• oakey66@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    This. Cornel west and Jill Stein are not options in this. If you live in a safely blue state, go ahead vote your heart out.

    But just know that there is no scenario where West or Stein win. If that doesn’t happen and Trump wins, we will not have another election. Trump is literally going to put the most evil anti democracy zealots into very powerful roles. And with a Republican scotus, we will be fucked. That is the outcome here. So you can be pragmatic or vote your conscience but the risk is that we will be fucked.

    If there’s one thing that 2016/2020 should have taught us is; presidential elections matter not just because of who is leading the country but who is selecting judges and filling very important roles in the government. Ultimately, our lesson should be that things can always get worse.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      One of Jill Stein’s major international positions is that the US should immediately withdraw from NATO.

      Now, let’s ask ourselves: which parties on the world geopolitical stage would massively benefit from that happening?

      TL;DR: don’t vote for Stein, under any circumstances.

      I know hardly anything about West, though. But I agree that everyone pushing 3rd parties as a valid choice in the general has their head firmly up their ass.

    • K1nsey6@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      our lesson should be that things can always get worse.

      If you haven’t noticed things have been getting worse. And electing Democrats again and again hoping things will change isn’t working out so well. Their role is to protect that status quo, to ensure things DONT change for the better.

    • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Trump is literally going to put the most evil anti democracy zealots into very powerful roles.

      And if Harris continues to support what Israel is doing in Gaza, then we already have evil anti-democracy zealots in our most powerful roles, so what’s the difference?

      • NegativeInf@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Equating the Israel-Gaza conflict with anti-democracy is absurd. One side literally wants to end voting, destroy the Constitution, and install a fascist regime that would be far worse for everyone, including Palestinians. If you can’t see the difference, then you’re part of the problem. Go ahead and pretend a hockey puck is an ice cream sandwich if you want, but don’t drag the rest of us into your delusions. Either you’re being intentionally deceitful, or you’ve got the cognitive capacity of an empty bucket.

        • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          One side literally wants to end voting, destroy the Constitution, and install a fascist regime

          And the other side just supports that in occupied Palestine.

              • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                3 months ago

                I care about the lives of Palestinians, which is why I’m voting for Kamala Harris (and why I was going to vote for Joe Biden). Period.

                If you refuse to accept this reality, that’s on you. And when you sit this election out, and Donald Trump wins and gives Netanyahu the go ahead to turn Gaza into glass, their blood will be on your hands.

                • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  And when you sit this election out, and Donald Trump wins and gives Netanyahu the go ahead to turn Gaza into glass, their blood will be on your hands

                  No, the opposite.

                  If I vote for Donald Trump and he helps Netanyahu turn Gaza into glass, then blood is on my hands.

                  If I vote for Kamala Harris and she helps Nethayahu turn Gaza into glass (which is looking pretty likely), then blood is on my hands.

                  Voting for a pro-Palestine candidate (like Cornel West) is the only way to ensure that blood isn’t on my hands. (But it’ll be on yours.)

                  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                    3 months ago

                    no u

                    Nice one. You’re wrong, but good try I guess? A vote for a third party candidate is equivalent to not voting in our broken, first past the post voting system. In fact, it’s often worse.

                    Cornel West

                    I just wanted to make sure we’re talking about the same Cornel West. Maybe you can take a look and let me know if we’re on the same page here…

                    This guy that the Republican party is pushing to get on the Arizona ballot?

                    Republicans scrambled to get Cornel West on the Arizona ballot. The left-wing academic is OK with it - AP News

                    To be clear, this Cornel West? The guy who received campaign contributions from billionaire Harlan Crowe (also known as Clarence Thomas’ vacation buddy)?

                    Billionaire linked to Clarence Thomas donated to Cornel West’s campaign - The Hill

                    Huh. So do Republicans actually really care about Palestinians? I guess Harlan Crowe felt bad about breaking our Supreme Court, and wanted to make things right (lo fucking l)?

                    In your universe where this election is happening in a vacuum, what would be the reason that the GOP would be doing everything they can to get a progressive candidate on the ballot in specific swing states? Why would well known far right billionaires be funding the campaign of a progressive candidate. They just believe in free and fair elections, right? Lol.

                    But no, genuinely, why do you think this is happening?

                    Or maybe, and bear with me here, maybe they understand better than you that having someone like that even present on a ballot, will take votes away from their competition.

                    So you’re either a bad faith actor pretending not to understand basic electoral concepts in your own country, or you’re dangerously fucking ignorant.

                    Assuming it’s not the former, let me help you fix that: your vote for Cornel West will not exculpate you of the deaths of the millions of Palestinians that will die directly due to Trump getting elected (which, as we’ve established, is what you’re doing by voting for someone like Cornel West).

                    More:

                    https://apnews.com/article/kennedy-west-third-party-2024-election-10c4c166ad4d41cab73660c33a69a58a

                    https://newrepublic.com/article/177213/cornel-west-2024-charlatan-narcissist

                    https://www.newsweek.com/cornel-west-blames-nato-russias-war-ukraine-1812320

                    (Probably just a coincidence that this third party candidate being funded by known far-right billionaires appears to want to dismantle NATO. I’m sure Russia has nothing to do with it as we know they’re too polite to ever attempt to interfere in our elections. 🤡.)

      • LeadersAtWork@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        We really need you to pull your head out of your ass. The extremely simple reality follows, and I am speaking for every reasonable person:

        The situation in Gaza is not supported by us. It’s evil. It should not be happening. We condemn it. However, we also recognize that around our elections some war or conflict occurs. Moreover, possibly more than any other time in modern history, we are educated.

        It is precisely the idea of malicious and evil persons intent on causing as much harm as possible why we must turn inward and focus on stopping more damage from occurring. Harris, Walz, Biden, they are not the same. We need you to back up and look at the larger picture. In fact, traditionally Republicans have used wars and conflict to distract the Left leaning voting bases. They know their supporters will, quite literally if you let them, go in guns blazing in support of war, all of them yelling some false patriotic zing of a bad battle cry. Meanwhile, the rest of us condemn it in various ways and that breaks us apart.

        Look, I understand your frustration. To you it must appear as if we are okay with people dying. We’re not. We just accept that if Trump, and more importantly the people who coerce their way into certain positions, are allowed to take the Presidency that it will get worse. Much worse. We aren’t willing to let that happen due to ethical or moral quandaries. As gross as it is to have to turn inward and focus here when people are being killed. We have a job to do.

        Fail that and we may as well apologize to the entire world.

        • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          The situation in Gaza is not supported by us.

          But it is. It is supported by Biden. Biden is protecting Netanyahu at the United Nations, as well as supplying money and weapons.

          Biden could stop what’s happening with a phone call.

          But he won’t do anything unless there are electoral consequences. That’s politics, and Biden is a politician.

          • LeadersAtWork@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            It works both ways and they know that. They’re aware that those of us that do care also know we need to beat Trump. Our consequences are greater than theirs. The push for Harris-Walz is in acknowledgement of this and an opportunity for us to have a voice.

            Trump enters THE seat of power and your words won’t only fall on deaf ears, there may be provisions created to silence you as well. You obviously don’t like it, this is how it is. We have to do it one step at a time. That is the current limit of our voice, and the step is pointing towards stopping Trump and dissolving the modern Republican Party.

            Right now it’s either help support the people who may listen, or let in those that have literally said they will make it worse. Stubborn as you are I’m sure you can weigh the odds on this one.

          • Triasha@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Vote for Superman if you must, but he won’t do anything for Gazans because he is not real. You can’t punish the people asking Israel nicely to stop killing people by withholding your support and allowing people into power that want more death and destruction.

            The message that sends is they need to move further right, send more weapons, start killing more people directly, withhold aid, give cart blache to the IDF because the only people that vote are the people that want the Palestinians dead.

            • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              the people asking Israel nicely to stop killing people

              The Democrats are not asking Israel to stop. The Democrats are proving Israel with war funding and weapons, and protecting Israel from consequences at the United Nations.

              They’re politicians. You can’t judge them by their words. Only by their actions.

              • Triasha@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                I see a material difference between people that cheer death and destruction and those with the decency to lie about it.

                Words can effect change with people capable of shame and self reflection.

                • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  I see a material difference between people that cheer death and destruction and those with the decency to lie about it.

                  I don’t see a difference.

      • oakey66@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Dude. Take the time to read and comprehend. Things can always get worse. Do you think Trump will help Palestinians?