It’s educate, AGITATE, organize
edit: putting this at the top so people understand the basis for this:
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.
Did you get an opportunity to suggest realistic alternatives? Or did the Democratic party steamroll your local primary and rob you of your voice?
I did. I suggested Bernie. Not enough people agreed with me, apparently.
Thats lucky, we were not given any choices in my state, we had no discussion, no primary debates, and no discussion as to the viability of running with Biden.
I love Bernie, but his real shot was 2016 and the Dems blocked his path so they would not have to have a real vote which would have embarrassed Hillary.
His real shot was 2020, and he got outpolitiked.
and now you have to work with the representative you ended up with, just like the rest of us.
Unlike you, however, I’m working to keep the fascist from being my next representative. Seems that having a fascist at the head of our government doesn’t bother you all that much. You might want to do some soul-searching as to why that is.
Just because someone does not want to vote for Biden does not mean they want Trump to win. That is a reductive argument and its the root of the issue with the system in the US. Picking the lesser evil is not a viable method for electing people to positions of power. What if the dems also nominated someone openly fascist, not just genocidal?
Would we pick the least fascist, fascist? The Democratic party needs reform, and unlike the Republican party they might actually listen because they at least say they will. Its either that or were already in a fascism and were being gas lit by the democratic party to think we have a voice.
If you choose not to decide, others shall choose for you. Others as in the Evangelical Nat-Cs, they always Vote.
But do please drone on about your purity and how sullied and corrupt all of us in the real world are.
Might not be what they want, but it’s more likely what they’ll get.
It is in fact what they are choosing to make more likely by promoting not participating. You go to effort for goals you wish to achieve regardless of what lie you tell and to whom about your intent.
Just because they don’t want to vote for Biden doesn’t mean they’re not voting for him anyway.
Yep, and its a real issue that I have to wrestle with in my own decisions. The good news is my state wont go for Biden because were gerrymandered to hell and back so I can vote however I want.
That hardly seems like “good news.”
No shit, its been hard watching my freedom, and my voice slowly being eroded by the fascists over the last 30 years.
In that time I have only ONCE missed an election, and I have never had my vote elect a single person with the exception of the city council. Its hard to keep going when you have been disenfranchised for most of your life.
False. I know because I asked OK about Abortion protections.
Oh, yes it fucking does. That’s what a FPTP system implies. That people failed High School Civics and seemingly still managed to get their degree isn’t a refutation of this.
It’s the only means; it’s just more naked under FPTP which effectively reduces the issue to two, instead of three or four.
It’s not the case, so suck it the fuck up and work against fascism.
If it was the case, the right decision would be revolt.
Being told that voting strategically for the ‘no’ vote in an election that is effectively a referendum on whether or not America should become a fascist state is the only real choice is not ‘fascism’, unless you define fascism as ‘reality’.
I find this situation unacceptable, I will not be held hostage to the democrats because they cant be bothered to enact real reform when they should have, nor when they bent over backwards to let the court be stacked by fascists.
Were here, because of them, the republicans have been crystal clear since basically Nixon that their goal is a white christian fascist state. I cannot and will not continue to reward a do nothing party when they manufactured this situation to force me to vote for them because the “other guy” is worse.
I also will keep fighting fascism, but I will NOT pick up the democrat’s flag and wave it as though I support them.
If not voting for Biden is a vote for Trump, then its the Democrats fault because they ran Biden, not mine. I will vote my conscience, and I will vote based on the best evidence in-front of me.
If the Democrats want me to vote for them, they know where I am, and they are more than welcome to reach out and talk to me and listen.
Liar. At no point could anything more like “real reform”, regardless of what you mean by the vague term, get passed. You are making excuses and sound far more like you are pushing a narrative than supporting a position.
But perhaps I am too harsh. Please do tell of this “real reform” so we can understand your issue. Be specific and include detailed explanation as to how this thing could have been done at any time in the past four decades.
More likely however, you’re agitprop project apathy third party is a fail.
We can start with recent history first:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/21/filibuster-voting-rights-manchin-sinema/ The democrats have not had the balls to stop filibuster abuse
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/29/624467256/what-happened-with-merrick-garland-in-2016-and-why-it-matters-now The Democrats did watched as a justice appointment was stolen, and did nothing substantial.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/democrats-used-rail-against-dark-money-now-they-re-better-n1239830 Remember Citizens United, and how we all knew that it would open the flood gates to dark money… Well now that the Democrats are on the receiving end you will notice how silent they are about any campaign finance reform beyond lip-service.
What about the two most important redistricting, where were the democrats in protecting voting rights and fair elections? The Heritage Foundation enacted a plan to sweep red leaning people into key positions throughout the US in 2000 and again 2010.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/685691 https://www.vox.com/22961590/redistricting-gerrymandering-house-2022-midterms
So much of this goes back as far as the 1920’s https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/The-Permanent-Apportionment-Act-of-1929/
So, what real reforms do I want, and have I been pushing for at local to state levels?
Its crazy, that I would ask the Democratic party to enact actual democratic policy that protects, and encourages citizen participation.
Oh, cool, you will oh-so-bravely volunteer minorities to be killed because you won’t be ‘held hostage’ by the democrats.
“I don’t agree with the only group of people large enough to be viable in the election on their compromise coalition candidate; I should get to choose the coalition candidate!”
Apparently your conscience says “If I check the box that says ‘throw away my vote’, I’m not responsible for the millions of minorities that will be killed because of the candidate I allowed in by doing so”
Great conscience you got there.
How very egotistical of you. If we lose the election, I hope you’re prepared to smile at every one of us in the camps and say “Sorry, but the Dems just didn’t reach out to me; what was I supposed to do? Support a coalition candidate against fascism?”
I dont think you get it, I can’t vote against any of these things, they are not options in my state. I dont get choice, we did not have a primary, the democrats are NOT viable in my state.
My plan is to stand between the fascists and my neighbors who are identified as part of any “other” group. Fascism already runs my state, and they are just waiting for the rest of the country to get on board.
The only choice left to me is to physically risk my life and the life of my family, because even protesting is against the law in my state. So when it gets to that point, it will be what I have to do.
It bothers me, but it also bothers me that my own representative is supporting fascism himself.
It clearly doesn’t bother you enough to stop you from working to see the fascist elected so the representative supporting longstanding-but-dogshite-foreign-policy can ‘learn his lesson’.
I don’t think he ought to lose because of this issue, I think he’ll lose because of this issue all on his own.
You’re free to disagree with the method of agitation but it comforts me (barely) that you would at least still support him if he were to change his position on this. It’s my bet most people on the fence would, too.
No, you don’t think he ‘ought’ to, you’re just Doing Your Part to make sure he does. Like drilling holes in a boat to protest the captain bailing water instead of filling the holes.
SUNKEN SHIP 2024
This is such a terrible metaphor. A good metaphor is one that cant easily be reversed.
Example: Netanyahu is drilling holes, and I’m (both) bailing water (by voting) and also yelling at Biden he should stop Netanyahu, and Biden is sitting calmly on the other side of the boat denying any holes are being drilled at all.
Those words do not mean what you think they mean.
I am open to education, so what do they mean?