Everything about Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress yesterday was grotesque. But it will at least provide a historical document that clearly identifies which American elected officials were enthusiastic backers of genocide.
in the US the biggest perpetuated piece of propaganda myth is that we have only two options and we will never rise above the shitty choices so pick the one that smells better
obviously with that mindset nothing will ever change
“But if we don’t vote, the bad guys will take over!” Scaring people into voting is no way to create change nor prevent disaster but rather glosses over deeper problems of the political system that voting doesn’t address. However, for those who truly believe some politician is not as bad as the other one, it’s not that I disagree. Despite my many grumblings, I don’t insist that voting is entirely futile, just that it’s mostly so. If you think it’s worth the minuscule effort, go for it and don’t feel bad about it. I’m just critical of the widespread belief that voting will have more of a positive effect than a normal effort-to-reward calculus would indicate. The degree that voting is overvalued as a form of political engagement is the degree it displaces other more effective forms and forestalls social change. source
This is why they are soooo focused on voter suppression, and not coincidentally why the /c/politics branding is pro-voting.
You simplify the statement to “if we don’t vote, the bad guys win” but that is absolutely true. They don’t want you to vote. They want as few people as possible voting. If you don’t vote, they win.
Given the current electoral system it isn’t a myth - it’s how we ended up with Woodrow Wilson after all.
I’d love to see us break out of it too but the voting system needs to change before we can seriously consider a third party option.
America was basically the alpha release of Democracy and it has an absolutely broken electoral system - ideally the president wouldn’t even be elected and we’d only have one branch of congress but we’re working within the boundaries of what we have and if you choose to help get Trump elected that’s fucking on you.
Jill Stein had 1/3 the popular votes of libertarian Gary Johnson in 2016. They both had the same number of EC votes.
At 3.3% of the popular vote, Johnson did better than any third party candidate since '96. Maybe if you close your eyes and wish really hard you could get a libertarian to claim a single EC vote.
thanks for proving my point
in the US the biggest perpetuated piece of propaganda myth is that we have only two options and we will never rise above the shitty choices so pick the one that smells better
obviously with that mindset nothing will ever change
elites have won for now
They’ve won forever if you check out. Use your vote to move the needle just a bit - waiting for a perfect solution means things get worse.
Republicans lose when more people vote.
Source: Mitch McConnell:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/mitch-mcconnell-admits-that-republicans-lose-when-more-people-vote/
This is why they are soooo focused on voter suppression, and not coincidentally why the /c/politics branding is pro-voting.
You simplify the statement to “if we don’t vote, the bad guys win” but that is absolutely true. They don’t want you to vote. They want as few people as possible voting. If you don’t vote, they win.
Given the current electoral system it isn’t a myth - it’s how we ended up with Woodrow Wilson after all.
I’d love to see us break out of it too but the voting system needs to change before we can seriously consider a third party option.
America was basically the alpha release of Democracy and it has an absolutely broken electoral system - ideally the president wouldn’t even be elected and we’d only have one branch of congress but we’re working within the boundaries of what we have and if you choose to help get Trump elected that’s fucking on you.
US was the beta system at best, based on Greek/Roman democracy including the slavery!
Jill Stein had 1/3 the popular votes of libertarian Gary Johnson in 2016. They both had the same number of EC votes.
At 3.3% of the popular vote, Johnson did better than any third party candidate since '96. Maybe if you close your eyes and wish really hard you could get a libertarian to claim a single EC vote.
There are only two choices that win Presidential elections. Everyone else is “Vermin Supreme” at 0 to 5% of the vote.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermin_Supreme