@DarioZanette @benroyce

Agreed. The number one priority is to get people off their arses and vote.

The other thing we could do is try and learn how and why voter apathy is so disproportionally beneficial to fascists. If we can get a percentage of apathetic voters to get up and vote, that's a great start, but is there anything we can do to reduce the damage from the remaining non-voters? For example, Ireland's PR-STV system seems a good way to weed out polarised voting behaviours.

Archaeologists will be like "The grave contained a dagger, therefore it was a man's grave. Also, a bunch of women's jewelry got in there somehow. Moving on without questioning our rigid assumptions about ancient people,"

@capnthommo @benroyce @Selvari21106 @lackthereof @glitzersachen @oddtail @futurebird

I prefer to say that each non-vote is doubling the vote of the worst wealthy person

(In that they use money to buy voter turnout though disinformation, scare tactics, etc)

@benroyce @Selvari21106 @lackthereof @glitzersachen @oddtail @futurebird

In italian usually I say "ottimo è nemico del buono".
Translation sound something like

"Optimum is enemy of good"
or
"Excellent is enemy of good".

@benroyce @Selvari21106 @TCatInReality @lackthereof @glitzersachen @oddtail @futurebird yes. A non vote is a vote for the opposition

RE: https://mastodon.social/@benroyce/117104692857944136

Non posso che essere totalmente d'accordo.
"Non votare" non è una opzione valida, non più, in un mondo dove esistono Trump, Meloni, Le Pen, Musk, Bezos, Putin, Farage, Orban, e altri fascisti vari. Il loro potere è tale PROPRIO PERCHÈ TANTI CITTADINI NON VOTANO.

@Selvari21106 @lackthereof @glitzersachen @oddtail @futurebird

and we can describe MAGA as innocent brainwashed ignorants

and? do you buy that? does that excuse them?

if someone does something that causes harm, like not voting, they are helping evil in the world

nonvoters are as bad as MAGA. we cannot make excuses for their disgusting sense of entitlement to not care about real world stakes

@Selvari21106 @TCatInReality @lackthereof @glitzersachen @oddtail @futurebird

we understand their reasons for not voting. their various perfectionist cynical entitled reasons are utterly without merit

we can also understand why MAGA dutifully shows up to vote for plutocrats and bigots

understanding why someone does something does not make it valid

it's just describing a tragedy

@Selvari21106 @TCatInReality @lackthereof @glitzersachen @oddtail @futurebird

yes

that is how a lot of people feel

emphasis on feel

they don't fucking think

they don't know, or care, about the real world effect of their nonvote. they may talk a good game about caring about one thing or another, but they really don't. what they care about is their holy self-regard

fuck the feelings of entitled nonvoters. fuck their whiny impotent feelings

they're the problem

they are as bad as MAGA

@benroyce @Selvari21106 @lackthereof @glitzersachen @oddtail @futurebird

It is infuriating.

Power gets allocated through elections.

You don't get to wash your hands of responsibility by not participating.

@Selvari21106 @lackthereof @glitzersachen @oddtail @futurebird

that's what it is, was, and will be. forever. in every democracy that can ever exist

there is no magical candidate descending from the heavens with angels singing

they are all human, flawed

some are ok

but smearmongering does its thing and idiots go "all the same"

the problem is entitled assholes who don't vote. thus making things even worse more than bad candidates

we're supposed to *sustain* and *iterate* to get good

@Selvari21106 @lackthereof @glitzersachen @oddtail @futurebird

yes, perfectionists and cynics

perfectionists won't vote for any candidate unless they achieve magical purity that is always out of reach. impotent losers. cynics think "everything the same, nothing changes" so they don't vote because "life sucks and then you die, waah." pathetic losers

you can have a coherent discussion of the failures of a candidate

but for these kinds of losers the issue is their "judgment", not the candidate

@futurebird

Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years

Socialism is what they called public power.
Socialism is what they called social security

Socialism is what they called farm price supports

Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance

Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations

Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/trivia/socialism

1/

@lackthereof @glitzersachen @oddtail @futurebird

thank you

whenever i hear stories about boomer stupidity, i'm reminded that boomers vote

so many assholes out there don't vote

that's the real stupidity

that's the real story

people who constantly complain about politics, and don't fucking vote. they are the root problem, more than anything else

how do we defeat boomer idiots?

we vote!

why this is never the main topic on these stories makes me smack my forehead so hard my ears ring

@glitzersachen

Because boomers turn out more, especially in midterm years. One boomer is worth 1.5 millennials when it comes to elections.

@oddtail @futurebird

It's like he's fighting the Cold War but there's not an enemy anymore.

"Communism" used to scare Americans because the USSR was a powerful nation with nuclear weapons and spies and that's what informed the fear. "Communism" just isn't scary without a USSR.

Every bad war idea these old men have is from 30 40 50 years ago. No one even knows what you are talking about.

Finally! Russia has begun losing ground east of Zaporizhzhia.

Picture 1 is from august 11. Picture 2 is from today.

To Mariupol! 🗽

#Republicans ❤️ to take credit for legislation they voted against.

#GOPHypocrisy

Fun fact: the Swiss cheese model was originally used to explain how disasters happen when multiple safety failures line up. Turns out that self-care works the same way, just aimed at protection instead of failure. Sleep alone won’t save you on a bad day, and neither will one boundary or one workout. However, if we stack enough imperfect layers together and the gaps stop lining up, the stress hopefully gets caught before it gets through to our psyche. #mentalhealth #selfcare