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submitted 9 months ago by mossy_capivara@midwest.social to c/196

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[-] PunnyName@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Ivan Cantu got over 150k signatures for a stay of execution, and he's still dead. I'm not a centrist, far from it. I'm a progressive.

But I also understand game theory, psychology, and sociology (all on an admittedly amateur-ish level), as well as how First Past the Post voting works in the US. I'm 100% for a cease fire in Gaza, humanitarian aid, the Israel government to be tried for war crimes, etc. But how YOU are doing it has shown time and again that it doesn't produce results. Oh, so I guess I know a little history too.

So, for instance, you remember 2020 when George Floyd was murdered in cold blood in the streets and then the world's largest protest broke out? What happened?
What was accomplished via those protests? Did Police Brutality stop? What about the more pertinent Police Brutality of POC? Did Qualified Immunity cease? How many bad apples are still in the bunch? Police unions get busted? We got a couple of "I'm sorry"s, and a fucking street naming.

You see, while collective action CAN do things (not much), you need to understand that this vote ain't gonna do fucking squat. You got a 100k+ votes for uncommitted? Yay. Out of 330+ million people in the US. Less than 1%

The general election has been called. And either Biden or Fuckface 45 is gonna win. By recruiting to third party, you're swaying more people to:

NOT vote for Biden at all (which is a vote for Fuckface 45)
or
not vote AT ALL in the general election in November (which is a vote for Fuckface 45, because the Rs always vote)

I'm not voting for Fuckface 45 in the General Election. Are you?

You wanna stop the genocide today? Take to the streets with a gun in hand. Take to Israel with a gun in hand. Take to a senator's house with a gun in hand. Don't self immolate, you'll just kill one of your comrades in arms.
While I don't think everyday life should ever have a gun in hand, when you want IMMEDIATE political / wartime change, non-violence solves nothing. (this goes for protests against police brutality, bring a gun - take the mask mandate protests, they were armed, they got what they wanted)

But if you want gradual policy change: vote local, campaign local, work with a local candidate, etc.
Otherwise, you're just trying to find your friends, and you're making enemies of possible allies.