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So easy to control
(thelemmy.club)
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this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
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Late Stage Capitalism
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Ah it's voter disenfranchisement season here comes the "don't vote" machine
How about we call it the do something real machine.
Also vote, but please please please understand how little impact that has in most ridings compared to direct action.
Do you know who your reps are now? Are you excited about them? At municipal, state, and federal levels? If not then you need to be making noise until you're provided with better choices.
Go ahead and vote! I do.
But realize that it's still a fucking show, the Democrats aren't going to clean up the circus.
It's not "don't vote", it's "don't be fooled into high expectations for the Party of Betraying the Left"
People who look like me were murdered for the right to vote. I'm going to exercise it. These don't vote types have to be privileged for things to be the same no matter who is in office.
IMO a lot of don't-vote rhetoric translates to "don't make me stop shitposting/doomscrolling and get up from my keyboard," or maybe "mom don't be a bitch why should I make my bed?"
You get what you vote for, and we are up to our ears in fascism, vote for fascism light, get fascism.
So what's your plan buddy?
Buy guns make friends
The plan is plain as day, stop supporting our common oppressors.
Which will result in change... Somehow I guess???
Oh right you don't actually care about improving things, you just want to burn things down.
Well tbf, if all the useless idiots supporting the dem party went elsewhere, say the greens or invent a new one and flock en masse, then that would at least help change things without burning things down. And it has happened before, used to be Rep V Whig, then it was Rep V Dem, then Reps and Dems switched en masse though kept the names when trading sides. Everyone insists it can't again due to vendor lock in that they perpetuate by saying it can't happen again due to vendor lock in, but it totally could if we just y'know stopped eating our own tail and actually tried something different for once.
Something else to add to what you're saying is that 36% of the electorate did not vote in 2024, which is par for the course for previous elections as well. Which means in theory a third party could take every vote from non-voters and win without ever "stealing" a Republican's or Democrat's vote.
People just need to stop calling it a wasted vote and disenfranchising potential voters that for one reason or another refuse to vote for either major party.
Vote for the best person. Don't try to pick the winner
Fascists hate this one easy trick!
Edit to add: your comment is wonderfully succinct and accurately points to the sportslike entertainment atmosphere US politics is saturated with. Thank you
You'd need a hell of a platform to be a compelling option to all them non-voters
Having a compelling platform isn't the difficult part. That's actually probably the easiest part of the whole affair.
A real problem is exposure, and it has to be the right kind of exposure. On top of which a single president with absolutely no back up is just an ineffectual figurehead and target. So the third party would need to get out in all races, everywhere, preferably all at once. Oh and they have to fight uphill the whole way just for ballot access, which wraps us back around to exposure.
I guess to me the real hard part is getting apathetic and tired people to fight real hard, for a long time, while also paying for the expenses of the party and their own lives. As it would have no funding from Billionaires, or other moneyed interests, and if it did people would start to suspect the party's motives. Compelling platform is easy by comparison.
I think you may have missed my point. I meant that non-voters are not a homogenous mass, and have different desires and prejudices and reasons not to vote. And not to put too fine a point on it, a fair few of them are cunts.
When your political project goes genocidal - yes, you have a moral obligation to burn it down. Otherwise youre sending the victims down the river to buy yourself more time for pointless political waffling.
I know it's a puppet show, and I ran for office.
You should do so, too. Then... you'll learn it's a puppet show quickly, like I did.
The plan? Do what you can. Don't expect anyone else to give you "a plan". That's what got you here.
It's hard to build a nice house on the rotting carcass of a dilapidated crack den.
Since you're not paying attention, your method is what's burning things down at an accelerated rate
You don't know anything about me or my method. You're advocating for people to stop voting, which has changed things exactly 0 times in American history. If you were talking about changing the Democrats from the inside or about building a new party you would be on the right track, but instead you just are parroting "bOTh SiDEs ACtuaLly" and throwing around insults
Realistically it would take so much time, energy, effort, resources, dealing with trolls, probably way more i can't even think of. But it's so easy to just angrily post online. 100%. And even if a few of us tries to organize, it would be gatekept and fall to infighting. It's why there are no real libertarian candidates, they all gatekeep people "who arent REAL libertarians".
It would take an unbelievable amount of resources and sacrifice to even come close to competing with either major party. Not to mention the probable assassination attempts. It's not that "both sides are the same", one is clearly worse than the other. But neither are what's best for the country moving forward.
Which reminds me Andrew Yang tried creating the "Forward Party" but it never gained traction. And he spent more than all of the people in this comment section probably have combined to try it. Now I think he sells smartphones or something idk.
People are stressed and depressed and yearn for something truly different. Which is understandable. There's just no action that follows and that's what makes it an "armchair revolution". People still don't want to die, deep down they hope some external thing will come to the rescue. Except there never will be.
Point to exactly where I said dont vote, go through all my post and comment history if you need to.
There are no bOTh SiDEs if there is only one side that sides with capital
Centrists love to imagine that anyone who criticizes their worst actions must be encouraging others to not vote instead of trying to get centrists to stop being genocidal garbage all the time.
We, the rest of the world totally approve of that result.
Would like nothing more than the cancer to eat itself.
But I am not buying that puppet show for one second.
'unhinged' Trump is an act.
Controlled by the powers that own both sides of their uniparty. He can get away with a lot.
In 2 years some Dem will be in charge and of course apologize to their vassal states but will be 'powerless' to reverse his actions.
Expect many similar responses from Americans who are somehow so astoundingly thick they can't comprehend that holding politicians accountable can be accomplished by means beyond simply not voting. The false dichotomy is blazingly obvious, but their indoctrination runs as deep as their defensiveness is strong so they default to this, their favorite straw man, lest their simplistic worldviews be challenged.
This paucity of critical thought is a direct result of the compounding effects of decades of poor education. The US is cooked unless its citizens stop treating everyday politics like a cross between sports and religion.
I really prefer black text on white background studies show you absorb information better so not voting for fascism light is like endorsing misinformation do you want me to read something wrong and go to a concentration camp when its time for me to go to a death camp and waste a bunch of time and resources huh do you
Just don't vote for any sewage bog associated with those parties plenty of other things to vote on real people who might not be puppets