote, etc?

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Sage Rue's avatar

yes! mutual aid in all its forms. I’d recommend reading “Mutual Aid” by Dean Spade. for a longer read, “The Conquest of Bread” by Kropotkin is excellent.

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Ro's avatar

Mutual aid is great

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Feb 22, 2024
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Sage Rue's avatar

your comment is unintelligible.

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