One of my favorite things about social media is how everyone is seemingly aghast at the egregious and corrupt results of capitalism, but every single election, you all insist to me that I have to vote for a capitalist as a moral imperative.
And it’s been accelerating since Reagan, but 99% of voters aren’t going to change. Ever.
“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see…"
“You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?”
“No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”
“What?”
“I said,” said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, “have you got any gin?”
“I’ll look. Tell me about the lizards.”
Ford shrugged again.“Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them,” he said. “They’re completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone’s got to say it.”
“But that’s terrible,” said Arthur.
“Listen, bud,” said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say ‘That’s terrible’ I wouldn’t be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.”
― Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
“What the corporations have done is destroyed the principles of simple capitalism, that if you own something you have some control over it,” Nader said in a hulking, stentorian voice, belied by his now-stooped shoulders and 80 years. “Managers control the process and define their own mergers and acquisitions and corporate strategy without any shareholder rights, as well as how much they pay themselves.”
Only by putting aside the bitter anger and acrimony that forces us to take sides can we break the corporate stranglehold over government and the economy, Nader said.
You see, America hasn’t tried the correct type of capitalism. They’re stuck on Sparkling Corporatism, which is where all the problems come from.
Our system isn’t set up that way, so feel free to throw your vote away, but please don’t convince others to do that. Some of us don’t have the luxury of indulging in protest votes.
Some of us don’t have the luxury of indulging in protest votes.
Who is this us you’re referring to?
Are you a billionaire? That’s the only group the Democrats are actually serving. The rest get pretty speeches during campaign time and broken promises after the election.
The Democrats aren’t going to make any meaningful changes to tax policy. They’re wealthy too, you know.
Student loan forgiveness
I suppose his half measures are nice. It is a bummer that he’s not doing more considering he has the authority to act unilaterally, and has used it previously. But when you expect nothing, like I do, half measures seem better than they are.
Even so, Biden is a terrible president.
He’s done nothing meaningful about the cost of living crisis. Education and health care are still unaffordable for the working class and poor. This, more than anything else, is what’s going to get Trump reelected.
Roe is gone, and Dems’ response was to fundraise off of it and do nothing else. Idaho even got away with criminalizing abortion, which means 2/3 of the states will do the same in the next year.
Biden’s openly aiding fascist apartheid in Israel with our money. He’s also aiding homegrown fascism in America by helping to militarize cops even further.
Homelessness grew 12% last year alone. The cost of living crisis should be Biden’s main focus, but all he seems to care about is finding more money we don’t have in order to fund other countries’ wars.
And you are actively participating in your own oppression, knowingly voting for a candidate when you’ve seen for four straight decades that either ruling party is going to make your life demonstrably harder.
Do you like paying double for your groceries?
Do you like that your rent is skyrocketing?
Meanwhile they make hundreds of billions appear out of thin air for other countries’ wars.
But the choices we have in a general election are:
Vote for the candidate you hate least
Not vote at all and accept whatever the worst candidates are doing to you
Vote for a fairytale candidate (this and option 2 have identical results)
Violent uprising
The Trump cult is hard at work on options 1 and 4 while deploying millions of bots and thousands of bad actors to encourage everyone else to go with options 2 and 3.
reagan, bush jr., trump. I wish that party could not win and election so that we could have the democrats as the conservative party and start making real progress on shifting left rather than their continual wins moving us right.
One of my favorite things about social media is how everyone is seemingly aghast at the egregious and corrupt results of capitalism, but every single election, you all insist to me that I have to vote for a capitalist as a moral imperative.
And it’s been accelerating since Reagan, but 99% of voters aren’t going to change. Ever.
“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see…"
“You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?”
“No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”
“What?”
“I said,” said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, “have you got any gin?”
“I’ll look. Tell me about the lizards.”
Ford shrugged again.“Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them,” he said. “They’re completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone’s got to say it.”
“But that’s terrible,” said Arthur.
“Listen, bud,” said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say ‘That’s terrible’ I wouldn’t be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.”
― Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Have you ever had the choice to vote anyone other than a capitalist?
Yes.
You can vote Green.
Ralph Nader on Simple Capitalism
You see, America hasn’t tried the correct type of capitalism. They’re stuck on Sparkling Corporatism, which is where all the problems come from.
You have to vote for the lesser fascist
That’s what you’re doing when you vote Green.
… In places where you don’t throw your vote away by doing so
You throw away your vote by voting Democrat and Republican.
How badly do they have to fail before you stop doing so?
Our system isn’t set up that way, so feel free to throw your vote away, but please don’t convince others to do that. Some of us don’t have the luxury of indulging in protest votes.
Who is this us you’re referring to?
Are you a billionaire? That’s the only group the Democrats are actually serving. The rest get pretty speeches during campaign time and broken promises after the election.
So how about that investment in IRS to get rich people to pay taxes, student loan forgiveness, etc? Doesn’t count? Why?
L—O—L
The Democrats aren’t going to make any meaningful changes to tax policy. They’re wealthy too, you know.
I suppose his half measures are nice. It is a bummer that he’s not doing more considering he has the authority to act unilaterally, and has used it previously. But when you expect nothing, like I do, half measures seem better than they are.
Even so, Biden is a terrible president.
He’s done nothing meaningful about the cost of living crisis. Education and health care are still unaffordable for the working class and poor. This, more than anything else, is what’s going to get Trump reelected.
Roe is gone, and Dems’ response was to fundraise off of it and do nothing else. Idaho even got away with criminalizing abortion, which means 2/3 of the states will do the same in the next year.
Biden’s openly aiding fascist apartheid in Israel with our money. He’s also aiding homegrown fascism in America by helping to militarize cops even further.
Homelessness grew 12% last year alone. The cost of living crisis should be Biden’s main focus, but all he seems to care about is finding more money we don’t have in order to fund other countries’ wars.
I’m not from USA by the way.
But you need ranked choice voting or equivalent for your vote to mean anything at all when there’s a few dominating candidates
My vote doesn’t mean anything in a two-party system.
We’re getting fascists no matter who we elect.
You have a two party system because of your voting system. That’s why I said you should fix that.
LOL
That was helpful. Thank you.
No, you’re giving half a vote to whichever of the 2 major-party candidates you hate more.
And you are actively participating in your own oppression, knowingly voting for a candidate when you’ve seen for four straight decades that either ruling party is going to make your life demonstrably harder.
Do you like paying double for your groceries?
Do you like that your rent is skyrocketing?
Meanwhile they make hundreds of billions appear out of thin air for other countries’ wars.
Yep. All bad things.
But the choices we have in a general election are:
The Trump cult is hard at work on options 1 and 4 while deploying millions of bots and thousands of bad actors to encourage everyone else to go with options 2 and 3.
What exactly are you expecting a Democratic vote to change?
If the Democrats did their job Trump wouldn’t even be on the ballot, so your faith seems misguided to me.
Vote Green instead.
I’m expecting them to not effectively outlaw being anything other than a wealthy CIS white Christian male.
The ship is sinking, and instead of helping us bail water you’re trying to pick out more attractive curtains for your room.
In Germany, certainly
reagan, bush jr., trump. I wish that party could not win and election so that we could have the democrats as the conservative party and start making real progress on shifting left rather than their continual wins moving us right.
muricaaaaaa