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Far-right Israeli minister orders preparations for West Bank annexation
(www.aljazeera.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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I can't speak for the nuances w.r.t Harris, Trump and US foreign policy in Israel/Palestine.
I can with full confidence say that not voting is definitely not going to achieve anything. The only justified case would be an attempt to highlight the illegitimacy of the voting process if there are no options at all. It's relatively common for people to vote tactically on a consistent basis, although of course it's understandable when people lose motivation to vote when they feel there are no good options.
You are ignoring how people actually think and live. You view voting as a utilitarian choice. Utilitarianism is not the only ethical system in existence. In fact, utilitarianism is exactly how histories worst autocrats justified their atrocities. Hitler himself ran on a platform of doing painful things that, he at least claimed, simply had to be done. The Holocaust itself was justified entirely from a "lesser of two evils" perspective. Hitler just had to convince the broader German populace that killing all the Jews was a necessary evil. Kill all the Jews or have the world taken over by godless Communists. That was Hitler's central "lesser of two evils" message.
This is the fatal flaw of appeals to the lesser of two evils approaches. Yes, you "achieve more" by picking the lesser evil. But from many ethical perspectives, if both choices are objectively evil, and you can't stop either, your only ethical choice is to not support either side. You're still supporting evil, even if it's the lesser evil.
this is rather why i like the quote from ZIzek i heard in an interview recently
"if i were an American, I would obviously vote for Kamala. No question. But before I go into the booth, I would make the Christian Catholic cross with my hands and beg God for forgiveness"
i voted for Kamala but I did it with an awful taste in my mouth. Of course, just like all humans are guilty of Eden's original sin.. I think all of us Americans are guilty of benefiting from imperialism, capitalist exploitation, and the spoils of genocide.
No, I am basing this on real life experience. I.e. How I and many people vote and voted in my country, as well as other European countries that I follow.
This is a very practical matter. You feel like voting, you pick either your candidate or the best option that works. You're not happy with that, don't vote; but then you take responsibility for your (lack of) action. It's as simple as that.
I don't know where you are going with the utilitarianism and Hitler example. This is a massive stretch bordering on being rather insulting.
That is how YOU vote. A lot of people do not view it as a practical matter. They view their vote as an endorsement.
It really isn't when we're discussing fascists coming to power in the US. Godwin's Law is dead. It is not a stretch when the reason Kamala lost is for literally supporting a genocide.
Kamala's message was, "yes, I support a genocide overseas. But, my opponent supports it even more, and he will support crimes against humanity at home, while I will only support them overseas."
Not just me. This is common in other countries. People most definitely do not treat their vote as an endorsement. You can believe me or not or say I am bad, but this is a matter of fact.
I was refering to your claim that tactical/pragmatic voting is somehow related to a deep philosophical commitment to utilitarianism which in turns is how you get Hitler. People don't vote tactically out of some deep commitment to utilitarianism. Utilitarianism of course has its own set of problems, the stuff about Hitler in context of tactical voting is a ridiculous stretch; very condescending as well.
I don't deny the possibility of US turning into a essentially a non-democratic oligarch state. If anything, research suggests authoritarians who come to power via somewhat democratic means, tend to solidify their rule in their second term if there is no pushback from society. So in a sense I agree with you.
Where I don't agree with you are your justifications for not voting. As I said originally, I think the only fair reasoning is if there is nationwide protest to highlight the illegitimacy of an election/regime. Otherwise, there is no point in not voting.
Being from an "other" country, having lived in another 3 of said "other" countries, an even having been involved in politics in 2 of them, what you wrote is complete total bullshit.
Plenty of people do indeed have an utilitarian view of their vote, but lots of people, maybe even most, treat their vote as an endorsement.
In fact from my own experience in various countries the utilitarian view is more common in countries with less Democratic voting systems with few actually electable choices, similar to the US (so, for example, Britain) whilst the endorsement view is more common in countries with highly Democratic voting systems with lots of choices (such as The Netherlands, which has Proportional Vote).
I'm sorry but whilst you having an utilitarian posture is perfectly valid, your idea that it's the only valid posture and other people don't have different postures is complete total mindless self-centred bollocks.
I never said anything about validity. Let me quote myself:
I didn't mean to imply all people treat their vote as an endorsement. That's my mistake, I wasn't clear. I was saying that a lot of people vote tactically and do not treat their vote as an endorsement.
You can have a different posture, but the fact remains that people are complex and they can (and should) switch between committed voting and tactical depending on the situation. If you don't take the tactical approach, then it is reasonable to hold one responsible not taking part in the voting process.
In my experience, how many people vote tactically massivelly depends on the voting system and whether it's a presidential system or not.
The kind of utilitarian votes that sees one vote for somebody one does not like is not quite an Americanism because it doesn't happen only in the US (for example, the UK, even though it doesn't have a Presidential system, has a lot of tactical vote because they use First Past The Post for Parliament so each parliamentary seat is like a mini-presidential election where thare can only be one winner), but it's not really common in other countries.
As I said, I was involved in Politics in two countries, including canvassing and leafletting, and from talking to people (as well as observing how my family, friends and party colleagues did their "politics") voting it's far more often an affair of the hearth than of the head, starting by how people chose which politicians to trust given that they all promise nice things to them.
The cold and rational pondering about who to vote is not actually that widespread and many of those who try are still being swayed by emotional factors (for example, via who they chose to trust and how much) and people tend instead to vote on who they like and trust (or dislike and distrust all of them hence refuse to vote).
Further, even the cold and rational pondering is often not that rational because when it comes to such complex subjects with such a high level of uncertainty and misinformation, most of what one choses to believe as informations and one's own most favored forecast, is chosen based on less that scientific proof. (There is so much misinformation, disinformation and outright lying that chosing not to chose - i.e. not to vote - might be the most rational option of all).
What I've learned from decades of trying to go at things in a rational way is that we can never be fully Objective so it's a good idea to be aware of and keep track of the Subjective elements in one's decision making. Sure, it's valid to try, just don't decieve yourself that you have a perfectly logical decision making process and that everybody should be reaching the same conclusions as you.
From were I stand, your idea that you have a valid tactical approach and that it THE superior approach without question is just you misleading yourself about the nature of your information gathering and your thinking processes, hence you passing judgment on others for not going through the same obstacle course you do to end up making a decision which was de facto contaminated by subjective elements such as your choice of what information to trust and what forecasts you judged more likely, is like the blind criticing others for not seeing.
You really are not standing on top the moral high ground you think you're standing on.
This is not about a "moral high ground" or some deep commitment to utilitarianism (which you somehow turned into a bizarre rant about electing Hitler).
I am talking about a practical, real life evaluation. Of course many people vote based on emotional reasons, but that doesn't mean tactical voting is not extremely common (perhaps even a majority of voters).
And the fact remains that even people who have a strong emotional motivation can still be willing to make tactical choices. It's not all black and white like you describe.