Pete Prodoehl 🍕rasterweb@mastodon.social
Jun 14, 2026, 2:08 PMLiberalism taught me that we can only try to prevent things from getting worse. Leftism taught me that we can try to build a better world.
Replies
Jun 14, 2026, 4:41 PMas long as we still #vote
if we give up on voting and commit to revolutionary change, the strategists in the revolutionary cells will tell us to vote: vandalism/ sabotage
even in #revolution we're going to be dealing with compromise, a choice between imperfect revolutionary leaders
the "lesser evil" problem never goes away
there is no such thing as #purity, hewing to that is for immature losers
real #leftism is effective action
not inert, useless, entitled, whiny #toxicIdealism
- Pete Prodoehl 🍕rasterweb@mastodon.socialJun 14, 2026, 5:25 PM
@benroyce 💯 Yes. Voting is one tool we can use. There are others as well. :)
- Jun 14, 2026, 5:37 PM
✅
organize, educate, protest, boycott, resist, build community, and more
and #vote
to do the rest and say "don't vote" is a right wing agent provocateur psyop or a failure in tactical thinking, and undercuts all of our other efforts
it's not about perfection, it's about shifting the social and political landscape to make our efforts more effective
it's strategy in a war, not a fucking romance
Jun 14, 2026, 6:57 PM@benroyce @rasterweb effective group action. So getting along with people is needed.
- Jun 14, 2026, 7:02 PM
an important caveat:
you can't build #community with people animated by anti-community instincts
that means #cynicism and #perfectionism
people identify these weaknesses unfortunately with #leftism
but real leftism is effective action for a cause. leftism is not a psychological problem that immobilizes you
the same way we say we can't advance #society by including #bigotry or lies. we need to exclude such voices or nothing gets done
they can come around on their own