@sj

as long as they do something about it

what you're describing, if it leads to cynicism and acceptance, is somewhat worse in many respects to being an outright fool

at least a fool has action in their repertoire

seeing the truth is not good enough

it has to be paired with a will to act

we live in a world with too many people who see the truth, and do nothing

and blind fools who know only lies, working hard to destroy our world

wisdom *must* be paired with action

@benroyce @sj

Good one from John Stuart Mill:

“Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”

@bytebro @sj

voting is all the action that is needed

but voting rates among the young are abysmal

voting is a responsibility and to not #vote means being an accessory to the worst of whoever wins an election. nonvoters, in my eyes, forfeit the right to complain about anything in politics

there is no such thing as detaching from the vote and absolving yourself of the sins of govt

that's not how reality works

there is no escape from the effects, so there is no absolution from participation

@benroyce @bytebro @sj Gotta disagree with a lot here, respectfully.

Millions of Americans live in places where, due to gerrymandering, the electoral college, and other tricks, there is really no statistically significant way their votes could make a measurable difference. Shaming people for not voting when massive systemic efforts have been in place for generations to make it difficult for them to vote is blaming the victims, most of whom have had little or no lived experience to lead them to believe their votes could matter.

Furthermore, in a system so thoroughly corrupted that anyone in Wyoming's vote counts for twenty times the vote of anyone in California or New York (don't even get me started on DC), telling people "all you have to do is vote" is absurd.

Voting is, in many locations, important. But there are many other steps we all need to look at to try to protect our fragile democracy. e don't all have to be Stacy Abrams, but anyone can volunteer to help people register...

@PaulAnomaly @bytebro @sj

#votersuppression is a cause of not voting, yes

it's also an effect of not voting

if the impact of your #vote is reduced by the #electoralcollege #gerrymandering #racist #voterdisenfranchisement laws etc, you fix that by voting

people who consistently vote are listened to. #MAGA is influential because they always vote

imagine if this existed on the left

regular dependable participation results in laws

not voting means whatever you care about is ignored

simple as

@benroyce @bytebro @sj

As @PaulAnomaly mentioned not all votes have the same value or influence.

We really need to pass The Fair Representation Act to get #ProportionalRepresentation for Congress to fix the systemic reasons that so many votes don't matter (are wasted) and remove the many negative incentives that keep people away from voting.

https://fairvoteaction.org/the-fair-representation-act-reintroduced-in-congress/

#FairRepresentationAct

This new book on the subject is great: https://oursharedrepublic.org/introduction/