this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
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Not voting (in your election)
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I get the frustration - really, I do. There are many Democrats I fucking loathe.
You know this phrase doesn't mean "It don't work right so fuck it". Systems don't exist in a vacuum. The system does what it does because greedy, rich fucks keep pushing it to work that way. We need to push back.
Yep.
When the Democratic party is poised to change things, key Democrats do sometimes block movement to the left on particular issues. I'd guess there is a small but solid minority of Democrats that pretend to favor all leftist policies publicly but quietly sabotage certain ones that they don't like when push comes to shove. In recent years, congressional leadership has been particularly bad about ignoring if not rewarding this.
However, the Democratic party has their moments. Biden had many flaws and was an unwavering supporter of Israel's genocide. However, his administration moved things left far more than most people give him credit for and would have done even more if it weren't for that previously mentioned minority of saboteurs. He was refreshingly pro labor and Lina Khan was amazing.
We need to fix this broken system and until then the parties are absolutely, emphatically, not the same.
The system has been corrupted by billionaires. Unfortunately, many Democrats have conceded some power to them as those billionaires are their donors. This is not the same as the entire Republican party's submission to billionaires and grifters.
We don't just need more and better Democrats, but that would certainly help.
Donate and vote harder? Be really careful who you are donating to and voting for - primaries are how the game is played, at least until the syatem is fixed. You still need to vote. We got this way because we were complacent and not paying attention. We're not getting out of it by remaining complacent.
Nope. Democrats as a whole are a mixed bag but Republicans are, at their core, authoritarian and fascistic. Are you a fucking accelerationist or something?
So the thing about accelerationism, when it comes to voting, is: in order to deliberately vote to make things worse, you have to believe your vote matters.
I don't believe my vote matters.
I'm not an accelerationist. I don't think it's a good idea to deliberately drive the United States into the ground, hoping to trigger collapse and revolution, in the belief that something better might rise from the ashes. The history of revolutions is ugly and bloody and very rarely beneficial to the majority of human beings involved.
But frankly? I think a collapse and a revolution is coming. I think if we avoid it, it'll be because the American government employs tools of repression, surveillance, and social control more extensive than any in previous history. I think both of those options are horrible. I think our billionaire masters are going to decide whether to impose a universal authoritarian surveillance state, or allow the United States to collapse and incorporate the survivors into a neo-feudal, post-democratic society, based on which nightmarish future society eill give their descendants the greatest chance of maintaining their wealth and power and control. And I don't think my vote, or my political activity, is going to make one damn bit of difference to what our billionaire masters decide.
I've felt that way at times, but ultimately we disagree on that.
How about deliberately sitting on the sidelines and encouraging other people to stop trying and join you? Sounds kinda like what you are doing.
We agree on this. I'm just hoping that we can minimize the damage by making sure that the rich and powerful have as little control as possible if shit goes down. One party is unquestionably handing the country over to the rich and powerful. The other is a mixed bag. I'd rather try to filter the mixed bag than pretend they are the same thing and do nothing. I'm also hoping the system itself can be altered so that it is more resilient to this bullshit. Preferably something other than two parties and a broken election system.
I have the same concerns. Again, I'd like to filter out the mixed bag and try to reverse course - avoid both options or at least hamstring the powers that would most abuse the population under either option.
Then either find some motivation or, kindly, sit down and shut the fuck up. I truly feel very close to what you are feeling. I even feel the same sometimes, as the last as far as the hopelessness goes. However, doing nothing but screaming "doom" and most importantly telling everyone they can't do anything to fix things isn't helping.
Here's the thing. If you read what I rant about, you'll know I suggest plenty of positive shit. Depending on my mood, okay, I'm not perfect 😆
Frankly, I believe that surviving and thriving in the future of the West is going to mean building community networks, building mutual aid groups, building resilient non-governmental structures to meet people's needs in the absence, neglect, or open hostility, of government structures.
I believe everyone's time and energy is best spent on that work.
I believe every dollar and every minute spent on trying to reform government through the electoral process is wasted time and money at best and actively contributing to the collapse of civil society at worst.
And I think every driven, passionate activist, every person who sees the problems with society and tries to fix them by putting the right candidates in office, could do so much more good for the people around them by unionizing workplaces, or fundraising for community organizations, or a hundred other things - hell, if I walked out and picked up one piece of litter off the street, I'd have more of an impact on my community than every vote you've ever cast in your life put together has had on yours.
And honestly, I know a lot of those people, and it hurts to see all these amazing people pissing their time and energy away trying to help one billionaire win a popularity contest against another.
Trying to reform democracy from within is like walking into a crooked casino and imagining you can win if you pick the right machine to play and spend enough money playing it. All the machines are rigged. The only winner is the house.
And that's completely independent of my moral objections to a system based on, essentially, the tyranny of the majority.
So yeah, I'm going to come here, to a community called "notvoting", and talk about not voting and what people could do instead. Because it hurts to see so many good people's efforts go to waste.