You choose, even when you don't vote

Pretty sure the homeless one should be on both ends of the track

homeless people need a flag

My favorite one is missing! Political Dissidents AND party members deemed a nuisance!

There isn't enough space in the frame for the flags that represent all of the people who get stomped on by fascism.

There’s always rubles in the borscht stand.

"Elon Musk isn't just some no good immigrant, he's my no good immigrant"

Yeah, that's why there's all the variations of pushing an extremely large person in front of the train to stop it, and things like that. The lever, obviously it's a choice that you should make. The person, it's still a choice, but at what point is it not an issue you should try to handle.

Voting is a lever. There's other actions that are more akin to pushing someone onto the tracks.

As Jeff Bridges said in the newer TRON movie

It's CLU's game now, the only way to win is not to play

But he was wrong, as his inaction would have caused him to lose

There are over 200 million voters.

A thought experiment about an individual choice is not even close to applicable to the choice facing a single voter since in that thought experiment not-choosing is the same as making the default choice whilst in a vote not-chosing is leaving the choice to all other voters.

The use of this though experiment as a metaphor for the choice facing individual American voters is downright deceitful and propagandistic, self-servingly so since it's being used to try and boost the chances of one side.

People just selfishly want to believe they don’t share responsibility if they just let things happen “naturally”

Elections are a weak tool for individuals to shape policy at the national level. Observing that your Congresscritters are blind and deaf to your solicitations, that gerrymandering and voter caging renders your vote almost meaningless, and that policy - particularly foreign policy - seems to be shaped by DC mega-donors and lobbyists and think tanks more than any recently elected officials doesn't make you selfish. That's absurd.

And when you look at the miserable job guys like Eric Adams or Henry Cuellar or Richie Torres or Joe Manchin have done during their time in office, you begin to question the wisdom of this "Vote Blue No Matter Who" shit.

Those of us who don’t vote know this. We’re counting on it.

The machine is going to keep on killing people overseas and persecuting minorities. But the system is based on consent. If Harris wins she will claim that the voters have endorsed her and all her policies, even if we held our nose and voted for in spite of those policies. Same with Trump, who tried to take away his supporters’ healthcare and was surprised that there was a backlash since his campaign was claiming the people had spoken and he had a mandate.

A big enough group of third party and non voters shows the flaw of these parties. If they want me to support them, then work with me, pander to me dammit. Expecting my vote when you promise absolutely nothing for my community is a common Democratic trait; look at how little some Democratic politicians did for the black community and their retort was “where else are you gonna go?” They’re doing it again for black Americans and Muslim Americans. Harris won’t even be seen with those voters but she found time to hug Liz Cheney and invite her into the big tent. Harris says Black Lives Matter, she says Trans lives matter, she says Israeli lives matter, she won’t say that Arab lives matter equal to Israeli ones. Why shouldn’t I vote for Stein, who DOES say this? Harris made a choice to back every one of Biden’s failed policies and made a calculated decision that she can win the election without me. Hillary thought the same, and hoped that by throwing Muslim-Americans under the bus she could maybe get a few republicans to change to her side. It failed, and it will fail again.

Edit: ah yes, downvote me all you want but I’ve been speaking to voters in swing states and you’re only lying to yourself if you can’t address this issue for them. Harris can’t even bring herself to say the most basic talking points in support of Palestinian rights. Just say you plan to make a committee to look into how to build a future Palestinian state or that looking back it was wrong for Biden to deny the Palestinian death count, and that would address a lot of concerns, but it’s like she’s intentionally making it harder for Arabs and Muslims to vote for her.

Ð original was actually intended as a joke to mock ð schools of þought represented by boþ options presented.

Basically saying ðat boþ lead to horrifying outcomes when unchecked by oðer ways of þinking.

For people whose goal is to support the Palestinian people, it is useful to elect Harris, because someone in power who wants a ceasefire

I have seen no material evidence to this effect.

That's not even an argument against Harris per say. But this insistence in a double-super secret pro-Palestinian insider movement insider her staff is delusional. Harris has been outspoken in her defense of "Israel's right to defend itself" time and time and time again. She's backed every effort to send more weapons of war to Netanyahu. She's defended the UN ambassador's decision to vote against sanctions for Israel or an end to hostilities or a future legitimized Palestinian state. She's directly fundraising from AIPAC. At this point, claiming she's a pro-Palestinian candidate is about as rational as claiming Trump is pro-Ukrainian.

In this case, there is a consensus around wanting to help the Palestinian people.

There is a relatively broad national consensus. But we are devoid of a political class reflective of those views. Hell, two of the most outspoken pro-Palestinian advocates in the US House - Jamal Bowman and Cori Bush - got kicked out of their seats in primaries fueled by AIPAC lobbyists. Ilham Omar and Rashida Tlaib nearly lost their jobs in the same manner.

The internal institutions of the Democratic Party are openly in favor of the genocide of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank, and of the people of Lebanon, and of Iran. If this shit keeps up, we could see the war spread to Jordan and Syria and Iraq as well. Certainly, there's no love lost by Americans for two of those states.

The political consensus is in favor of more killing, an escalation of the scope of the war, and free rein for the Israeli leadership in its mission to subjugate the surrounding territories. With continued US support, its very possible that the Israelis will get exactly what they desire, and we'll be looking at a permanent occupation and continuous holocaust of native peoples on a scale not seen since the genocide of First Nations people in the US.

If the only support you are giving to the Palestinian and Arab people is voting Dem and having arguments about lesser evils, then you are not helping the situation.

Jesus fucking Christ man, is it really so ridiculous to believe that a week before the election the current concern is voting Dem considering that is the upcoming issue with a hard and irreversible cutoff?

Many of us are involved in politics outside of voting. I write my congresscritters regularly, usually on matters of foreign affairs, for all the good it does. I donate when I can.

But right now a considerable number of people are banging the "DON'T VOTE BOTH SIDES THE SAME" drum when there is a very good chance of a literal fucking fascist being elected, the issue of "These votes are NOT fucking equivalent" is pretty fucking important to bring attention to, and bringing it to attention with asspats and "I understand if you don't want to stop any further genocides happening, but..." is the kind of feckless, useless civility politics bullshite I'm constantly criticizing the Dems for, so you can be sure as shit I'm not cutting anyone else slack for that approach.

I'm voting Democrat to preserve some semblance of democracy in this country, but I have to say I'm quite disappointed in my congress critters. My senator in particular. I've emailed her frequently, including links to articles detailing the crimes against humanity committed by the IDF, and all I get is a form letter response about how "Israel's right to defend itself is so important" and "October 7th was terrible" and maybe a line about how horrible it is that Palestinians are suffering written in a way that either only blames Hamas or uses the most passive voice I have ever seen in writing.

call your senators daily and demand they publicly denounce Israel and the IDF

Honestly, do YOU do that? Daily?
What has been your success rate in getting your senator on the line?
You must be on a first name basis by now.

Agreed but the chance those tracks will be destroyed before the election is slim.

I applaud your call to activism but in reality much less people will ever commit to fighting for their ideals that way.

Many more people will however are willing to give a token to a “right cause”

Voting D is that token. It doesn't fix shit, especially considering the genocide but it will be a slower decline of human rights then the alternative.

More time to do activism.

There are many others, also on lemmy that are not calling for activism but for a token of not voting. I think the meme is a representation of that particular logic.

THANK YOU!

Our community is suffering, and the only solution people are offering are to yell at us and shame us for not finding this situation unlivable. “Your community will keep dying in either administration but could you vote for the pro-trans politician while you’re suffering?”

Mehdi Hasan was the only person who was able to reach out and connect to those voters with his recent video, and he did so with sympathy and understanding. He convinced me to vote and did so without bullying or calling me names.

If the only support you are giving to the Palestinian and Arab people is voting Dem and having arguments about lesser evils, then you are not helping the situation.

I would flip this back on those who suddenly, despite decades of oppression, really care about Palestinians... Show me one thing that any of those people have done the further that goal.

True, it's a misapplication of the original thought experiment.

But it also kind of lays bare the consequences of choosing "the moral high ground" over an outcomes-based approach to morality. And I think that is still a useful thing.

This is, objectively, a political meme. Humor is not requisite.

This happens every election cycle the closer election day comes. Is it really any surprise political advocacy is higher during political season?

And what makes this "astroturfed"?

American elections bring out the worst in everyone everywhere.

Oh, I agree that it has been astroturfed. Anyone who's been on this site longer than a few months can tell you that.

Except it's not memes like this that are being pushed. In fact, this meme is a direct response to the massive influx of propaganda that this site has seen in the past couple of months.

Sub? Really? You know this isn’t Reddit, right? And it’s called: Political Memes. Not SuperHappyFunnyHaHaMemes. Want funny? maybe go to a “sub” that hosts funny memes. I dunno. Just a thought.

Quick, somebody get this guy on the ballot!

More "I'm voting for diet fascism and if you don't vote you're complicit in anything that comes, which will either be diet fascism or full-fast fascism. Not voting doesn't prevent either of these, and one is obviously preferably. No action is still a choice you're making."

And the Gold Medal for Mental Gymnastics goes to...

You're 100% right

Magneto was right!

So that's the middle path, a useless/selfish moral high ground that will ultimately see more people dead/suffering.

Go back to reddit

look, alright, you did your bit, it's passed the point of unique and quirky and gotten into just plain annoying.

Amrikani Falesteini

How do you feel living in a safe first world country that is selling bombs to blow your brothers? Just asking

My state was red until it was purple. If all the potential blue voters in your state took the time to vote instead of just assuming it was futile, you might find out that your state could actually be purple too.

Just go vote dude. It takes you five minutes, you probably already know who you'd vote for regardless. You literally have nothing to lose

You are quite dug in on the presidential election, but do keep in mind you are usually also voting for local/county positions on that same ballot, where one vote often makes the difference and has a more immediate impact on your interests

It's still worth voting for those down-ballot items. I'm in a very blue area of a swing state and we currently have some local ballot proposals that are so poorly written they'll get the city mired in lawsuits for years to come.

Just a short question:

So you don't vote because it doesn't matter - but is it just to save a few minutes that you would rather spend on something else?

If it was me, I would always want to exercise my democratic powers (it might be the last time, hehe), but perhaps I am also not too bothered about wasting my time.

I like this, talking about your mental health. Whatever that means for many others, it's just about you.

Honestly your mental health will be alot worse off if you're part of the problem. Just vote.

I'm not an American (thank fuck) but I don't see any reason why I'd help red. At all. It's blue all the way since at least Kamala has some sense in her.

Ask yourself, why does everyone care about Palestinians so badly, do you even know any to begin with?

I am al for ending suffering but it seems the focus about what it's really about is lost in the elections...

Thank you, I will keep voting, and pressuring my representatives to do what I believe to be right. You keep doing nothing, and whinging about it, as if that is how anything was ever accomplished in this country.

What would you have us do instead? If your answer is revolution, great. Where and when do we meet up?

So the bland right is just drawing memes and basing their entire world-view off them.sounds about right

Cool, so, inside that trolley are also all the issues listed there who will die if it's derailed, because anyone who thinks that a revolution will be communist led and bloodless hasn't spent more than ten minutes in this fucking country.

Sorry you want a revolution without doing the hard work of actually establishing the popular basis for one.

How does one do that in this metaphor? Vote for one by mail and the other in person? That just lands you in jail and is functionally equivalent to sending the train down the "moral high ground" track.

“After Trump, Our Turn”. It worked with Hitler, surely it will work again, eh comrade?

You have to be a troll?

This different then the argument, "suck it up Americans your fucked either way."?

I'm not loyal to the Democrats or to America and I still vote

What else are they going to do? Change their policies to suit their voter base?

When people are insisting that "Doing nothing is choosing NEITHER track!", sometimes a less subtle approach is needed.

I wasn't trying to make the US election into a philosophical problem, because Trump winning will have serious global consequences, regardless of how immoral voting for Democrats might be.

The philosophical problem is more a game theory one. You are participating in a limited outcome, constrained system. Depending on where you live, non participation results in a trump win.

The 'philosophical problem' with tankies trading people's lives to teach a politician a lesson?

Wow what a great sense of morality you have.

The meme hasn't been about the philosophical problem in a long time.

Not voting means you're fine if either of the two major candidates win. Inaction is also a choice with consequences that can have decades of impact.

What about your local stuff? You can vote and just not pick a President choice. Although #1 still applies, I guess.

Not having Jury Duty is like, the least important thing when it comes to voting. Usually they pay you for your time, and hell, sometimes you show up and they either strike you from the pool or don't have cases left for the day, and send you home soon after you arrive. I had jury duty earlier this year, got taken out of the jury pool, and I still got paid for my time.

Ah the bridge option. Nice job "not choosing"