this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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[–] zd9@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Conservative billionaires own like 70% of the voting and tabulation machines. It's only 2 companies.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's not that simple, the "machines" aren't like internet apps (until we allow congress to approve some form of Grok-powered voting app) they're basically just digital printers that each state checks and validates are working on their own terms.

They WANT to control the machines and create some system to use that control to rig any election, but again, if they COULD do that yet, they would have already. There is no reason to think they have the power yet to override our will, we are a huge nation with a LOT of people, this isn't quite yet a banana republic, so please discourage yourself from saying it's hopeless and pointless to vote, especially around others.

People are starving for an excuse to roll over and stop trying. Seriously, I've never seen our nation so ready to just give up and cry. Everyone is lost and alone and desperate for the one thing they're most scared of, which is reaching out to others and connecting and organizing. Be a force that resists this urge.

[–] zd9@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

When did I say "don't vote". Always vote in every election, there's usually one or a few each year on smaller things.

When did I say stop trying? Reading comprehension on social media has really gone to shit, I've seen so many responses to random things that the OP never said. You started talking about a different thing that no one said.

Voting machines were altered before the 2024 election with what the validator claims is "de minimis" meaning insignificant change, but in reality it was a substantial update to the config.ini file. Here's one surface level source that can get you started if you want to learn more. SMART Elections looked into it.

There's a lot of normal things going on that useful idiots online and Russian/Chinese/etc. agitators exploit and spread to discredit elections and cause the US to implode, BUT ALSO there are fucky things going on. Two things can be true, and the reality is nuanced and complex.

If anything this should cause more people to get involved in the end-to-end voting process to understand and protect it. MAGA has fully infiltrated the voting process since their election denial stuff in 2020, but now they have wide-spanning infrastructure and both bottom-up and top-down support in the election process at many administrative levels. I don't trust the guy who has lied and cheated his whole life, who tried to steal an election already, who partnered with the richest person in the history of the world who owns a massive tech empire, who already said they know the voting machines, who stayed in PA for months before the election, who hires people that have extensive voting machine programming history, who now has ALL of our personal data through exfiltration during DOGE, who also partners with the other massive tech titans that also seek to destroy the current America and rebuild according to Curtis Yarvin and Peter Thiel, to run a free and fair election.

Either you aren't informed or you don't care. We need to be fighting this with every person, every day, because fascism is here and they've come too far to not risk everything to stay in power.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

When did I say stop trying? Reading comprehension on social media has really gone to shit,

Add yourself to that list bucko.

I didn't say you said that, I said people are looking for excuses to check out of voting. You didn't even give me anything to work on, you said ONE fucking paragraph that implied votes would be compromised, which I pushed back on.

This is what you said, I said there's hope.

Conservative billionaires own like 70% of the voting and tabulation machines. It’s only 2 companies.

I'm not reading the rest if you are gonna lay down a contentious essay because I made a MILD fucking pushback against apathy. If you're looking for someone to get mad at, don't pick people who are actually advocating for involvement, it feels like you're setting yourself up to get pissy and that's not effective messaging.

Get your reactionary impulses under fucking control. I won't see responses, play for the "crowd" all you want.

[–] zd9@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

please discourage yourself from saying it's hopeless and pointless to vote, especially around others.

That's where you said I said that.

How about channel that purity testing towards actual action? I already am, but you funnel all your internet outrage towards tangibly improving things.