this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
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Political Memes

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Edit: new and improved image, now with 100% less support! Used my expert photo editing skills to change "supporting" to say "voting for"

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[–] [email protected] 144 points 9 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 94 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (7 children)

I'm going to copy /u/kiniz0r's comment from a few months ago because I think it's extremely perceptive and accurate:

People have a fucked-up understanding of voting in the US. You are not voting for the person you agree with. You are voting for the person you’d rather negotiate with.

If you actually care beyond the aesthetics of whether you did the cool thing or not, you have to think about the function of what you’re doing and not just whether it feels good.

original comment

Your political choices shouldn't be performative, they should be as effective as possible in the present.

You do the best you can with what you have.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

My favorite analogy is that voting is like taking the bus, just because it doesn't drop you off in front of your house, doesn't mean you're better off walking.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Idk why people think negotiation starts after voting happens

We're negotiating right now, this is the negotiation.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Absolutely, but the negotiation also continues after the voting happens, so it's probably worthwhile to vote for someone who can be negotiated with.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

That’s the nice thing about the two political party system: Who else are you going to vote for? Abstain or third party? You’d run the risk of having democracy end, when the other party wins, and getting thrown into a camp for your “Unamerican” beliefs.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You understand the president you vote for is only part of this right? We could elect Bernie and we still wouldn't have healthcare in 4 years without a blue congress.

What is Biden supposed to have done in the last 4 years about healthcare on his own? The changes on requirements for prior authorizations is a big help for many but things like that are about as much as he can do without Congress.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

We don't get to vote for "better" in the US. We get to vote for "less worse" or "more worse." But not "better."

Better takes ages. Massive organizing. And probably some violence on someone's part. But you don't get to vote for "better" in this country.

As evidence: We're the only country that needed a war to decide that slavery was wrong.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 9 months ago (2 children)

And voting in LOCAL elections, which way, way too many people ignore as not important. We can actually have "better" in a lot of those elections, if people would pay attention. People started paying a lot more attention where I live after a council member skipped 3 straight months of meetings but still had time to go to campaign events, and we realized that there were serious issues with several council members who all voted for conservative bs in lockstep. We managed to flip enough seats that it's now a 5-4 Democrat majority so the mayor can't just force through her pro-oil & gas nonsense at every turn, and the new members actually give a shit about the community.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

As evidence: We're the only country that needed a war to decide that slavery was wrong.

Uh. Pretty sure that's not even close to true.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Okay, Haiti, too. But I don't really count that because it was a slave revolt.

But most of Europe just passed a law saying it was illegal.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

Most of Europe didn't have any significant amount of slavery to ban. Even then, there was considerable resistance - France abolished slavery during the French Revolution (a time of civil war, if you will remember), then reimplemented it, then abolished it again. Most of Latin America abolished slavery only with wars of independence; many of them not even then, having civil wars of their own during which the issue was resolved. Brazil had a coup over abolishing slavery, much of Africa and the Middle East retained the institution until stripped of independence (via war) during the colonial era... the list goes on.

Wars over slavery are presented any time there is a powerful slave-holding elite in a post-Enlightenment society.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Goddamn if this ain't the truest thing I've read in weeks. Just an addendum, slavery has never gone away. It built the foundation of this country and continues to be the reliable and cheaply paid engine that drives it. Slavery exists, it just has been frosted in corpo speak and glitter to fool the masses.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 9 months ago (10 children)

I'll go further: actually bothering to talk about some of the positive things that happened under his presidency will be necessary for him to win.

If progressives, leftists, antifascists, etc. can only manage to offer a "I guess he's not a literal pile of shit so maybe I'll consider holding my nose and voting," there's no permission structure for Enlightened Centrists™, Never-Trumpers, or even tired Democrats, to turn out. Trump voters are mad as hell. Lots of them really think the election was stolen from him. They're going to turn out.

We need more than holding your nose.

The child tax credit cut child poverty by possibly as much as 46%. Biden's campaigning on bringing it back to stimulus levels. That's money in the pockets of people who need it the most.

Biden tried to forgive student loan debt. Conservative judges blocked him. Re-elect him so he can keep appointing judges and finding new ways to fight against more bad decisions like this.

Biden's Inflation Reduction Act may include some of the most impactful climate policies ever enacted by any American congress since the creation of the EPA.

There are "yes, but"s for each of those points I made but my argument is simple: you don't get to make more accomplishments if you don't talk about the ones you made already.

This hasn't been a perfect administration, we've never had one. But he damn sure hasn't done nothing when it comes to some of the most important political issues of our time.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's weird that there's been so much accomplished but so little talk about it. I only ever hear them listed at the end of a Brian Tyler Cohen video.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

To me the issue stems from DNCs reluctance to whole heartedly accepting a progressive platform. They think skating by sipping progressive lite is appeasing the "moderates." When really there are no moderates left to think of. If you are even considering Trump you are full right. No question.

It's hard to give credit to a party that will trip over its own dick to compromise on every single policy.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 9 months ago (7 children)

Shameless plug for ranked voting.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 44 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

What I like most about this meme is that it implies that supporting the Biden won't exactly lead to a good outcome for you either, but at least it's not as immediate as getting the Trump again.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Biden is the lotion you apply to soften your skin so it can, once removed, make capitalism pretty.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (28 children)

You want to change the system, I am literally 100% behind you. Until then, any registered voter that stays home is a vote for Trump. That is the greater evil...

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

Lol

I like the implication that in this scenario, the actual threat of getting the trump again is coming from the same person that's instructing to put the Biden on its skin. Also that in the end, 'it' gets made into a skin suit either way

I also like the flexibility: it could just as easily be leftists threatening the DNC with getting the trump again

If this is a bit it's absolutely perfect, 10/10

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

@hydroptic

Okay but I've watched that film: Either way, whether you conform and put the lotion on or you get the hose again, either way you're still in the pit and you're going to get killed to make a skinsuit unless Clarice Starling shows up and rescues you.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Hello, I am once again asking for you to release that woman from the hole.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

And remember to be rational, to remain somewhat detached from the constant stream of political narratives and spins that gets thrown your way, where the positive or neutral things get ignored because that gets no click-ad revenue, everything that gets screamed at you is a distortion of reality.
Separate the garbage and the appeal to visceral reactions.

It's easier then to see that Biden and his cabinet inherited an incredible mess, is genuinely trying to clean it up, and there are no overnight miracles when the other political party constantly engages in sabotage of the gears of democracy, while a large segment of the population remains electorally apathetic and aloof.

This constant, perpetual media and social media provocation and clickbait, makes an intellect vulnerable to "divide-and-conquer" tactics, keeps him/her apathetic and aloof, while simultaneously demoralized. And the constant stream of infotainment excrement just keeps on flowing like a river during rainy season.

EDIT: To put in a nutshell, tldr:
Electoral apathy benefits republicans.
Electoral engagement benefits Democrats.
Now guess which side engages most with "divide and conquer" infotainment dumps to keep the electorate as cynical as possible.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (21 children)

I'll hold my nose and vote for Biden. It's obviously important and right. But I'll never pretend he doesn't stink.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

If the DNC could stop shooting themselves in the foot and blaming everyone but themselves, theyd be unstoppable.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Not the message you want to spread...

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ain't it the truth, though? Four more years of Bipartisanship With Fascists or we give you Pure Fascism.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (10 children)

One is rusty shitbox, the other is radioactive rusty shitbox that is also on fire.

I choose rusty shitbox every time in this situation.

Does it suck? Yeah.

Not as badly as the alternative.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (7 children)

Obviously the only solution is to vote Trump out of spite!

Cut to Buffalo Bill (GOP) wearing the DNCs skin

Edit: only one party gave us trump and to put the blame anywhere else is aggressively stupid.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

God, what a glorious way to tell that truth! I really hate being in this position but there seems to only be one safe way out.

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