#oh not to mention climate change is the greatest existential threat to humanity and trump's part is accelerationist

[anarchicarachnid]

There is a lot of truth to the criticisms of the place we have ended up as a result of the rigged systems in our flawed democracy. The way they have intentionally made it so that only one of two parties can ever win, the way the establishment within the DNC basically has full control over whether a candidate is allowed to win a primary, the way the partisan media props up whoever gets the most ratings right from the start and fucks over candidates with meaningful criticisms of the status quo.

But regarding the supposed evils of the individual voter, I think it's a misstep to essentially say that anyone who participates at all in the electoral process is either an evil monster or an evil coward seeking personal comfort.

Politics isn't a game of what makes you feel good and how you can best virtue signal. Despite leftists constantly acting like it is, and that their abstaneousness is what makes them holier than thou, the right wing actually gets this. Right wing people are pragmatic and driven. They will fall in lock-step and do whatever it takes to seize power and then use that power, even to the extent that their leaders repeatedly get away with breaking the law.

Fortunately and unfortunately, we neither live in a period of all greys or all black and white. We live in a time of distinct black vs grey:

A party that will do everything Biden has ever done wrong and a hundred times more while also destroying democracy and killing countless people, both foreign and domestic. And if Trump HAD won this election, today we would be having the same conversation about the evils Trump is doing in Gaza, because not only is his administration fascist, but anyone at the top of the US government was always going to support our imperialist ally, no matter how much public outcry there is

OR a party that we wish we could change and, again, is doing all the things that any leader of the US would do, and support our imperialist ally in the Middle East despite massive public outcry BUT is not currently pushing the trans genocide agenda and never will, and is not trying to dismantle democracy, and is actually doing more things with good domestic policy than leftists are willing to acknowledge.

When you view basic electoralism through a pragmatic lens and not a competition of feels-good virtue signaling, I really believe it would be far more immoral to throw your hands up and say "Let the whole damn system burn then, because I dislike our options." And then lots *more* people suffer and die, domestic and foreign. And let's all remember the warmongering that Republicans have demonstrated that goes above and beyond that of the Democrats, before we pretend that this is only to protect US citizens.

This conversation cannot be had under the pretense "If we just didn't vote for Biden, less Palestinians would be dead today", because that is obviously not true, and obviously not the extent of it. Harm reduction isn't a cowardly act, but a morally necessary one, when you literally *literally* have no other options. So yeah, I tell people to vote and then go do more than just vote. Because letting the fascists destroy democracy will NOT protect the people of Gaza.

I'm seeing this being chased all over my dash, so I want to attempt to sort of summarize it.

Not voting for Biden will demolish any chance of making positive changes for the US. Kind of just a fact we all have to lay with. This is the entire vote blue no matter who argument (and to be fair it's a pretty good one)

Biden and the Democrat party have completely obliterated any expectation from any even slightly marginalized community that they can champion them and their needs or rights. The big tent has fallen down. Biden is straight up, no context changes it, supporting a genocide, even going out of his way to send weapons to Israel without congressional oversight. There is no upside to this and is actually being done openly in defiance of a massive global majority that wants us to stop, and history worldwide protests and at home. It's a total negation of the common wisdom that he could be pressured into changing at any point, and it proves that nothing democrats have ever said can be trusted. Yes, voting for Biden is a vote for genocide, because there is no other way for it to be interpreted.

The US system pretty much guarantees at some point a republican will be back in the big chair, at which point the US goes full mask off fascism (the obvious here, which is that America is already fascist by any realistic definition, is being ignored). The vote blue no matter who side will not acknowledge this mathematical certainty, while they argue over and over again that a 3rd party can't win because math.

So to summarize: yes, voting for Biden is an incredibly evil, immoral act of cowardice, prioritizing your personal comfort no matter how many foreigners have to die. And also. There is no choice but to bote for Biden, becauee any other course of action is basically a blank check for white nationalist christofascism, which domestically, would be the worst kind of fascism. (We are still ignoring that we've been a fascist nation since at least the 80s) Biden not being reelected (because the Democrat party will never choose a different candidate, maybe one who hasn't facilitated genocide and maybe isn't cool with it) would be a catalyst to increasing the worldwide level of fascism.

Here's my hot take: the world is falling apart, between climate change and the energy crisis, late stage unsupportable capitalism, fascism is coming regardless. Capitalists will force thru fascism as a last ditch attempt to get everything for themselves before rhe world burns, and one election isn't going to change that. We might be able to push it back for a couple of years tho, and all it will cost is abandoning the Palestinians to a genocide so that Biden can get reelected.

Whoopee. Great job America.