this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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[–] sxan@midwest.social 8 points 2 weeks ago (31 children)

The very idea of a "spoiler" is a tool used by those clinging to the duopoly to scare people into submission, to keep us from voting our conscience.

No, it's a tool that exists in some flawed voting systems, recognized by political scientists and used by bad actors.

You are correct that I don’t buy into that narrative, but in this community, where the term is tossed around like a weapon, I use the vernacular to communicate effectively.

Why I distrust you, in particular, is that you only recognize the spoiler vernacular, and only post these articles, when they're about "spoilers for the Trump campaign." You never do the same for Democrats.

Jill Stein isn’t a spoiler—she's a voice for the people, challenging a corrupt system that fears true democracy.

We disagree. She's a spoiler, except unlike the person in the article you posted, she doesn't have the moral fortitude to admit it. Her position on Ukraine makes her a complete non-starter for me; even if we did have approval or ranked choice voting, she'd wouldn't get any vote from me. The Greens need to dump her idiot ass.

[–] UniversalMonk@lemmy.world -5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

Why I distrust you, in particular, is that you only recognize the spoiler vernacular, and only post these articles, when they’re about “spoilers for the Trump campaign.” You never do the same for Democrats.

I’m not sure why that makes you so angry. Remember when everyone used to accuse me of only posting Green Party stuff to “spoil” the election and help Trump win? It was like they thought my whole mission was to help Trump win! Actually, people still accuse me of that! Lmao!

But I also post other party news, and you are mad because I used different wording?! lol

Bruh, I post news about third parties.

I’m focused on challenging the entire duopoly, not just one side of it.

If you’ve only seen me call out one party, that’s on you, but my goal is to shine a light on the hypocrisy and corruption of both Democrats AND Republicans.

Both sides are terrified of true alternatives, and that’s exactly why third parties need our support.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I’m not sure why that makes you so angry.

I'm not at all angry. Like you, I call out bullshit when I see it.

Remember when everyone used to accuse me of only posting Green Party stuff to “spoil” the election and help Trump win?

Dude. That's not a "remember when" thing - that's a today thing.

It was like they thought my whole mission was to help Trump win!

That's what spoilers do: they siphon votes from one party. Sometimes the leaders are puppets, sometimes they're aware of what they're doing but don't care; I don't know which I think it's worse, but I have a hard time believing that any national level party leader is ignorant of their impact on US elections, for which I hold them culpable.

Actually, people still accuse me of that!

K, now you're being ironic. Because that's me. I'm the one who consistently responds to your posts. I have a small hope that someone who might be teetering on voting Green will give a hard think, look at history, and change their minds.

And, look: I want people to be able to vote for other parties. I've voted Green before. But first we have to fix the election system in the US to reduce the Spoiler Effect, as we're doing at the state level with initiatives like the Minnesota RCV effort. Until we get there, though, voting for a third party is only supporting the greater of two evils - whichever party you don't want to win. Remember, the last time any third party won aUS presidential election was 1861.

my goal is to shine a light on the hypocrisy and corruption of both Democrats AND Republicans.

You don't, though; you explicitly and consistently advocate for Jill Stein. If I gathered a list of all your posts criticizing Biden, Kamala, and Trump, what do you think the pie chart would look like?

Both sides are terrified of true alternatives,

This is absolutely true, and it's why they oppose Ranked Choice and Approval Voting (the two most popular alternative voting efforts in the US) initiatives.

and that’s exactly why third parties need our support.

Efforts to replace FPTP need our support. Third parties for the Presidency do not. Third parties in Congress, I'm all for; we could do with more pressure to build coalitions in the legislative branch.

[–] aalvare2@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

You should ask this guy why he’s pushing the Green Party nominee, aka the pro-environmental policy nominee, despite indicating in other threads that he doesn’t care if Trump wins, aka the anti-environmental policy nominee.

I asked him that, then he started accusing me of bullying him and blocked me.

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