timemachineyeah
drives me up a wall living in a very very red district, like “no democrat is ever going to win any local election, let alone a real leftist” district, like “our school board members ran on who was the most anti-mask” red, like “I pass white supremacist signs on the way to buy weed” red
and being in the local leftist community and the guy who runs the anarchist book club and the lady who helps keep the warming shelters open and the people who marched on city hall when a local business was getting death threats for having a drag show are all members of a discord and we get on this discord and have frank discussions about how best to vote
the people who do the protests and the mutual aid and all the real work
going “okay, they’re both fascists, but this one lacks ambition and seems happy to just glide in the position” or “they both suck, but this one can be reasoned with if you frame it patriotically enough” like we don’t even have a democrat to vote for. we know what a vote is. we know what we hope accomplish with it. we know what it can do, and we know what it can’t.
and going from those discussions to here where people think that your vote is some kind of fucking??? enabling maneuver??? as if someone isn’t going to end up in that seat regardless of what you do???
we didn’t build this system, we just live in it. we’re just trying to survive. a vote isn’t a statement of your values, it’s not an endorsement, it’s not a marriage contract, it’s a strategic play you make to keep alive.
the biggest mistake I see leftists making is overestimating their own popularity. “well but everyone would be leftist if they just-” no, stop, 1) you can’t possibly know that 2) everyone will not just
sure, i personally don’t like the “actually winning” framing as it does kind of look like a pledge of fealty from the outside.
i more prefer the “harm reduction” approach to it all, though i do recognize that language makes some people upset i think it’s valuable nevertheless.
They waste political capitol on pipe dreams.
Everyone has forgotten gay rights took nearly 70 years. And the people that hate them will hate them. They want it to move faster despite people aging the same rate. People don’t change their minds much. So instead of educating people and childrens not having our generations ideals, everyone is trying to do it by force of law. It’s not going to work.
You can force assholes to to make your cake but they will still hate you and finds ways to let you know.
I’m sympathetic to the bullshit people have to tolerate. But ideologies dont change, they die.
I’ll end my now off topic rant.