timemachineyeah
drives me up a wall living in a very very red district, like "no democrat is ever going to win any local election, let alone a real leftist" district, like "our school board members ran on who was the most anti-mask" red, like "I pass white supremacist signs on the way to buy weed" red
and being in the local leftist community and the guy who runs the anarchist book club and the lady who helps keep the warming shelters open and the people who marched on city hall when a local business was getting death threats for having a drag show are all members of a discord and we get on this discord and have frank discussions about how best to vote
the people who do the protests and the mutual aid and all the real work
going "okay, they're both fascists, but this one lacks ambition and seems happy to just glide in the position" or "they both suck, but this one can be reasoned with if you frame it patriotically enough" like we don't even have a democrat to vote for. we know what a vote is. we know what we hope accomplish with it. we know what it can do, and we know what it can't.
and going from those discussions to here where people think that your vote is some kind of fucking??? enabling maneuver??? as if someone isn't going to end up in that seat regardless of what you do???
we didn't build this system, we just live in it. we're just trying to survive. a vote isn't a statement of your values, it's not an endorsement, it's not a marriage contract, it's a strategic play you make to keep alive.
the biggest mistake I see leftists making is overestimating their own popularity. "well but everyone would be leftist if they just-" no, stop, 1) you can't possibly know that 2) everyone will not just
You say that like it's bad thing.
I was lucky enough to have met actual old school Communists; people who really did go to Spain and fought against fascism all their lives.
One story they always talked about was the 1968 election. A lot of people on the Left were saying that there was no diference between Humphrey and Nixon. The people who'd actually seen the fight up close and personal knew how bad Nixon was, and strongly encouraged people to vote for Humphrey.
I'll take my cue from people like Hammett who could tell not-so-great from utterly terrible.
lol he's saying you would be lecturing the guy you name-dropped for the things he's known for saying if he was in here.
I'll take my cues from Fredrick Douglas and MLK.