this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2024
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[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 43 points 5 days ago (6 children)

No.

Look at how the system actually works. There are two choices. Both candidates have to compete for all the people who vote. If you sit out the election that doesn't mean either candidate will try to get your vote; they'll ignore you and go after the people who do vote.

Someone else came up with this analogy. It's like the trolley problem except the there's a third option. The third choice is to throw the switch to "Neither," but "Neither" isn't connected and the trolley kills someone anyway.

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

My friend, what you wrote totally ignores the passage of time. Everything you wrote is true if we only look at one election, and none of it is true if we consider the passage of time and how pressure operates. If the political party is not getting votes, if all of their candidates are losing, either they will disband or they will find different policies to push.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago

Actually I paid attention to history. The pendulum swung the other way a few years back; arch Conservative Ronald Reagan courted the Left by picking the first woman on the Supreme Court and making Colin Powell his Number One guy.

[–] Belgdore@lemm.ee 23 points 4 days ago

Or as Rush put it, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

George Carlin did a great job blowing this nonsense apart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X4Z1lLUMfw

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee -2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If George was alive today he'd be begging people to vote against Trump.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

No he wouldn't, and the video I linked explains clearly why. Maybe watch it and try to comprehend what he's saying there.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee -5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Let me explain something you may not be aware of.

The man was an entertainer. His job was to make people laugh. I can cherry pick his work and come up with all kinds of absurd ideas he put into his act.

If the only argument you can make is based on a comedy routine, then we have nothing more to discuss.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Let me explain something you may not be aware of. Entertainers often say serious things that cannot be said in other mediums. If you don't understand that Carlin was doing political commentary, and appreciate his insights then you're a very dim individual indeed.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_George_Carlin_Show

George did a TV show on the FOX network.

I love his stuff, but that doesn't blind me to the fact that he was primarily an entertainer.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The fact that you thought this was a good argument shows how utterly intellectually impoverished you are.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm keeping this going because you're entertaining me.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Simple minds, simple pleasures.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago

I’m keeping this going because you’re entertaining me.

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah bro, the anti war hippie who was challenging the FCC in the 70s would have totally been team corporatocracy. Carlin had several interviews where he talked about how the two party system in America is an illusion of choice and ragged on Bill Clinton for being phony, and that's the farthest left liberal candidate in like 30 years, a fucking neoliberal.

Yall sound exactly like the conservatives claiming MLK.

[–] ReadMoreBooks@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If 5% of the general election popular vote for POTUS, knowing that the candidate cannot win, still voted for the Green Party platform then what effect would that have upon the Democratic Party platform?

On a five point difficulty scale this is a two. The test gets way harder than this.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If my grandmother had wheels she'd be a tea trolley.

Right now the reality is the Donald Trump is going to take office because a lot of people didn't vote for the alternative.

All the 'what if...?' games in the world isn't going to change that.

[–] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Make your 3rd party an arm of the dems. A coalition of sorts

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago

If you're saying that the Left should vote for the Dems I agree.

I'd love to have Bernie as President, but our side dropped the ball twice and failed to get him nominated.

[–] WeUnite@lemm.ee -5 points 4 days ago (4 children)

You understand how things work! Ignore the apathy trolls. They are trying to silence your vote. Here's what actually happens if you vote for the lesser of two evils. You're rights are protected and next time use the primary process to pick someone even better.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago

You’re rights are protected and next time use the primary process to pick someone even better.

Oh, Like how we voted for the lesser evil in 2020 and didn't have a fucking primary in 2024. Don't tell us to do something that your party makes sure doesn't happen.

[–] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 10 points 4 days ago

Lol. What planet do you live on?

[–] meowMix2525@lemm.ee 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

You're rights are protected

Like how Roe V. Wade was protected when Biden got into office? Like our right to protest the atrocities which our taxes are paying for in Gaza?

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago

Do yourself a favor and read the novels of Ross Thomas. He was a Washington reporter turned crime novelist. All his books have a strong political basis. Two of his best; "The Fools In Town Are On Our Side," an ex-CIA hot shot is hired to clean up a small Southern city by making it so corrupt even the pimps will vote for reform; "The Porkchoppers," a nuts and bolts look at a Union election with characters ranging from White House aides and Washington power mongers to factory line workers.