this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2024
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Political Memes

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Welcome to politcal memes!

These are our rules:

Be civilJokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.

No misinformationDon’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.

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submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

The fundamental tenet of a working democracy is voting. Everyone should have a vote and everyone should exercise their right to vote. To that end we have been seeing posts attempting to shame/mock or otherwise influence people not to vote. While this is a meme community, the idea that people shouldn’t vote goes against the fundamentals of a democracy by the people and for the people. To that end, we are adding a new rule that disallows posts that discourage or shame people from voting. This doesn’t mean that you can’t address how people vote, but even those who don’t agree with you and your political views should still vote. We all should. Everyone. Part of the reason we are in the mess we are in now is because participation in democracy is abysmal. Posts discouraging people from voting are essentially propaganda and will be removed.

PoliticalMemes is a community for having fun at the expense of our political hellscape we find ourselves in. People not voting is a big part of why.

We are taking feedback on this change, please let us know if you agree or disagree in the comments and why.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This isn’t about me or you. It’s about an unnecessary rule that forbids “thought crimes.”

” Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. ”

Benjamin Franklin

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Well, after giving it a second thought, I suppose Lemmy may be small enough to avoid be targeted with both domestic and foreign efforts to favor Trump by having part of left demographics abstain.

If that's indeed the case, there's nothing I agree with in the suggested rule.

Voting/Abstention can be manufactured to a certain point. But if we take that away, it's a matter of strategy. I've always been an abstentionist.

(my two replies may display in the wrong order, this is the latest one)

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago

It’s a shame the mods are turning this community into another /politics or /world clone. I found it charming when it had eclectic and strange news stories you wouldn’t find anywhere else.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Imho, voting is a right, not a duty. It's as stupid to try to convince people to vote than the other way round. What I was thinking about when I wrote my message is, well, the probability of a coordinated effort from right wing networks to turn left leaning demographics away from voting. This, I agree, would make some kind of anticipation measures useful.

What I fundamentally disagree on, and actually a bit more than "disagree", is the idea that abstention leads us where when are now. As a political science professor, I'll just say it goes against most, if not all, contemporary research findings.

(And yes, I can be a professor and have trouble writing correct English. To the brilliant mind who may want to phrase such witty comment, consider for a second that I may very well be from a non-English speaking country. Those still exist to this day)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

with a total of 66,000 monthly active users as of 27 July 2023. Source.

It’s probably less than that now. It’s nice to think it’s important, but it’s not.