• ameancow@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    It would have been nice if 45% of the eligible voting population didn’t already check out last year. It would have been nice if there weren’t countless posts by bots on reddit saying “I really hate all this politics” in a concerted, ongoing effort to make people like OP tune out and not care.

    I mean, I get that it’s hard sometimes to always see what’s happening in the world, but you have the option to turn it all off. But expecting to just get the content that appeals to your mood at the moment and lets you avoid responsibility, that’s fucking childish.

    When you’re a child you can avoid the world. You’re supposed to be protected from the world. You grow up and BAM now you’re part of shit. No, you don’t get out of it. No, you don’t get to escape whenever you want. Sorry, we didn’t sign up for it either but we know what we have to do so we’re concerned about events and trying to communicate that concern so that evil doesn’t flourish. (Much further.)

    • Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      It’s really easy to blame non-voters when you have the privilege of civic literacy, do not face voter disenfranchisement, do not live paycheck to paycheck, do not have a job that will fire you for ‘other reasons’ when you take off to vote, do not have an abusive spouse that will watch you fill in your mail in ballot if you vote, do not have to walk an hour away to the voting poll because you can’t drive, do not have a permanent address for a mail in ballot, so on and so forth.

      Yes, there are lazy ‘I’m not political’ morons who are willfully ignorant and don’t vote. But let’s not pretend that everything about American infrastructure including car dependency, anti-homelessness laws, understaffed voting polls, centralized media and fake news, aren’t all designed to make voting harder than it should be and disproportionately target minorities.

      • ameancow@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        It’s really easy to blame non-voters when you have the privilege of civic literacy

        This is a helluva line I that I’m absolutely stuck on.

        I don’t even know how to approach it… civic literacy as a privilege? I feel like that’s an entirely new term invented as a way of avoiding accountability tbh. I get that it’s hard to vote, and I get people who have to work all the time, but I don’t get pushback against the idea that we’re just not making the effort or trying to push through challenges for a better future. Fuck that, I don’t care. Ya’ll gonna learn one way or another what accountability means.

        • Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Getting a quality education or having parents who did is a privilege. No baby was born knowing how to vote. The vast majority of non-voters don’t even know how to start, let alone how to take time off to vote or when their mail-in ballot window is. Many might not have the required IDs and need to jump through another hoop to vote.

          To non-voters, the voting process can be as daunting as getting your driver’s license the first time, except they’re doing it alone, juggling 3 jobs and raising kids. They simply don’t have the time or mental energy to go through bureaucracy and mentally keeping every deadline and paperwork in their minds.

          Civic literacy is a privilege because the fact that you understand the importance of voting and know enough about the process to plan ahead of it means that you grew up in circumstances that allowed you to do so.

          Calling people lazy for not voting is like calling people assholes for not buying cage-free eggs. t’s very easy to not give a shit about either when you’re living paycheck to paycheck, and it’s very easy to perceive complaints about this as virtue signalling.

          You’re not getting anyone to vote by calling them lazy. Don’t be angry. Be useful and be actionable. If you actually want more people to vote, understand the systemic barriers behind why so many don’t vote, educate others on it, and make a difference.

          • ameancow@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Me who was denied an education and raised by a cult family in the wilderness for the first 20 years, and had to escape and learn everything and get an education on my own, and still somehow managed to learn the importance of voting for qualified candidates, reading this and taking notes

      • RedPostItNote@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        The election was completely fraudulent. Our country did NOT vote for this. Watching people rip each other apart over “how we voted” is painful because ALL OF IT IS FICTION.

        • ameancow@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          The election was real.

          The millions of contentious voices on Facebook, twitter, reddit and so on were not. They used the KGB handbook to play the basic tactic of amplifying the worst contention on both sides of literally every issue, leaving the general, moderate population absolutely checked out and uninterested in involvement.

          When you don’t feel connected to your community, what do you do? You ignore it, you don’t work to better it.

          While I say this was from the KGB handbook (literally) I don’t think they were the only forces at work, I think it’s just an effective tactic that everyone who wants to control or subvert the richest, most powerful nation on earth (a nation already sabotaged by “fierce individualism”) will readily employ so that democracy no longer stands between them and the prize.

          When the goal is “line go up for infinity” the soil itself is a commodity that will be dug up and sold. I really feel like ya’ll still aren’t realizing what’s happening. Almost half the population didn’t get involved, and the ones who did had no media literacy or involvement in politics, as evident by the absolutely bonkers exit polling. We’re at that scene in the Die Hard sequel where the dump trucks are driving the gold out of the city.

          • RedPostItNote@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            So everything is crystal clear to you? Lmao. The election was falsified, the bots online are fake to give the fake election numbers credence. This isn’t rocket surgery. I feel like maybe you don’t understand what’s happening.

            • ameancow@lemmy.world
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              4 days ago

              I can already tell I won’t enjoy conversing about this with you, it’s okay, have a good one.

    • HalfSalesman@lemm.ee
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      4 days ago

      It seems like you’re directing this at me, and I can say that ultimately before November 5th I would have nodded my head in agreement. For basically the last 20 years I’ve been more or less obsessively following politics. I’ve voted in every election, primaries, midterms, special elections, local elections, and general. I’ve canvassed and donated. I’ve perpetually kept my eye on the news and participated in a invite-only political debate sub-reddit back in my reddit days. I’ve advocated IRL at my own workplace, risking my job security.

      But now I’m verging on suicidally disinterested. After this result I want to disconnect so fucking badly. I want to check out and it feels like there is no escape. I don’t even enjoy my “escapes” like video games, movies/TV, books as much as I used to. All of it feels like a grey sludge while a radioactive fire burns the world.

      And the problem is, even if things get sorted out, I will never want to care again. Even if the US fixes its major problems I will forever be disgusted with the majority of my fellow citizens and be ambivalent about most of their well being. I am permanently mentally isolated after this election. The rest of my life seems intrinsically and inescapably dimmer.

      Will I care anyway? Yes eventually and inevitably, I’ll feel emotionally pulled to care. Its just how my brain works. And I will resent it. I resent it now.

      • ameancow@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        It seems like you’re directing this at me,

        I actually wasn’t but I do appreciate the brutally honest and non-combative reply, this is exactly the window into how the foreign and domestic forces working tirelessly to amplify contention and hate have subverted our very spirit and left us not wanting to care about anything anymore.

        This isn’t entirely the fault of the population, but the population can and should at least more informed of this tactic so they don’t doom-scroll the worst clips and gifs, the pandering content, the screaming matches and “debates” and news stories from dubious outlets. We need to do this so we all take better care of our minds, this is part of the whole story… your mind is vulnerable and selfish forces will sell out your mental wellbeing and sovereignty so they can keep making line go up.

        If you take care of your mind like your body, if you take care with what you put into it, it will be stronger and healthier and you can make better decisions. This is why they are attacking the very notion of “mental health” by the way. They want a depressed, checked-out population of serfs working the fields and buying the latest iPhone as soon as it lands.

      • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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        4 days ago

        You were fanatically supportive of genocide, while heaping venom and hatred on the people who oppose it; I don’t think anyone cares what you are ‘disgusted’ by. Your boos mean nothing, we’ve seen what makes you cheer.