#ALWAYS FUCKING VOTE

[embervoices]

What is your objective?

Forget about how you feel. Ask yourself, what do you want to see happen? And then ask, how can you make it happen? Who needs to agree with you? Who has the power to implement this change? What are the points where you have leverage over them? If you use that leverage now, will you impair your ability to use it in the future? Getting what you want is about effectiveness.

...

Don’t vote third party unless you can tell me not only what your objective is but also why this action stands a meaningful chance of accomplishing it.

YES. EXACTLY.

Who has the power? Who has the responsibility? Who has the authority? Who has the motivation?

Do they match? If they don't match, why not? What needs to change to place power and authority in the hands of those motivated and up for taking responsibility?

Blame is not useful. Blame is a distraction. Blame is an excuse. Blame is not power, or authority, or motivation. It's only rarely even related to responsibility. Blame is about making ourselves feel better after the fact about a thing that can't be changed.

Blame is irrelevant.

Focus on what CAN be changed, and HOW TO CHANGE IT.

When I was in ninth grade I wanted to challenge what I saw as a very stupid dress code policy (not being allowed to wear spikes regardless of the size or sharpness of the spikes). My dad said to me, “What is your objective?”

He said it over and over. I contemplated that. I wanted to change an unfair dress code. What did I stand to gain? What did I stand to lose? If what I really wanted was to change the dress code, what would be my most effective potential approach? (He also gave me Discourses on the Fall of Rome by Titus Livius, Machiavelli’s magnum opus. Of course he’d already given me The Prince, Five Rings, and The Art of War.)

I ultimately printed out that phrase, coated it in Mod Podge, and clipped it to my bathroom mirror so I would look at it and think about it every day.

What is your objective?

Forget about how you feel. Ask yourself, what do you want to see happen? And then ask, how can you make it happen? Who needs to agree with you? Who has the power to implement this change? What are the points where you have leverage over them? If you use that leverage now, will you impair your ability to use it in the future? Getting what you want is about effectiveness. It is not about being an alpha or a sigma or whatever other bullshit the men’s right whiners are on about now. You won’t find any MRA talking points in Musashi, because they are not relevant.

I had no clear leverage on the dress code issue. My parents were not on the PTA; neither were any of my friend’s parents who liked me. The teachers did not care about this. Ultimately I just wore what I wanted, my patent leather collar from Hot Topic with large but flattened spikes, and I had guessed correctly—the teachers also did not care enough to discipline me.

I often see people on tumblr, mostly the very young, flail around in discourse. They don’t have an objective. They don’t know what they want to achieve, and they have never thought about strategizing and interpersonal effectiveness. No one can get everything they want by being an asshole. You must be able to work with other people, and that includes smiling when you hate them.

Read Machiavelli. Start with The Prince, but then move on to Discourses. Read Musashi’s Five Rings. Read The Art of War. They’re classics for a reason. They can’t cover all situations, but they can do more for how you think about strategizing than anything you’re getting in middle school and high school curricula.

Don’t vote third party unless you can tell me not only what your objective is but also why this action stands a meaningful chance of accomplishing it. Otherwise, back up and approach your strategy from a new angle. I don’t care how angry you are with Biden right now. He knows about it, and he is both trying to do something and not doing enough. I care about what will happen to millions of people if we have another Trump presidency. Look up Ross Perot, and learn from our past. Find your objective. If it is to stop the genocide in Palestine now, call your elected representatives now. They don’t care about emails; they care about phone calls, because they live in the past. I know this because I shadowed a lobbyist, because knowing how power works is critical to using it.

How do you think I have gotten two clinics to start including gender care in their planning?

Start small. Chip away. Keep working. Find your leverage; figure out how and when to effectively use it. Choose your battles, so that you can concentrate on the battle at hand instead of wasting your resources in many directions. Learn from the accumulated wisdom of people who spent their lives learning by doing, by making mistakes, by watching the mistakes of their enemies.

Don’t be a dickhead. Be smarter than I was at 14. Ask yourself: what is your objective?

[passerkirbius]

So, there's a lot of USians around who are very clearly fucking fed up with their political choices this election cycle, and planning to sit it out.

And I get it! What's the point of voting if there's no one to vote for?

The thing is, I'm Australian. In Australia, voting is compulsory. We don't get to sit out our elections, and I'll be real honest with you - we don't exactly get better choices than you lot. So how do you vote if there's no one to vote for? You find someone to vote against. And there's always someone to vote against.

Now, we have the pleasure of preferential voting in Australia - We get to rank every candidate from 1 to X, and I'll tell you, there's something so cathartic about putting the biggest bastard of the lot at the very bottom of your preferences. I understand that USians don't get that option - you get to mark one person, and that's it.

That means that you get one shot, so aim it at the biggest bastard of the lot. The candidate you most utterly detest. Put your vote in the worst possible place for them. Don't even think about who that vote's going towards, that's not the point. Remember, every vote is a vote against someone. Make sure you fuck up that someone's election day!

[monachopism]

Some good news:

Two days ago, Massachusetts signed off on their fiscal budget, which makes community college completely free for all citizens.

"Last year, we created MassReconnect - free community college for students 25 and older - and gave thousands of people another shot at degrees they put on pause... This year, I signed a budget that builds on that success and makes community college free - for everyone." - Gov. Maura Healey

[inkskinned]

"don't make it political!" .... what proportion of death and suffering must occur before politics are involved. if this isn't political, what is even the point of any politics, ever. of democracy. the words are "by the people for the people." if i am going to be left alone by my elected representatives to "figure it out" - to undergo damage, hardship, fear. what the fuck did i elect them for. what was their job. the entire point is that they handle this shit. this is why we were supposed to be electing leaders.

poverty is political. misogyny is political. gun control is political. climate change is political. how much aid a community gets is political. what the fuck are you talking about. it's been political this whole fucking time.

[embervoices]

If voting didn't do anything, nobody would be trying to stop you from doing it.

Say it again for the folks in the back row.

Anti-voting rhetoric will be the death of the left. Literally.

Not a single fucking Republican voted to protect roe. It was fucking overturned in the first place bc trump got three Supreme Court appointments.

Every fucking thing wrong in this country is almost certainly the result of Republicans being in power. In 2020, Texas cut half of the polling places in black neighborhoods, and doubled them in white ones, regardless of population. It was Republicans bitching about mail in voting, and constantly, constantly fearmonger about voter fraud. Literally, their platform is about making civil rights harder to practice.

Would you like to know why? It’s because Republican politicians know better than anyone that higher voter participation means higher republican loss.

But what do I see from the online left, champions of the oppressed?

“Voting doesn’t do anything, the parties are the same, the system is rigged, etc, etc”

Don’t sit here and tell me you give a fuck about marginalized people if you aren’t ready to march your ass to the voting booth and vote out the party actively stripping their rights away.

Protest, donate, community build, unionize, and vote, vote, vote.

By the time direct action is the only option, it will be too fucking late.

[u3pxx]

i guess i had to make with the kimchuck, coward

[linkemaus]

Not to be that person, but if Kamala Harris were a white man with the exact same ideals, positions, and beliefs, it wouldn’t have even been a competition. Realising that the worst thing you can apparently be is a woman, is truly devastating.

[vaguely-concerned]

the fact that irving canonically survives through the end of asunder to be at wynne's funeral is so fucking funny to me. nothing but love and respect for MY unstoppable cockroach morally grey machiavellian mage dad!!! he's survived in his position through multiple attempted rites of annulment and blood mage plots popping up left right and center around him. the chantry keeps trying to stamp him out but his dodge game is simply out of this world, divine. civil wars, political machinations and minefields, chantry atrocities, this wily old motherfucker is dodging and weaving his way through it all, not-quite-no-hits-taken-running-it-but-honestly-close-enough-under-the-circumstances style. if solas does succeed in tearing down the veil I would fully believe that one of the like three people still alive at the end of it all would be a very weary 90 year old first enchanter irving going 'oh this shit again huh'. the maker has cursed him for his hubris and his paperwork is never finished (affectionate, it's fine he canonically loves paperwork)

[embervoices]

This is blatant disenfranchisement. It's not even remotely normal to go back and change the birth record when you change your name at marriage.

Basically republicans want to make it so your ID has to match your birth certificate which affects everyone from trans people to married women to immigrants.

Meanwhile, in GA, they're going to force all ballots to be hand counted, which could make it difficult to meet the deadline to certify the vote, and thus potentially allow them to give the state to Trump regardless of the outcome.

In many states, such as Ohio, Florida, Texas and North Carolina, they've been purging voters from the rolls by the millions.

If voting didn't matter, why are they trying so damn hard to stop us?

[navree]

Incorrect, the fact that Biden has dropped out and a candidate with history of supporting medicare for all and being more receptive to a ceasefire in the I/P conflict has made me go from "I cannot morally support the Democratic nominee" to "I am voting for the Democratic nominee despite the fact she isn't perfect in every respect." I'm really happy this played out. The Dems for the most part abandoned the old Obama platform and it feels like its possible an actual progressive agenda could come to pass in my lifetime.

Kamala 2024!

If you weren't going to vote Democratic in this election before Biden dropped out you're a dorkass loser who does not care about any of the issues you're yammering about here and also a fundamentally bad person, and I hope you get run over by a bus.

But you got one thing right in all of this gibberish, Kamala 2024.

[musashi]

i am begging the other leftists on my fucking dash to stop reblogging anti-voting stuff until the election is over. there are so many doomers on this website who do not have the critical thinking skills to fucking use their brains and tons of them will be genuinely swayed by what they see online.

for the love of god, queue it for after november 5th. queue all your criticism for then. unleash the fucking beast after the election is over. but it is so fucking irresponsible to be reblogging that shit now.

[embervoices]

This is exactly what I have been trying to point out.

Trump is on record repeatedly saying that Israel's mistake in their current policy is that they look weak for not committing genocide fast enough, that they should finish the job, "get it over with", etc. so they can move on and repair their reputation with impunity. He's not even looking for ceasefire much less justice for Palestinians. He's not even siding with the Israeli people, nevermind Jews across the world.

He's just siding with unobstructed authoritarian power.

Trump believes that money is power and might makes right and he in no way tries to hide that. He's very clear what he wants to use the US Presidency to do.

I don't care what you think of Biden, vote for him anyway.

Because no matter what area of social justice you examine, TRUMP IS CONSISTENTLY WORSE.

listen, i hate how biden has responded to the crisis in gaza as much as the next person, but for i cant bear the idea of withholding my vote in the upcoming election… trump just said in the debate that we should “let israel finish the job”

how HORRIFIC. how DISGUSTING. i get that voting for biden feels like we are settling, but the alternative is just so much worse

[missjamiekaye]

I don't know how people can spend the energy going "lol Biden old idk about voting" WHEN LITERALLY THE ABSOLUTELY WORST CASE SCENARIO IS ON THE LINE.

We lost abortion rights because of this fuck and it's GOING TO GET EXPONENTIALLY WORSE if you do not make sure people vote.

DON'T BE NICE ABOUT IT.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO VOTE LIKE THEIR FUCKING LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.

[spartanlocke]

Hi so if you see this post on twitter, do not listen, do not retweet it.

I understand people think voting third party will magically solve our problems, but it won't. Mainly because the electoral college is quite literally rigged by Democrats and Republicans against third parties to prevent them from winning. And this mindset that "if just enough people vote third party we'll win!" is one of the major reasons Trump won in the first place.

And I need to you listen, ok? I need you to listen closely.

If Trump wins, we'll lose the entire Democratic party, he'll have personal control over the military to go after anyone who opposes him, including other politicians and protesters. Pornography will be criminalized alongside surrogacy, contraceptives and divorce. KOSA will be implemented and anything even slightly "unchristian" will be censored on the internet. Women will be forced to marry their rapists, immigrates will be forced out of the country, queer people will be massacred, and PoC and disabled people, all of us, will lose our rights.

This. Is. Not. The time. To be gambling. With third parties.

Additionally, Cornel West is only available on ballots in two states, meaning most people can't vote for him. On top of that he supports Russia and wants to disband NATO, praised Reagan, and owes half a million in taxes and child support. He's not going to fix our problems, and with so few states even offering the option to vote for him, he's basically already lost.

Do not vote third party. Do not gamble our future. Biden is our best chance at stopping Trump and Christofacism, just vote for him.

[embervoices]

[Image Transcript]

Alexandria Ocasion-Cortez @AOC (on Twitter? Bluesky?)

Abortion rights are a class struggle too.

When the powerful force people to give birth against their will, they trap millions into cycles of economic setback and desperation. Especially in a country without guaranteed healthcare.

And desperate workers are far easier to exploit.

[/Image Transcript]

Undermining bodily autonomy reinforces their privilege to treat other people's bodies as commodities.

Anti-Abortion, Anti-Trans, and Inmate slavery policies are directly linked.

Police brutality at home and hyperinflated military used for colonization elsewhere are also part of that pattern. It's all about treating the general population as cannon fodder, machine parts, disposable. If the ruling class of billionaires and their GOP/Tory oligarch cronies can't have us directly as property*, they'll happily spend all their money making sure they can exploit us at our own expense indefinitely.

This is exactly why liberation and equality MUST be intersectional.

The only reason it isn't is that deliberate efforts have been consistently made to divide us, to set white working class people against Black people, to set queer folk against poor religious folk, to set women - especially cis, het, white women - against frankly everyone, under the guise of "protection". Children are weaponized against everyone else as if they're fragile objects instead of people, and disabled people are ignored outright because the only value of a human body is to produce.

They're dehumanizing us at every step.

They know exactly how much of a threat we would all be if we worked together.

But look how easy it is to convince any one of us that our issues are separate, that focusing on one means undermining another, that imperfect, incremental solutions are a waste of our precious limited resources because gods forbid we share resources collectively even when we know that's the goal, because we can't somehow address trans rights AND workers rights AND healthcare AND children's welfare AND AND AND YES AND.

We HAVE to stop fighting over their crumbs in this false-dichotomy zero-sum game they've built around us and focus on WORKING TOGETHER.

And yes, that does mean implementing anything that does even a little more good than harm, even if it mostly just keeps the status quo from deteriorating more while we go about building what we need together.

* Yes, I do mean "US". Black and indigenous people have had it worst on that front, by far, in US history, yes. But everyone was property until they were of voting age and women stayed property forever, transferring from father to husband at marriage. There's a reason feminism is supposed to benefit everyone.

We haven't fixed nearly as much of those effects as we'd like to believe. That's the point here.

[hotmess-exe]

"MY life has gotten marginally better or been unaffected under the current administration, so give the Democrats YOUR vote"

that's what y'all sound like. fuckin entitled. or do none of y'all actually believe in one person, one vote lol

just say that other people's problems, well-being, stability, and dignity is secondary to your fucking comfort under the status quo.

if things are "better under Biden" for you to such an extent that you feel entitled to other people's fucking votes, I got news for ya — you were probably fine under Trump too 🙃