Me: In November, either Trump or Biden will win. There is no third outcome, so we should vote accordingly for the option that will mitigate the most harm.
The people in my notes: Oh, so you think direct action is bad? You think voting is literally the only thing we can do? You hate activism? You love Biden and endorse everything he does and think nobody should criticize him ever? You think voting will just magically solve all our problems? You think protesting is wrong? You love the status quo and think everything is fine?
Im Still occasionally getting people tagging me in that post to get mad at me for agreeing with you, its so funny (depressing)
I keep seeing people saying things like “Don’t @ me with your weak-ass harm reduction argument/lesser of two evils argument” like bestie, literally, what is the alternative? You have a schedule for the glorious revolution I don’t know about? Have you worked out how to have a glorious revolution that won’t kill a bunch of people? ‘Cause last time I checked….. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I know living in Oregon and having vote by mail I’m pretty spoiled with how little time it takes me to vote. I know there are lots of areas that make it hard, particularly if you are working class and can’t get the day off, but voting is only a few days a year at most the people who vote have plenty of time to do other stuff as well.
If you want to do a revolution against the current power structure you need to pay attention to how that power structure works, and what needs people have that it isn’t fulfilling. So it’s not like ignoring current politics saves you time to work on other stuff either. You’re making the other work you are doing harder through willful ignorance and not using all the tools available to you.
I have also seen people on other social media sites implying that the only people calling voting “harm reduction” are people who live in blue states or states that are currently leaning heavily blue (aka “people who have it ‘good’”)
My sibling in internet, I live in fucking Alabama and cannot name a currently elected Democrat anywhere in this state off the top of my head—I would have to Google for it—and I am seriously begging people to vote for Biden because another Trump term with Things As They Are is not something anyone in the world should be subjected to.