I don’t like Biden either, but anyone with half a brain knows there are two choices in the 2020 election. If we had a sane voting system, voting third party might be worth it, but as it stands, no one but you knows your favorite candidate exists and unless you want to become their campaign manager that will still be true in November. Even if you did, and even if you convinced two thirds of the people who would otherwise have voted for Biden to vote for your chosen candidate instead, Trump would still win because half the country voted for him and your guy only got a third. If you vote third party you might as well stay home.

Not voting isn’t going to stop the genocide in Gaza. The US will continue to funnel them arms no matter which candidate wins this November. Trump practically campaigns on how much he hates the Jews and he’s publicly told Israel to “finish up their war”. He’ll also make life a living hell for anyone who isn’t a straight cisgender male back here at home.

A vote for a candidate is not an endorsement of them or their policies, it’s a statement that you like their policies more than the other guy’s, and “sticking it to liberals” and “refusing to support genocide” (that’s not what voting for Biden is doing, by the way – a vote for either candidate is a vote for genocide and a vote for neither is an endorsement of both) is not more important than keeping the furthest right politician America has ever seen out of office.

How incredibly privileged do you have to be to see an entire national election as what will happen in the Middle East and ignore Trump’s campaign promises to wipe transgender Americans off the map, and further, to not realize that the same thing will happen in the Middle East regardless of which candidate wins?

I hate Biden as much as every other leftist here. But I’ll still vote for him because Trump is worse. If there’s a single bone in your body that cares about the lives of your trans friends you will too.

  • Vespair@lemm.ee
    53·
    8 months ago

    Well I’m glad you live in a fantasy world where your abstinence doesn’t have real world impact that is demonstrably worse, specifically in regards to the very genocide to which you refer, but unfortunately the rest of us live in the real world where sometimes we have to evaluate the weight of ideological purity vs real world harm impact.

    • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
      14·
      8 months ago

      it’s a little disingenuous to call not supporting a genocide ideological purity.

      i mean, i guess it’s a technically correct categorization, but the people who dont have that particular ideological purity are nazis, so…

      i don’t plan to abstain though. PSL is lookin good for president.

      • survivalmachine@beehaw.org
        13·
        8 months ago

        Pumpkin Spice Latte ain’t winning a thing. That’s exactly as good as not voting, which benefits republicans every time.

        • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
          8·
          8 months ago

          how do you figure that?

          i cast a vote for party for socialism and liberation and it gets counted for that party. thats not at all the same as not voting. that vote doesn’t get counted for the republican party so it doesn’t benefit them.

    • Abucketofpuppies@lemmy.world
      11·
      8 months ago

      Voting isn’t a chess game. I just vote to my ideals. I hope more people do, because it’s the only way things will ever change, sans revolution.

          • bobburger@fedia.io
            19·
            8 months ago

            Lol, yeah I’m going to organize an armed rebellion against a country that can shoot me in the chest with a fucking rocket covered in swords from the other side of the world while I’m chilling on my deck with my family.

                • Jentu@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                  3·
                  8 months ago

                  I mean, obviously it didn’t work for them since citizens weren’t able to stop it before other parts of the world started intervening. The world can’t feasibly intervene with the largest military on the world this time though. I mean, they could try, but it would be the end of all human life.

      • Vespair@lemm.ee
        30·
        8 months ago

        Saying “if I don’t get my way entirely I’m taking the ball and going home” is the opposite of how progress happens.

        And as a follow-up, aside from voting, what other real on-the-grounds steps have you taken to progress or legitimize real leftism in America?

            • Abucketofpuppies@lemmy.world
              1·
              8 months ago

              I’m fairly moderate, and extremely moderate for a Lemmy user.

              I’m sure you’re decent, even though you try to make fun of me for having a distinct political ideology that doesn’t conform to the leftist internet hivemind.

              Most of my biggest priorities are left leaning, but outside the scope of common discourse. Such as independence from Chinese rare earth elements, prohibiting child marriage, and banning cigarettes and tobacco.

              • Vespair@lemm.ee
                1·
                8 months ago

                I don’t subscribe to any specific version of ideology, I merely think leftist mentality is the foregone conclusion of reasoned thinking amongst decent people.

                If you think I’m using “leftist” in the tribalist way popular online and not as colloquial shorthand, you are mistaken.