#is that enough people choosing not to vote

[tanadrin]

Well that's both the beauty and the frustrating thing with a multiple-party system, right? Even if a party is in the governing coalition, it's a coalition, so their more radical ideas get smoothed out by compromise. Slows things down, which can be good or bad. I've lived in germany all my life and know I'll never get any party's pure program as government policy, so I choose based on who is likely to win and what effect different parties' ideas are likely to have in the positions theyre likely to end up in. I don't think that is considered particularly weird here, actually.

And yes, to your other question, a lot of people I know who take a similar approach do split their votes and vote e.g. SPD for the direct mandate if that's more likely to win, and green or left on the proportional vote.

Hope this doesn't come across as confrontational - i'm not trying to debate. I find the different perspectives on voting interesting and wonder if it's related to being used to a 2-party "winner takes all" system vs a multi-party system, or if my sample in germany is just not representative (i.e. mostly people who are above-average informed about politics)

But even if a party isn’t going to get its full policy program enacted, to get *any* policy program enacted it has to get into government—which requires winning enough votes that it’s not likely to be relegated to the opposition.

Now, Die Linke also has this problem where a big party like the SPD regards them as anathema and would rather ally with the CDU or the FDP than bring Die Linke into government (which is stupid, IMO), and Die Linke voters can’t really change that. But I still would prefer the party I vote for to be part of government rather than remain in opposition, you know? The idea you would vote for a party so that it could just participate in debates and not actually govern is the thing I was reacting to.

(I have lived my entire adult life in countries with proportional representation; I get how it works! Please don’t think I’m some confused American hick who’s just too puzzled by the complexities of your sophisticated MMP system to appreciate its nuances. The objection I have is that I think politics ought to be treated as a means to power, not an instrument of individual self-expression. Politics is for Doing Stuff, as it were, not achieving a personal feeling of vindication. Plenty of Americans and Germans both treat it as the latter, and I disagree with all of them.)

[maxisanangrywell]

Hello friend, I think I might have mis-said some of what I meant.

Firstly, I did vote for Kamala. I sincerely wanted her to win, and for a few weeks thought she would. Then I started seeing more and more Leftists argue and bicker like they always do. Then, my hope vanished. Most Leftists who have a platform, aren't in High stakes areas where these things will hit hard and fast. Thankfully, my state grazed by the skin of our teeth as we elected Jeff Jackson as General Attorney and didn't get Mark Robinson at a governor.

Overall, I'm not saying we should tolerate hate or anything of that nature. But, we cannot deny all the data that shows the reality of the situation that men are choosing Trump because they feel more welcomed on the Right than the Left.

There's a way to grow a community where everyone feels loved and accepted, but not tolerate hate. I put a link to a man that does it very well in my comments but I'll put it here, along with two white men who have talked about their experiences with the Alt-Right/Neo-Nazi movement in America and how they escaped. Their stories of escaping are more similar than you think.

Most of my Ideology, is fueled by reports from WW2, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and most notibly Daryl Davis. A black man who has attended hundreds of KKK gatherings, and actually is responsible for turning many of those hateful racists into people who are now speaking out against hatred.

Now, I'm not saying everyone should do this. Everyone deserves to have their own assumptions and do what they wish, but I've seen his work in action. I've done what he's done. It's tiring, and it's a long process. But here's the thing.

The right is an echo chamber of ideas. There is no getting out unless you meet someone that challenges your views and expectations of the people you hate.

If we simply cut everyone off at the slightest hint of arrogance, there would be no people in the world to talk to number one, but two, these people would proceed to get even further into the pipeline and even more violent.

I was lucky enough that my viewpoints were challenged early. My brother not so much. My friend? Even less so. Did we crawl ourselves out of that hole because someone challenged our views on how the people we hated really act? Yes. That's what dragged us out. I used to hate queer people, and hide my own queerness. Now, I freely express it. All because of one selfless act.

We get so wrapped up in not wanting to interact with other people, that we forget they are people. No one deserves to hate other people just as those people don't deserve to be hated. It's exhausting and tiring on all ends of the spectrum, even more for the victim in this situation since they are receiving the violence.

My point being, we can't keep closing people off and just expecting them to get better. If you have an infection, and know you have an infection, why would you wait to see the doctor? You'd get started on the treatment right away. We need to treat these people as if they have an addiction, because these people are sick. Their minds are being fed propaganda at an alarming rate, and it's programming them into thinking and acting a certain way.

Now, absolutely punch the nazis. But tend their wound afterwards. Have conversations with them. One selfless act always inspires another, no matter who they are.

"Leftist" Rant

I'm lowkey so tired of calling myself a leftist. Every time I talk to another person, a man, woman or nonbinary person, trans, cisgender, queer BIPOC or Indigenous, there's ALWAYS someone taking the hit for something, somewhere.

I'm a firm believer in human rights. I believe humans shouldn't be controlled by a governing body but citizens should control it. I believe in fighting today a better tomorrow. But goddamn am I so tired of hearing how every time there's something good, it comes at the cost of the blood of another.

No, not all men are bad. Not all white people are bad. No one group of people is evil, and we shouldn't be demonizing any groups of people for any reason. White people need to recognize privilege, but everyone is taught to be wary of other people because of the circumstances of our forefathers or our own personal experiences.

It comes back to the, why can't we just be fucking people? What is so hard about opening your heart to other people's struggles, learning from them and loving them even if they hate you in return? Why do we care about the color of people's skin, or their sexual/gender orientation? Why can't we celebrate life, and celebrate love no matter the form it takes? It's so aggravating. No one should have to feel uncomfortable for who they are or choose to be. I'm so tired of leftists pushing white men out for being white men. I'm so tired of leftists pushing out black people for being black, and indigenous people for being indigenous. The movement isn't supposed to be about specific people, it's supposed to be about the betterment of ALL people.

The betterment of HUMANITY. We're all fucking human. It's aggravating when people try to gauge how human you are about how many minority points you can score. I've seen the ugliest of people, I'm watching a genocide unfold before my eyes. A climate crisis that threatens to kill us all.

But what I'm hearing is the sounds of drums, because everyone either wants to use it for their own gain, or have different ways of wanting to fix it.

Maybe it's because I'm young, I'm only 21. But god, am I fucking sick and tired of hearing people fight and argue. Most of us are on the same fucking side, and can't we get along? It's the only way we are going to survive. Bridging these gaps and healing the generational trauma. But you can't heal trauma if you're constantly taking it out on everyone around you and giving them trauma. I don't know. But I do know most of the men that voted for Trump in my life, did it because they felt pushed out of the movement. They felt demonized by the Harris and leftist voters. If we focused on being intersectional, on inclusion for EVERYONE, no one would feel left out or unwanted. Shouldn't that be our fucking goal in the first place? Healing ourselves and the climate, living alongside each other in blissful harmony? Isn't that what we all want and crave? To never look over our shoulders, just be able to grow and thrive with no laws about tradition or who we are or love?

I don't know about you, but I like the sound of it.

[3liza]

a looooooooooot of American leftist perspective on what is good or possible with basic policy about land use, recycling, public transit etc is so fucked up purely because we are completely unaware that much of Europe has been doing stuff we consider pie in the sky laughable dreamerism (like effectively and safely going home from shift work or from a nightclub at 3am on the subway, or recycling anything instead of strip mining a mountain every time we need to bottle beer, or turning vacant office buildings into apartments, etc) for decades or centuries.

you do not find out about it unless you're fortunate enough to visit and stay long enough to actually interact with the infrastructure, not just as a tourist, because likewise the Europeans just assume we can take buses everywhere or get 25¢ for a beer bottle and simply choose to live in suffering and profligacy out of simple American degenerate preference for driving cars and smashing bottles until an American tells them exactly how bad everything is here, which they can hardly believe

[companion-showdown]

Who had the worst time aboard the TARDIS?

TOURNAMENT MASTERPOST

[leadyouinthesummer]

this is fun pls click a button for me. i picked a mix of all-time faves and recent faves.

honorary mentions: along the shadow and boom. done. i didn't want to include a million anthony options.

pls reblog if you vote and tell me what you picked <3

[missionlameturtle]

imagine having visited a state once & thinking that makes you more of an expert on whether it contains democratic voters than, you know, a democratic voter who's spent their entire life there

here's the thing about "solidly red" states. Wyoming, by some measures the reddest state in the country, had one of its strongest republican showings ever in 2020. and EVEN SO, if all of the Wyomingites who didn't vote then had voted for Biden, Wyoming would've gone blue. I haven't looked at the voter turnout numbers this year, but I expect it's a similar situation in 2024.

the thing of it is, the majority of the people who don't vote in states like Wyoming ARE people who would vote democrat, because they're people who believe their vote doesn't count in their state.

your vote always has the potential to count; it's only guaranteed not to when you don't cast it

[dark-night-star-light]

Thinking about running a best character, best ship, or best quote bracket. Here's how each would hypothetically work (and vote in the poll at the bottom, please!):

The issue with characters would be that I’d have to go through all eighteen and a half books to find all the characters, or the other option is I only take characters that get submitted by the seven of us chilling here together in this hot tub (because like for Conor against Tepin, who the hell’s gonna vote for Tepin, right?). I would also allow you to submit propaganda to get your fav as far as possible and anti-paganda if you want a certain character to lose (as long as you keep it light-hearted and don't try to bash anyone that actually votes for that character etc. etc. etc.).

For ships, I will definitely only take submitted ships, because there are an infinite amount of ships that could happen otherwise. But I'll take anything no matter how crackship-y or rarepair-y it is (within limits, obviously no pedo/incest ships). Tentatively saying I will again allow propaganda and (light-hearted) anti-paganda, since I'm hoping we as a fandom are mature enough to let this be a chill experience and not devolve into ship bashing (I'm pretty sure we are, we're not the a/t/l/a fandom, so).

And for quotes, again, I'd only make a bracket out of quotes that get submitted. I'm not sure if I will allow propaganda for this one, because it seems kind of self-explanatory. But maybe, if people want it. If you submit a quote, you'd have to be able to tell me which book it was from, the page or chapter number, and who said it for it to be allowed into the bracket, although if you're not sure of one of those things, you could just tell me and I'd try to find it (I own all the books, so it wouldn't be a problem). I may or may not allow you to submit context or background for the quote (in some cases that can ruin the quote, or give it an unfair advantage). Quotes would be allowed to be as unserious or serious as you want, there will be no restrictions on it whatsoever (just don't make your quote, like, a single word or something).

In any case, you’d be allowed to submit as many characters/ships/quotes as you want. I would not reveal who submitted what character/ship/quote if that's something you choose to reveal to me, unless you want me to. I’m not sure how submissions will work, either through my ask box (don't worry, anon asks would be on) or through an anonymous Google form. Of course, my DMs are always open, too, if you want to submit something through there.

Your propaganda would be allowed to be anonymous or not (if you want the credit). It would also be allowed to be as short or as long as you want, and as unserious or serious as you want (you could literally submit, like, "Vote for Rollan, he's so funny and he needs a hug" as propaganda and I would accept it, or you can go deep and start talking about his parallels and arc and motifs and backstory and personality and hardcore analysis stuff, and that would also be fine). If multiple people submit propaganda for the same character/ship/quote, I’ll keep them all, and you are allowed to submit propaganda or anti-propaganda for as many characters/ships/quotes as you would like. When we're approaching the start of the bracket, I'll also say how many pieces of propaganda and anti-poganda were submitted for each character/ship/quote. That way, if a character/ship/quote has no propaganda or anti-paganda, it would be giving everyone a warning that that's the case and that it's the last chance to submit for them. Your propaganda also doesn't have to have any basis in canon. You could make up headcanons about a character and submit them as propaganda and that would be entirely fair game. You would not be allowed to submit links to analysis posts as propaganda, though, even if it's yours. Everything submitted needs to be something you wrote specifically for the bracket.

I would be the judge of whether the anti-propaganda crosses the line into bashing (no hard feelings, sometimes tone can be weird over text), and if it does I'd delete it but let whoever submitted it know that I did, so that they could try to submit something milder. Also, keep in mind that propaganda is subjective. Something you submit as anti-propaganda might actually resonate as propaganda with other people (like saying "Meilin was a racist and a classist" as anti-propaganda might just register as "Oh, she had such fantastic character development!" with some people, completely ruining what you were trying to do). Seems counterproductive, but if you have mixed feelings, I'd allow you to submit propaganda and anti-propaganda for the same character/ship/quote (I don't think anyone will actually do this, but it's an option).

If you have something else you want to add, put it in the tags. I’m also going to open up my ask box soon, so if you want to yell at me anonymously, that’ll be the place to go.

Hate to be that person, but reblog for sample size, please.

[endlessdemento]

not to get personal on my personal blog, but this last year especially has really made me reevaluate my life, my priorities, and pushed me to do the right things for not only myself but the world around me.

I just feel like I gained a lot of resolve and a desire to live and i’m trying really hard to retain my hope that if we continue to strive for a better world we will see it in our lifetimes.

[triglycercule]

i am severely upset at the sexyman polls for this year. yeah its absolutely because im biased and not a single one of the mtt won. but killer vs error is still going on you say!!! NO,,,,, killer's lost,,,,, its 70 error 30 killerISH so yeah,,,,, none of the mtt MADE!!!! IT!!!! and with the boom in killer content these past few months i wasSO FUCKING SURE that he'd like AT LEAST get higher up. nope. because of ERROR. listen i like him. he was my og bias when i first joined this fandom. i was an error fanatic. but bro,,,,, bro,,,,,,,,, killer,,,,, lost,,,,,, AND FUCKING HORROR AND DUST LOST TOO!!!! LIKE WHAY. WHAT. PUTTING HORROT AGAINST ERROR AND DUST AGAINST CROSS!!!! THEYRE LITERALLY BOTH THE TWO GUYS THAT (1/2 of them) WON LAAT YEAR!!!! OF COURSE THEYRE GONNA BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THE MTT!!!!! this is very upseting im really sad imMAD. but no point in being a sore loser.... mtt won in my HEART 🧡

dust laughing at both horror and killer for getting the shit beaten out of them by error and then they bring up the fact that he lost to CROSS. this is the second time someone in the mtt lost to cross (theyre all making out in the loser's room) (mtt poly real btw)

[bugeyedfreaks]

Short poll for my followers because I’ve been thinking about it…

[captain-lonagan]

something something.

the difference in how team vibe/leadership appears from the outside is still crazy to me. like i didnt watch a lot of soulfire pov and so hearing the tales of how things were internally is such a wild contrast to how they looked. I SAY THIS WITH LOVE IN MY HEART. PEACE AND KINDNESS AND BEAUTY ON PLANET EARTH.

like my mind particularly hones in on tubbo saying bbh was out of control and such in his discussions with (if im remembering correctly) phil and foolish. i cannot be damned to bring up every instance of things but the general vibe of blue from POV outsider was like, tubbo is leader in name only and bbh is making aggressive plays without talking it over with his team first.

but the soulfire livebloggers tell me that soulfire is operating with 3 person leadership split between tubbo, bbh, and tina. the word on the street is the majority of blue is chill and working together. which i would Not know if not for those blessed bloggers because my watching habits meant i saw tina and soulfire's base once in a blue moon (hehe blue team blue moon). so the face of soulfire i saw was Mostly bbh, pierre, and tubbo, which did not aid in the impression of the organization i got during the early days.

on a different but related note, i'm fuckin dying to better know how Decisions happened with that 3 leader gig. like i'm used to the drill usually being phil gets on early, sees the stats and calls out what tasks are priority that day, and then the team balls and focuses on that task because it is Decided.

[woltourney]

we've got 25 submissions so far, and another 5 days until the poll closes!!! i've just read through everyone's submissions and i think they're all so fun!!! (and for anyone worried they might not have gotten in- everyone so far has been approved!)

[theghostofashton]

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[kodashi21]

It is quite suspicious that when people and the press had already started talking about Project 2025 and Trump appears several times in Epstein's papers showing how he raped 13-year-old girls, this "attack" occurs and the press has stopped talking about Project 25.

Even more suspicious is how Trump met with Orban, who is an ally of Putin, and Putin is an expert in faking attacks against him and this is exactly what happened. I don't want to say that everything is false, but Trump spent years on a reality show, so it is still suspicious.

Anyways, what happened does not take away from the fact that Trump is still a sexual predator, a con man and a thief, who has provoked an insurrection, has filled this country with hatred and wants to turn the USA into a North Korea 2.0. Keep reminding people of that.

Some of yall needed to hear this

Credits to @/mattxiv on Instagram

[starlooove]

And this isn’t a dig at every democrat who voted it’s just every time I’ve seen someone get so angry at a Palestinian for saying they should donate that they respond they turn out to be the most vile person ever