Not voting (in your election)

Image: a photograph of a poster on a telephone pole. The poster has an image of Kermit the Frog and the text "Vote Muppet: You Will Get One Anyway."

Young voters overwhelmingly believe that almost all politicians are corrupt and that the country will end up worse off than when they were born, according to new polling from Democratic firm Blueprint obtained exclusively by Semafor.

The sour mood points to potential trouble for Joe Biden, who is struggling with Gen Z and younger Millennials in polls compared with 2020, and needs to convince them he can be relied on to improve their lives.

As part of the online poll of 943 18-30-year-old registered voters, Blueprint asked participants to respond to a series of questions about the American political system: 49% agreed to some extent that elections in the country don’t represent people like them; 51% agreed to some extent that the political system in the US “doesn’t work for people like me;” and 64% backed the statement that “America is in decline.” A whopping 65% agreed either strongly or somewhat that “nearly all politicians are corrupt, and make money from their political power” — only 7% disagreed.

Via @alissaazar@Kolektiva.Social

Hillary did the meme "liberals would vote for Biden even if he drank the blood of an infant only because Trump drank the blood of 1.25 infants."

Source

Please, tell me more about how I feel about Donald Trump getting a second term. I'm sure making me feel guilty over something I have literally no power to affect will encourage me to waste time on empty virtue signaling instead of using my political and social energy more productively.

Image description: four men in tunics and sandals beating a naked man with sticks; the image may be depicting the Roman policy of decimation (having one in ten soldiers in a unit beaten to death by their fellow soldiers, to punish the entire unit for cowardice or desertion). The caption reads "four out of five citizens love democracy!"

Crosspost from LW World News

Why do people need a conspiracy theory to deal with the idea, that some might disagree with their view on voting? Some quotes below

"You’re either a plant or .."

"But good job trying to be a right wing fascist troll and guilting people into not voting so Trump wins."

"Russian spies. Nice try."

"Incredible how the majority of their comments come at hrs when most Americans are in bed .."

"^ this guy wants trump to win the election."

"Bad-faith actors are tryin to say all the cool left-leaning kids aren’t voting this year - All of a sudden for no particular reason"

I find that idea so annoying because its not really an argument and more a stated believe. I don't even want to argue with that.

His argument is that if you vote, then you carry responsibility for the outcome.

This is what I think.

We all know the game is rigged. So what do I tell myself by, yet again, participating in a game I know is rigged?

It's not a matter of effort. It's a psychological statement to vote -- and by voting I give my authority to this system. I say that I believe in it enough to vote. So, on some level, I think voting matters.

Personally I don't think it does. Not on any level.

If you had the choice between clapping for a dictator or not, what would you do? It's so easy to clap! Just clap, and perhaps the dictator will be in a better mood for the next four years.

What does dictatorship have to do with democracy? Democracy is an oppressive system that is easily gamed. Our model historical example of it is Greece -- a slave society.

THERE ARE BETTER WAYS. Let the turnout be 10% and let's have a discussion about legitimacy. Voters give legitimacy to a corrupt system. STOP IT.

In the political cosmology of something that calls itself the “Democratic Party,” it is now a widespread belief that support is owed from below rather than earned from above. Instead of building popular coalitions by seeking to represent the hopes, dreams, and interests of a democratic majority, a posture of absolute, uncritical deference toward elite politicians is presumed to be axiomatic — even when an election is still well over a year away.

I shared this on a different instance some months ago, but with this new instance open it might find a different reception.