this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
42 points (95.7% liked)
Asklemmy
49394 readers
503 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
So, you are in favor of "my guy or the Nazi" voting? I didn't hear a "no", there.
It isn't "loser talk" to recognize the rules that elections run by, or to push back against the "both sides" rhetoric that lets the Overton window drift ever rightward.
Either you show up and vote in every election for the least bad candidate, be they good or great or only "not as bad", or you are doing more harm than good.
I didn't say "no"
I said it's loser talk. It's weak. Just like the Democrats. Which is why they're the enemy - they're in the way, and if we don't sweep out the Schumers and Jefferies the DNC will continue to collaborate with the Nazis against populist progressive candidates
You can't adopt their framing. Not maga's framing, or the DNC framing. Reject it, just like I reject your premise that voting is just harm reduction.
If you want to win, you can't talk like that. You can't bet on "safe" candidates. You can't settle for "not a Nazi". You have to demand more, you have to have fire and speak of hope for the future
That's a hell of a lot of words that aren't either "of course we should vote in every election for the best possible candidate" or "no, we should withhold our votes in the general if the Dems don't nominate someone sufficiently progressive."
If you mean the latter, say it. If you don't, then say that, too.
I reject that framing. It's a loaded question, it's loser bullshit and I won't have it
I'm not saying vote every election. I'm saying win every election.
How do you win? Not by betting on the lesser evil. You do it by putting in the work to have a candidate you believe in. You do it by starting today, so that when the election comes your vote will not be a compromise.
You should feel proud of each and every vote. And yes, you should vote every time... But now is not the time for voting, it's time to campaign
So quit with the defeatist bullshit and pitch in. You'll feel less pessimistic when you're surrounded by winners who work for a better tomorrow