“Okay, so both parties are bad, but what else can we do other than vote?”
There are going to be a lot of disenfranchised liberals that have lost faith in electoralism. Rather than allow the people to fall into doomerism or denial, what advice would you give people who are realising that western democracies are broken and that voting for the lesser evil is impossible? What action would you tell them to take?
buy as many guns as you can affordI’m tired of voting and the libs who shame me for not voting. I’m also tired of feeling powerless and overwhelmed by the state of things. I’m just going to keep doing my thing and help my local community by driving my bus then use the money I earn to contribute in mutual aid.
Seriously though, you just have to point out that both parties want this status quo
Most people want change, they just don’t understand the framework of how we can achieve that change
These are the days when we as principled Marxists/Anarchists/Posadists need to stand up and point out that the disconnect between the will of the people and the actions of their government is intentional
That the wealthy and powerful have always acted in their interests as opposed to the good of all people and the world
It’s only going to get worse if we don’t
Are the genocidal capitalist’s in the room with us right now sweaty? Even if the president is a genocidal capitalist they can’t just make up laws do you even know how the 3 branches of government operate at a procedural level? Which party voted for genocidal capitalism?
two asses in a nation … the answer is right there, right infront of you.
If you’re like a normal American person, this genocide should supercede everything and you should be canvassing door to door telling people their no better than Eichman for voting for either party. Aside from adventures that all I got
Where did that lead you? Back to me
burn down your local police station
now what? now what is i’m out.
Really hoping I finish my degree before I have to gtfo. That is of course assuming I will notice when it is too late
"Real politics happens well before the elections, and that’s why you will never have good options. You are always choosing betweens presets which have long been decided, and which are not going to solve the climate, queer, women’s, etc issues.
We need to meet that political power before elections, then, to have any effect. But that requires understanding the systems which we are up against, or else we will only be doing the result-less protests of the past 40 years again.
You interested in learning more about the systems?"
This is a discussion which requires the active participation of the lib (them backing down at this point makes it obvious that they are not the target group for us).
It includes the things that are probably most important to a lib willing to listen (replace as needed with “wage problems” etc)
It shows that you’re not asking to do repeats of the unsuccessful movements of westerners in the past years (because libs would latch onto that and be started wrongly or fill up ranks with useless people).
Follow-up convos about how the problems are based in imperialism and capital.
pokes the working class with a stick waake uuuup
Sorry, all outta boot straps. Just watch Rome burn now.
Build stronger support networks through your community and do the small things that are achievable with them. Help slightly larger groups and pressure them to do good things with their bigger numbers.
You’re not going to accomplish any politically relevant actions on your own, but you can organize a group of people around a shared hobby, like a knitting circle, D&D group, boardgame group, or whatever. Your little hobby group can all chip in to feed people at a homeless camp once a month - that hobby group now has the skills to help a local union make it through a strike. The local union that owes your hobby group a favor can be pressured into campaigning against a local DA who’s causing problems for the homeless community. That union is now a relevant force in local politics. You probably don’t have any ability to sway that any more, but the local union with political clout can chip in to larger causes.
People need to stop living in this fantasy world where a great leader unites everyone behind the right cause and we start fixing things. Nobody has ever done that shit. You can’t convince a billion people to do something one at a time, and even if you did, they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. Change requires existing networks of organized people who know how to do something other than sit on their thumbs, who can be convinced an entire group at a time. Nothing can be done while everyone is sitting around atomized, but that is a problem that’s actually within your grasp to fix.
Fantastic, that’s great advice
What action would you tell them to take?
What is it they need? Where is the state currently failing to support them? Like, what would actually make a difference to people in the community?
I would suggest identifying that, and then building a community-based solution (if possible/appropriate).
Teach people how to hold power for themselves rather than begging for scraps from the political establishment.
Sure it’s easier said than done but that’s my antidote to electoralism.
Maybe I’m being too cynical here but I feel like America has essentially zero revolutionary potential. The entire population is heavily propagandized, all significant leftist groups have been dead for 50+ years, and for most Americans, things aren’t that bad. They’re getting worse, but compared to the situations that have historically spawned revolts (serfdom, mass starvation, etc) it’s not that close.
It’s possible in the future, but as of right now the other people in this thread are correct that local organizing and mutual aid is the most productive thing we can be doing.
We get bragging rights on how anyone that supports them are consenting to genocide and good luck shaming 3rd parties now on.
Give them tickets to the Country is Over Party.
If the libs over on bluesky are representative they think that doing genocide is holding their noses, choosing the lesser evil and West Wing blah blah blah adults in the room whatever. They are still right, they still hold the “moral high ground”, etc.
