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To those in countries where democracy might last another election - harm reduction is not optional
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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There's a third, less pleasant option that you're avoiding. I understand why - I don't relish it. But the ballot box has failed. Even if it hasn't COMPLETELY yet, we are not even 5 months into this term, and look where we are. Harping on getting non-voters to vote is the 2025 equivalent of the reactionary generals running cavalry charges across no-man's land in WW1. It is fighting the last war. But that war is lost.
Not avoiding. The cartridge box may end up as necessary. But regardless of whether fascism ends like Franco (by luck), like Pinochet (by ballot), like Portugal (by mass resistance), or like Italy (by the bullet), the ballot is both a useful addition (insofar as it can reduce the legitimacy of the government) and a necessary tool for the postwar society. I don't want to endure a fascist government now because people were too stupid to vote, so I can say that I definitely don't want to get rid of these fascist fucks only for it to happen the same way again.
If we let the principle of "Not voting against fascism is okay if you feel really strongly about teaching the shitlibs a lesson!" endure, we will be seeing it make additional visits, along with the fascist ghouls it benefits.
Also, I noted in the title that I was speaking to an international audience, and not just... here, in the US.
Oh, I'm not saying it's okay. I would never say it's okay. I AM saying that they're a stubborn distraction, and engaging with them is a waste of time. It took us a good long time for people to finally realize that the MAGAs and Republicans were unreachable, and by then, how many millions of collective man-hours were wasted? The stakes in 2024 could NOT have been clearer, and these non-voters STILL rejected the logic. We don't have the time or energy to waste now pursuing THEM either. Now is the time to engage in asymmetric warfare of various kinds, including not only protests, but ensuring continued access to "subversive" information despite the tightening noose of control by setting up reliable hosting for it outside of the US government's control, and otherwise generally trying to preserve what we can in the face of what's going to become an ever worsening environment. We simply don't have the time to waste on these people.