libs and elections gaslighting
libs and elections gaslighting
The notion that Biden represents a lesser evil compared to the chaotic reign of Trump is a common argument. However, we must not forget that there exists a moral threshold below which neither choice is acceptable. To suggest that enabling a literal genocide can be considered a lesser evil is a morally bankrupt stance.
Saying that voting for Biden is a moral obligation to prevent the return of Trump perpetuates a dangerous fallacy. It implies that the democratic party is immune from scrutiny and accountability, no matter the atrocities they commit. This line of thinking allows for a never-ending cycle of justification, as long as there's somebody considered worse, the democrats are granted a blank check. This is nothing more than a form of gaslighting, manipulating the public into believing that their only choice is between two evils, rather than demanding a better standard of leadership and true representation.
I am more convinced than ever that the competent fascist will emerge from the democrats
same
The first propaganda aspect of this discourse is to make you believe that who you personally vote for as an individual matters. Emphasis and focus are the most powerful tools of propaganda. When confronted with this topic by liberals you should dismiss it and change the subject to how to actually build power (not voting lol) to oppose the 98% Hitler and the 99% Hitler.
Your vote, as in a vote by you in particular, for President doesn't matter. You are just one person and the electoral college makes even your miniscule vote almost entirely irrelevant if you live in one of ~45 non-swing states. Also your vote is anonymous, it doesn't even hold discursive value. Vote for Stalin. It literally won't matter if you're acting as one person on your own.
You can make electoralism somewhat matter if you consider it as a mass action (mobilizing and growing your organizations, forming a disciplined bloc) or as a vehicle for exposing the masses to your positions but that's a very different thing than liberals trying to pretend that guilting you into voting for a genocidal Zionist segregationist is good political work.
You are making other good points, some that I use as well. Liberals are stuck in myopic thinking that's handed down to them by their political class because it benefits that political class at the expense of their voters. It's always "this particular election is what matters so vote lesser evil" rather than thinking for two minutes about what it means to be a guaranteed vote whose demands can always be ignored. In fact, they even delude themselves into the exact opposite position of pretending that is the less consistent voters that will be ignored. Guess what: campaigns are going to run based on (1) donors, (2) trying to get people likely to vote for them to just vote at all and (3) trying to get swing voters in their side. Notice how none of those things include, "listen to the requests of those who always vote for us no matter what". That's a waste of limited resources. I can't emphasize enough how much contempt most politicians have for their voters.
Anyways this myopia is exactly why you get public consent for a 98% Hitler. It's why liberals side with fascists and genocide. They're not just morally bankrupt, ignorant cowards being duped by obvious cons, they are an actual threat to us. They're the ones that turn you in when you do direct actions. They're the ones building the surveillance state. Working for military contractors. Creating bad faith propaganda against your organizing projects. Always reject their bullshit in the strongest possible terms.
Voting for Stalin is peak praxis
Tankies when American presidential elections: "Fuck that, I'm not voting for a lesser evil."
Also tankies: "Yeah, Putin is reactionary, but he opposes US imperialism so we should support him." Or, when they see a centrist: "Pick a side, coward!"
Cry about it. This is what happens when all your analysis is based on idealism and western propaganda.
Putin is a reactionary and we very much dislike modern Russia, however, right now, he poses a threat to western hegemony and Imperialism, the biggest contradiction in the world right now. Solving this contradiction will massively benefit the third world and plunge the empire into a deeper crisis.
Lastly, there’s a massive difference between critical support (for Russia) and complete support (for China). Also, “tankie”… lol
Tankies when an American presidential election: this is the same liberal kayfabe that's been going on for our entire lives and the best thing we can do is point out what its true function is.
Tankies on Putin: he's just one guy, you're not describing a Tankies because we don't believe in your Great Man Theory fairytales. Feel free to rephrase once you know literally anything about this topic.
On centrists: wrong again Tankies just call centrists reactionaries. Y'all are right wing.
Your only excuse for being this confidently ignorant is if you're 12.
Well, Trump and Biden are not substantially on different sides. They are two faces of the same side. If the parties were on substantially different sides, there would be some kind of actual holding accountable from the one to the other and preventing things from getting worse. Instead, what we get is blame directed at "the left" (a vague amorphous blob buzzword in these situations, similar to "tankie") for wanting anything different from the status quo. The democrats continuously show a near total lack of interest in doing anything about the depravity that they say the republicans are doing, even going so far as to do much the same things (if not worse) but with different PR branding, and then shame people for correctly understanding this means that neither party is meaningfully better.
Democrats are not a lesser evil.
Also, we've never told anyone to vote for Putin either.
Jackson Hinkledink is not on "the left." He's the only dipshit along with just open white nationalists, fascists, Nazis etc. like Tucker who "support" Putin
Supporting immediate ceasefire and peace, even if it means redrawing lines on a map, is not "supporting" Putin no matter how many times the warmonger neolibs at MSNBC and CNN scream about it.
If your interests align with the military industrial complex, Fox News, CNN, and the status quo politicians who are all center right wing, you should either accept what you are (the fact you seem hostile to leftists/communists is a GIANT red flag on that front. Anti-communism is just Nazism) or, I dunno, analyze your thoughts and figure out why you think endless death and destruction is necessary to prevent lines from changing. Who told you those lines were important and why do they/you believe that?
Tankie must not mean anything to you other than an insult against people who hate the Pax Americana.
Russia is more capitalist then America is.
Care to elaborate on that last part?
However, we must not forget that there exists a moral threshold below which neither choice is acceptable. To suggest that enabling a literal genocide can be considered a lesser evil is a morally bankrupt stance.
How would you apply your reasoning on the trolley problem? I.e. on one track there are two anonymous people and on the other track there is one, the trolley is heading towards the two. Is it unethical to pull the lever to divert it because killing anyone is morally unacceptable?
If you want to use this tired and boring trope then at least set it up properly
One track is full of millions of people and the other is full of the same.
One track is painted with happy colors and rainbows and one track is painted with skulls and imperial eagles
You're getting the exact same death and destruction no matter what, but one track is less openly an asshole about it.
If you saw what Biden and his cronies just did to college students for opposing 7 months of ongoing US-funded genocide in the last month or so and still somehow think he's a lesser evil... I don't think you understand words. Or you just don't care. If you don't value the lives of Palestinians, Yemenis, Iranians, Russians, Ukrainians, whoever, just say it, let everyone know you're a POS, and move on. Stop coping. Accept what you support and stop hiding behind false thought experiments and shit
Stop yelling at those seeking to better things and yell at the people who told you to hate those who seek better things.
I don't really get OP's stance but I don't feel like I'm getting much honest engagement from anyone here that's holding that stance. Just down votes and blow off responses which make me wonder why I'm bothering to have an open mind on this issue instead of just scrolling by.
OP talked about how there is a certain level of evil where supporting becomes morally bankrupt even if the two sides aren't the same. Your formulation lacks that completely. One side has genocide, the other side has genocide and destruction of the environment and persecution of LGBTQIA+ and a lot of other substantive things not found on the first side.
I'm being genuine here but on the verge of rolling my eyes and walking away from learning here. Is there a simplified formulation that is in the widely understood philosophical trolley format that can help me understand the position?
This is the real answer
Why would anyone do that? It's a useless level of abstraction. I've never seen scientists looking into the composition and structure of the sun say "Why don't we apply the ideal gas law?" Because the answer is obvious, the myriad axioms the ideal gas law comes with aren't applicable in a gigantic ball of plasma. The only reason one would even attempt such an oversimplification is if they don't see the candidates serving the same interests structurally, and hilariously the exact same in some cases.
I will regardless offer you a simplified approach, so that you may use it to synthesise your own. It consists of 3 questions regarding policy differences: (1) how has the issue come to this [under Biden for stuff that happened in the last 4 years], (2) how do I really know the other guy will be that much worse, and (3) if there definitely is a difference, is it significant? Let's use 3 issues to look how it turns out.
Palestinian genocide: (1) Although the zionist entity has been murdering Palestinians for decades with impunity, the massacre that's been going on is unprecedented. 35k dead, 11k of which are children, and fuck knows how many more indirectly, as a result of conditions imposed by the zionist entity. (2) Amy argument that Trump supports the zionist entity and it'll get worse is moot. Biden called himself zionist on multiple occasions, and the most he's done is to not sell arms to be used in Rafah, not even s stop the sake of assume altogether.
Abortion: (1) Roe v Wade was undone under Biden. He didn't have Dep. of Health policies changed to safeguard it, he didn't withhold funds from states that criminalised abortion, he didn't stack the courts. (2) What's he going to do, double ban it?
Cannabis: (3) Biden regime sent out a note unofficially saying they'll reclassify cannabis. Not only is that gesture miniscule when they could work to declassify it altogether, it's done when he doesn't have congressional support so likely won't happen anyway.