#esp for presidential elections

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

dark silver lining of the b*d*n age question dominating the news is that i get a temporary reprieve from my absolute least favorite part of election season discourse which is 1 million variations on “the dems are going to lose because they’re not doing the thing i want”

[daughterofsarenrae]

Hate the dance i have to do to get one of my family members in georgia willing to vote blue instead of independent. Figuring out the correct amount of pushing to keep them from immediately shutting down and getting defensive is exhausting

[zaprowsdower27]

A lot of folks attribute the commonality of telepathy in old sci fi to one guy.

This guy. John W Campbell, was Pseudoscience Georg. Big name sci-fi author, and more importantly editor. He was so influential that he, to quote wikipedia, "helped shape the careers of virtually every important science-fiction author to debut between 1938 and 1946, including Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, and Arthur C. Clarke."

He also genuinely believed ESP was a real thing and encouraged others to include it in their sci-fi stories (or "encouraged", given he was an editor).

Naturally, then, folks growing up reading stories he had a hand in in some way treating ESP as hard sci-fi came to also think of it as hard sci-fi, and as he grows more and more distant in the past his legacy of treating it seriously also fades

Not sure if that's the whole story, just what I've seen some people claim - you'd need enough research and analysis for a thesis paper in media studies to say for sure

One must respect Star Trek for its firm commitment to rationalism in consistently depicting "magic" as the product of high-tech grifters and sufficiently advanced aliens playing god, except for that one random mid-season episode which establishes that magic is totally real in a way that's never mentioned again.

[guavagyal]

it's become so obvious to me since the Presidential 2024 election that there is hardly any POC solidarity in the US. I still think it exists, but not on a large scale.

a lot (not all) Arabs, Asians, & Hispanic people literally hate black people to the point that they'll vote for a fascist, racist white man who spread hate about Asian people (COVID conspiracy theories), Arab people (Muslim Ban from his first term), and Hispanic people (the border wall and treating Puerto Ricans like dogs).

and now they all want racial unity against fascism after hating openly hating a biracial black woman who literally hasn't been a racist war monger. give me a break.

someone on TikTok said that a lot of marginalized people are waiting for black people (esp black women) to throw the first stone. and that's why there's a lot of confusion with them on what they should do next.

[izzyvanizzy]

A note, this post really just applies to Americans, sorry if you came across this on a tag and were hoping otherwise

Hey i know a lot of Tumblr dems say you need to participate in local voting, and I'mma keep it 100 i do agree. I know times suck rn, i know black people are dying left and right, i know queer rights are fading, i know Israel's IOF bombed rafah and are likely planning another safe area strike as i type, and i know it feels like voting isn't gonna do shit because it's not direct action.

But voting locally is gonna help way more than voting for a president

Lemme keep it real w/ you, you want to vote for a president because a president is who staffs the supreme court (those guys that just made presidents lawless and gave themselves the power to handle all regulation ever?) if you're gonna see crimes committed in the officials, may as well see em be crimes in your court. On top of that the presidential cabinet (the leadership of all the big three letter agencies) is chosen by the president and is referred to as the president's administration. The Biden admin has done better for everyone on this website than Obama did, and i don't say that lightly. So you really do wanna vote, esp because trump said he's gonna cut off Palestinians aid.

But past that, you have the power to make real change in your day to day life easily by using much, much more important votes. Protests are gonna help with pressure, but your vote can help you put people in the office that you can pressure easier.

These will let you determine your state's supreme court (the lower courts that the federal one defers to for non-hot button topics), senators, county clerks and house representatives.

These are positions so impactful that they are considerable as the parliament to your states royalty. These are positions that if all filled with candidates you like, can drastically overhaul your state in a year.

"But izzy that's rich, how do I actually... Do that? Where do i go? Is there a schedule or a list of all the elections?" I'll be real, I don't know. I don't know where you go, or if your local government keeps a list of everything, or who all your candidates are and why you should pick them, this is the hard part is the research portion, But. I have a tool that can help. I use an app called activote, i installed it on a whim and it's listed every single election (local and national) near me, tells me where i vote, and helps me determine the rough politics lean of the people on the list with a little graph thingy that it puts you on based on a quiz type deal it's got going on. It's not a full replacement for research, but it'll do for a start. I recommend it, and the links are here

https://www.activote.net/

Past that.. protest, be a member of your community, help people out. You'll see real change, and you'll be a part of it. I promise.

I'm gonna shamelessly beg for reblogs from people i follow now

@b0tster @cryptotheism @pukicho @prozdvoices uhh.. god who else do i follow that's based enough to maybe reblog this to help

Mutuals i could def use your help here, tag people that would help a post like this? I realized I don't know the political leanings of a lot of people i follow lmao

[portmantaur]

I don’t think the pet eating narrative is funny at all esp bc of my probably somewhat individualized history of growing up in the racist midwest and vividly remembering how that exact, almost note for note, rhetoric was levied violently against asian immigrants in the area

but something I’ve been chewing on that makes me kind of sad and also a bit flummoxed is how that “story” (racist & xenophobic fabrication-cum-rumor) was only widely televised/spread basically like, the night before the debate, and some of the staff at abc saw that and IMMEDIATELY clocked that a man who used to be president of the United States would so absolutely take that bait and try to use it to serve his agenda that they were like “we need to have that fact-check ready to go”

that’s such a devastatingly sad state of affairs. they were right of course, and despite me personally being put off by the meme-ifying of it all, I -do- think that outside of the cultishly devoted voter set that guy has, it actually did damage to his general image (especially among the target demographic of the debate, which is frankly not me and not most of the people in my general circles) — AND it gave Harris the very relevant opportunity to laugh at him publicly which, whatever my or anyone else’s feelings on the matter, will ABSOLUTELY track well as a strategy with that same target demographic.

it just gives me kind of a headache to know that that behavior is so predictable in this person. like does anyone remember growing up with the bush jr elections and believing that we had hit rock bottom in terms of scraping the barrel of competency and education/intelligence for presidential candidates? there was so much meme-ification of bush’s misspeaking and lack of understanding on certain topics. like that “jib jab” or whatever animation that got hot for a minute during his re-election/2nd term. and I remember being a literal child in middle school believing that it couldn’t get worse than this, we couldn’t lower our standards for candidates any further without hitting bedrock.

& now at the ripe age of 32 I watched a man more or less proudly announce that he doesn’t know the difference between tariffs and taxes on live television, and also be correctly predicted to take the most unreliable and ignorant bait imaginable such that not even his opponent but the moderators had to have “so reports say that is entirely untrue” right there in the chamber because everyone and their mother knew when that racist story got published that a dude who was literally already president for four years would fully and gleefully take that bait — and then defend himself against the necessary fact check by saying, will full confidence, “well I saw it on television.”

& I have substantial issues with harris’ (sort of vague) platform and her refusal thus far to differentiate from the current administration on foreign policy specifically, AND her apparent insistence on running center in comparison to her congressional record to capture those (perceived) votes, and boy howdy did she say some really disappointing things —

but knowing that the debate is not really the stage for announcing new policy and also knowing me and like-minded people are not the target of the debate, AND seeing the performance of the opponent she’s up against im just.

im very tired man. everything happens so much.

[ginger-snap-talkin-nonsense]

Leftists not voting enough isn't what caused Clinton or, going way back to another consequential election, Gore to lose. Yes, compared to other nations, America has low voter turnout in its elections, but there has been no significant decline in terms of voter turnout when you compare each recent election (Source: Statista - https://www.statista.com/statistics/1139251/voter-turnout-in-us-presidential-and-midterm-elections/)

(https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/statista/).

Voter turnout in the 2020 (66.2%) and 2016 (60.1%) elections was higher than that of the 2012 election (58.6%) when Obama beat Romney and was comparable to the 2008 election when Obama beat McCain (61.6%). The 2000 election had a higher voter turnout (54.2%) compared to the 1996 election (51.7%) when Bill Clinton won. The Republicans haven't won the popular vote in 20 years. This consensus is consistently undermined by the Electoral College, a racist institution that was historically used to inflate the influence of white voters to protect slavery.

Voting has its place (esp when we do not yet have the necessary dual power structures in place to do a proper election boycott), but why are you acting like people don't vote anymore? What sources are you citing?

The data I see points to the inflated influence of white settlers as a consistently reactionary voting bloc (regardless of gender), voter disenfranchisement, disability/inaccessibility at polls (esp post-COVID), lack of public transportation, and lack of guaranteed PTO/national work holidays during elections playing a much bigger role in election outcomes than individual apathy or accelerationism on the left.

You realize that

A.) I also believe the electoral college is bullshit and

B.) those reasons you cited for actual election outcomes are literally causing a lack of voter turnout, meaning that you are agreeing that a lack of voters is causing this problem.

Like yeah, America has made it so the disenfranchised has a much harder, sometimes impossible, time voting. It's why having the privilege to do so and choosing not too because you don't feel personally good about the lesser of two evils is a bad thing to do.

Do all of you keep getting into accidents that cause you to forget that we had this EXACT same conversation 4 years ago and then 8 years ago?

[dont-lick-my-foot]

NBC calls Louisiana for Trump

Louisiana for Trump

EC vote share totals: 168 Trump, 30 Harris

NBC Makes its First Projections of the Night!

NBC News and The Associated Press have called Kentucky for Trump and Vermont for Harris

EC vote share totals: 8 Trump, 3 Harris

[songmingisthighs]

Hello! I'm really curious about what are your thoughts about the hongjoong Starbucks situation, if you're informed at the moment

i am.

tw : controversial opinion. don't read if you're a butthurt snowflake

i firmly believe ateez and kq did nothing wrong and they don't own anyone any explanation or statement. twtiny need to shut the fuck up because i hate what the majority are saying bc it kinda seem like they're using the situation in palestine to cancel people and spread hate which is disgusting and even more wrong than buying starbucks. they seem to be more invested in the boycott than actually trying to help the people in palestine like the amount of time and effort spent on trying to force kq and ateez to release a statement could've been spent on trying to raise funds to help innocent palestinians stuck there. and then there are people like this

^ this is annoying because you want people to waste the little time they got with ateez and trying to put ateez on the spot. like there are so many tweets saying "if you got a call w seonghwa/yunho/san pls tell them to tell hongjoong about this situation and educate them" like g0rl you're so keen on indoctrinating someone and not letting them have a different stand on ONE aspect. yes, i'm using the word indoctrinating because that's what it seem rn

it's been widely known that kpop idols are prevented to be politically involved. even during the korean presidential election, they can't verbally show support because as koreans, they have their own reason of doing this which i can explain but it's a whole ted talk and it's gonna take a lot of typing. but point is, keep politics and kpop separate. idk the situation in the us but where i come from, the boycott means nothing because while the boycotted brands are suffering, people who are not idols are still buying from those brands BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN PEOPLE DON'T CARE ABOUT PALESTINIANS. you don't really know where people stand and as much as you're allowed to assume the WORST out of them, they're allowed to enjoy whatever they wanna enjoy. i simply hate the people who immediately erradicate many of hongjoong's philantropic activities on human and children's rights over the years just because he posted a picture holding starbucks like how stupid are you ???

let fake atinys leave the fandom. we're better off without the toxicity from people who are using a tragedy to spread more hate and justify their cancellation agenda

i myself want the liberation of palestinian from hamas and safety for the innocent but seeing as how the situation has elevated to anti-semitism esp in the west, i don't want to be associated with the support of erradication of the jews bc "from the river to the sea" connotates to the errasure of jews and i don't support that as much as i don't support palestinian being put in harm's way

full disclaimer : this is my perspective from the news i got from foreign media because the media where i came from is very biased

if you disagree with me, i would love to have a conversation like civilized human beings with evolved brains

[m--rtyr]

You normally understand my anger so I am gonna vent a moment.

My friends are pissed at me because I berated them for not voting when every single one of them had the time and resources to and are deeply affected by how this presidential outcome goes.

"people lifes have to come first before we think about the world right now esp when it comes to the election like the slogan its your right to vote its cool if u dont wanna" - Quote from my friend that couldn't be more untrue. I fear none of them have a brain cell to rub together to form a thought. No reason the majority of them are majoring in art and yet are somehow failing some of their classes cause they clearly don't understand subtext, nuance, or any form of understanding. I know I am being very harsh, but they do not understand the severity of their actions.

The vote count will take a few days, but I do know if Trump wins, I am going to abandon my friendship with those folks. They are showing that they don't care about others and their community of Queer and POC folks. Probably gonna do it anyway cause a lot of their excuse was "We are all just starting adulthood🥰 please be easy" when we are all almost 2 years out from high school and the majority could have still voted in high school.

They can't "uwu I am just a little guy" their way out of this. They aren't even showing self-preservation at this point. Apparently ignoring the sharks will make them go away in their mind.

I get this sentiment so much.

I’ve also been holding a lot of disdain to third party voters in America recently. Because all voting third party does in America is make themselves feel better, honestly. A vote not for Kamala Harris in this election is a vote for trump, and I think people don’t understand the repercussions this will have *across the world*.

Third party voting itself isn’t inherently evil. It happens a lot in the UK, and it’s a good thing it happens. It puts a lot of pressure on the main parties to get their shit together. HOWEVER, even this year, everyone was saying not to vote third party because no one wanted the fucking Tories again. And the best way to ensure we don’t get Tories is to ensure we got Labour. And Kier Starmer can suck a fat cock, but he’s better than Kemi ‘I think people aren’t having kids bc we’re too generous with maternity leave’ Badenoch.

And studying politics at a time like this is STRESSFUL bro because I see people saying shit all the time about how impactful voting third party is, and I am screaming at the screen because the impact it has is making you feel like a moral and good person for ensuring a trump win. Same goes for non-voters. Like this election, the emphasis shouldn’t be on ‘oh but voting Kamala makes me feel like a bad person’, it should be ‘hey so if Trump is elected people will fucking die and I can put my personal feelings aside to ensure that doesn’t happen’

But no

Everyone is just fucked.

[nicogayngelo]

Since your work is in politics, can I ask what may be a silly question?

There’s lots of posts on tumblr about how important voting is, but if I don’t live in a swing state and the presidential election isn’t decided by popular vote, how does my blue vote in a red state matter?

hi friend! not a silly question at ALL!

so like. our electoral college system. SUCKS because it really does make folks living in not swing states voting against the majority feel like your vote doesn’t matter. and like, with presidentials, it fucking sucks. we’ve seen that popular votes don’t always equal an electoral win—which is stupid and why we should get rid of it but I DIGRESS!!!

but even so—i still believe that any state can become purple + fighting. the more people show up and vote and the Big Wigs who organize presidential campaigns notice. and they start showing Up to these states, investing in their state parties, investing in down ballot races. it’s why texas’ senate race is watched so heavily rn! it may not feel like it, but it’s helping to slowly start to change the system!

HOWEVER! electoral votes don’t happen down ballot and these are EXTREMELY important to vote in. your senate + congressional seats are so so important — both for state funding, projects, and they vote on Big Issues that impact our nation + the world! and then you have your hyper local elections which range from county execs, gubernatorial, school board, sometimes even sheriff! often these are decided by literally less than a hundred votes depending on the seat!

and these matter bc they are representing YOUR community!!! local laws, local funding, decisions that mean the most to YOU! and a lot of these electeds go on to run for statewide races and beyond!

elections + participating in voting is SO important — esp beyond presidential race

[jyndor2]

how are u going to say it doesn’t matter who you vote for and here you are actively pushing kamala

here we go, time to use our brains kids

so let me say this: I think kamala harris is an objectively better candidate than either joe biden. I think a ham sandwich would be a better candidate than joe biden lol. I think that if someone is going to vote in the us presidential election, they would be smart to vote for a kamala ticket over a trump ticket, assuming that her policy platform is mostly in step with the democratic platform and doesn't try to out-fash trump on immigration or israel.

I do not think me saying that is pushing kamala. it's just my opinion, and I'm not even committing to voting for her. I'm not telling anyone they have to vote for kamala. I'm especially never going to tell palestinian americans that they need to vote for anyone because like what kind of monster would I be??? and I also do not think voting is harm reduction, not in the way many us american liberals say it is. I think voting is a tool, one of many, that can be effective in choosing your opponents. I think kamala will be an easier opponent to fight than trump. this is what organizers are saying, this is what activists are saying, this is what I personally believe based on my understanding of trump and republicans in general.

no, that does not mean it will be easy. I think kamala will become a war criminal like any us president will be. I think her record is mixed. I know I will fight her on day one, and I will also have to fight the liberal vote blue maga types because they refuse to give a fuck about anyone other than themselves.

I don't think there's a single candidate who I would be happy to vote for. even cornell west would become a war criminal. that is what will be the case until the united states is dismantled.

now, here's where I'm sorry to tell you that my vote for president does not matter. I have explained this many times. I live in delaware, and delaware has THREE electoral votes. there is not a way in which my vote will make or break a presidential election. when I lived in chester country, pa, I lived in a swing district. I voted for hillary in 2016 because my vote mattered a LOT more then. it is what it is.

I would probably recommend people living in swing districts to vote for the dems, but I'm never going to speak down to voters, and I'm never going to do that bullshit because it doesn't work. the only good argument I have ever heard is that we should vote for the candidate we think we could most easily beat through organizing. everything else is noise and ineffective when it comes to reaching those of us who are so angry we want to stick it to the dems.

if you think any of that is pushing kamala... idk man it's not that simple. it's the dems fault we are in this position. I see any nominee that isn't joe biden as a victory against genocide joe, even if we haven't won the fight. but this is a big step in pushing the party to represent the views of most of its base better. as far as I know, kamala doesn't hallucinate about golda meir lol she's too busy being copmala

anyway voting is a tool not the end of civic responsibility. focus on mutual aid, on community and esp LABOR organizing, on helping the people around you and building networks of support because no matter what we will only need more of that in the days and years to come.

[knightofdeer]

From seeing some of your posts around I see you're a Ukrainian (?) in Donbas or another part of Russian-occupied territory. Do you think the invasion was justified? Do you think the AFU are the real occupiers? If the war ends very soon would you be better off under RF or Ukraine govt? I saw videos of the presidential elections in Avdiivka/Avdeevka (spelling both ways to be "neutral") and it was disturbing but it seems no one except other Russians who are against the govt agree and just thought I was spreading western propaganda against Russia. I was going to send this anon bc my username is embarrassing but it's whatever. I initially supported Ukraine but then was disappointed esp by the seeming lack of solidarity for Palestinians. And the whole time US "anti imperialists" have been pro Russia so I thought maybe they know smth I don't.

(The first 2 questions aren't necessarily what I think but what ML's on here claim)

0. Don't worry about username I was accused of something like this as well

I am not from Russian occupied territory, but I am from Zaporizhzhia and while the city itself wasn't occupied basically the entire oblast was and Russia currently lists us as one of its new territories so I guess I can give some account on how people in the East feel about it

I don't think that the invasion was justified at all. I am not very sympathetic to Ukranian government, but Russian government is literally worse on all accounts and the whole military intervention is simply a matter of imperial conquest. I am not brave enough to speak about opinions of people of Crimea (I was too little when we last time visited it but my mother mentioned that the lady who was renting us a room "didn't want to deal with Ukranians" so who knows) or Donbas, but here most people were not in favour of joining Russia at least in the last decade (including the 2013, I am not even sure was there more than one pro-Russian protest ever). Before the war most people weren't very invested in being part of Ukraine either, but after the war nationalism became much stronger here. Dreaded "anti-Russian" policies of Ukraine are kinda true in a way that the government wants (or at least claims that it wants) to eventually switch everyone to Ukrainian language, but the thing is that it's basically not enforced. I could list a lot of examples, but basically you can live here with knowing only Russian and you will be okay, at most you will need some assistance with filling legal documents but governmental officials are ready to help with that. Things may be a little bit more complicated in the West, but also for majority of people there Ukranian is their first language so it would be bogus to blame them for it, and at least before the war (once again nobody did as much for Ukrainian nationalism as Putin) most people there were okay with people for whom Russian is first language.

I made a whole unrebloggable post that I solidly don't know what's better. For now Ukraine (once the martial law ends) is better, but increased influence of nationalists and military may fuck it up. Also the real problem is that the war of Russia with NATO may not end and being on which side is more fucked is hard to say.

I can't speak facts about Russian elections. There are claims that people on the occupied territories were forced to attend them, but like I am hesitant to believe either way because both states are lying constantly. I can however for sure say that the elections themselves were absolutely staged, even if you disregard the evidence in favour of Putin just fabricating the results, all other candidates were selected in a way that basically whomever wins the course of government stays the same. Maybe some time soon my family will come in contact with some relatives on occupied territories and I will have some insider info.

Lack for solidarity for Palestine is a thing. Generally Ukrainian society aligns itself politically with the West, so average liberal has the same opinions as average American liberal and average fascist has the same opinions as average American fascist. Ukraine is the most exploited part of Europe, but it's still part of Europe (economically and politically, because the statement is pretty ideologically charged lol), which means both that we are not Global South and that we do benefit from European Imperialism. I wouldn't say that society here is meaningfully more racist than European or American ones, but it is definitely not better and therefore pretty racist.

That being said, viewing Russia as anti-Imperialist is absolutely unhinged position. Something close to "critically supporting" Emperor Hirohito. Russia didn't do enough war crimes (yet?) to be literally on par with Japanese Empire, but it is an empire. Even disregarding the invasion, Russia does pretty much typical imperialism in Central Asia, Africa and its own Asian part. I can get behind the sentiment that Russia starting shit weakens the influence of USA, but it just wants its own share of Empire, not any kind of liberation for everyone. Also, experts say that Russian war only led to military consolidation of Europe and USA, so on karmic level it failed to do even this.

[60sgroove]

I think it would be nearly impossible but I feel like for elections (esp presidential elections), we should get a candidate #1, #2, etc. and not know who is actually running. I can guarantee you we would have a female president in no time if voters were unable to actually see who was running. Each voter would get information on the candidate's stance on key issues but they would not receive their names or information relating to demographics. The candidates would have to go through a background check and would be able to list qualifications (not too specific so voters would immediately know who it was). I know this will never happen and I don't even know how it would but it just bothers me so much because we are so biased when it comes to what a president should look like, sound like etc. and this inevitably and predictably disadvantages minorities. Ultimately it prevents us from electing the objectively most fit for office.

[strawberrygirldick]

i totally get and see where you're coming from with regards to not letting republicans win, and i don't have any solutions but i do know that the democratic party sees Vote Blue No Matter Who as clearance to go further and further right and is how we ended up here in the first place. i dont think theres a solution that solves both keep republicans out and also don't give democrats the idea that genocide is acceptable, as the answers to those two things are at odds with one another.

i think the reason so many people are picking the idea of not voting for biden rather than voting to keep republicans out is because its the option that allows for maybe a better future overall in a decade rather than a less bad immediate future (not saying that a less bad immediate future is an unworthy goal, but it is one that can be solved outside of presidential elections as well, while presidential elections are pretty much the only sway on the president that the average citizen has).

i also have learned via actual research lately that things are not as much better policy-wise under biden compared to under trump as we tend to think, unfortunately, and theres only been one or two things that are materially better rather than just a better social media presence.

i'm not exactly trying to change your mind or anything, but i thought having some sort of explanation for the not voting for biden movement other than flippant tumblr posts might help some understanding, esp given i know youre coming from a good place!!

Holy shit a reasonable take on the situation. You have a genuine thanks from me anon.

[horizon-verizon]

Biden went from repeating the beheaded babies lie to repeating the Hamas bombed itself lie without a moment of contemplation. No Muslim, Arab or advocate for Palestine can vote for this evil man again. Ever.

Agreed on that. Really, more than Palestinians and Arabs and any other Muslims, more people should go out and vote against the person they researched their damndest would not support Fascist models of policy. I don't mean the presidential election, because it might just be too late then because the point is to get better candidates into lower elections so they may rise up to the presidential one. I mean local, municipal, Congress. Congres, esp, since they are actually the ones to have the power to have the U.S. go to war, they are the ones who can deny the president's wish to go to war, they are the ones budgeting war campaigns, and they are the ones who actually declare war. The president merely leads the troops as the chief executive officer after the fact and can propose going to war. Checks and balances.