I'm not going to debate anyone over this. I'm really tired and I don't want to. I just want to..... Open the door and if you want, you can see yourself out. But.
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I am Asexual, and that makes me LGBTQ+.
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I am an mspec lesbian, specifically a pan lesbian.
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I am trying neo pronouns and anyone who uses them are hella valid.
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Queer is a word that not everyone is comfortable with, but I identify with it and use it freely.
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Gatekeeping, even if you're trans, makes you a bootlicker, and you won't catch me doing it, and if you do, I want you to tell me that so I can stop.
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I am an anti shipper that doesn't support romanticized fictional works of pedophilia, incest, etc. I won't hate you, but it isn't healthy and I will tell you that if you try to defend it.
I'll edit in more if I think of them.
Here's for my most controversial post yet
babushka - I really don't get why people are getting mad at other people for voting in elections.
"Voting does nothing since two parties are equally bad and the elections are going to be rigged so the bad guys will win anyway no matter what" - well, duh. But what does boycotting vote do? Unless there is a massive nationwide boycott and the number of voters isn't enough to pronounce the election results legitimate, I really don't see what boycotting does.
"Just do mutual aid or go to protests instead, it will do more than a vote ever did anyway" - how is voting contradictory with any of that? You can go vote and then go to a protest, right? I really don't see the problem...
"Change isn't won by voting" Change can be achieved by a collective of people making an effort to bring the change, to demand the change. It takes a colossal amount of work and sacrifice which is sadly historically proven. Of course, the government won't magically become just as soon as you tick that box in the ballot, and there is no "kind tsar" who will come to the "throne" and magically fix everything singlehandedly as you vote for him. But the effort put in voting is an effort too, it's the first step of recognizing that "politics" isn't something that's happening far away, affecting virtually no one and being none of your business. There are still people who haven't moved past that attitude.
"If voting changed anything it would be illegal" It will be! It will be! Vote while you can/if you can! Because there are people out there who wish to have this "useless" right to vote but don't have it!
emlynlua - While I do agree with the arguments you're making, I think this sort of misses the point of a lot of those posts.
Disclaimer: I am not discouraging people from voting. I am honestly neutral on this issue. I don't believe people are malicious for not voting, but I do believe that if you are able then it is a good thing to do. There are times when I have voted, and times when I haven't.
I have Never seen a post that is actually encouraging a boycott, more just explaining why it isn't some kind of all important moral imperative to vote. I can understand how someone could misunderstand these posts when they don't see the context of the person behind them, but a lot of the ones that have many notes with rebuttals etc are very short and don't fully explain their points. Partially because these people get so frustrated at having to explain themselves over and over and leave stuff out, and partially because the shorter posts are the ones more people will read and respond to. With these popular posts you're getting an incomplete picture of what are really very complex issues.
I also wanna address your points individually.
- "two parties are equally bad" - to reiterate, they're not saying everyone should boycott because of this. They're explaining that they're not evil for not voting for the milder flavour of bigot. This isn't coming from privileged people, as many of the rebuttals claim, but from minorites who are gonna get screwed over either way.
- "mutual aid or protests" - this is a really key point actually that I don't see discussed much but the idea that you can do both is not entirely true. Every election season most people who are in activist circles suddenly shift their focus to voting. This means that every election season anyone who is relying on mutual aid finds that it's suddenly gone. Nothing can be funded or organised because money and energy is going into campaigning for the election instead. This is frustrating for the people who, again, are gonna get screwed over no matter the result.
- "change isn't won by voting" - while I do agree with you that voting is at least participating in politics, the people who make these posts are more addressing people who think that voting is the be all end all of participation. The people who think politics doesn't affect them aren't gonna be making 3k essays online about why they don't vote, they don't care that much. The people making these posts recognise that change takes tremendous effort and sacrifice, and they're already doing that. They're making these posts not because they don't care about politics, but because they do care, and they want other people to care too, beyond voting.
- "if voting changed anything it would be illegal" - this is more of a cynical statement than a call for a boycott. But the people who are making these posts aren't the people for whom voting is easy. Even when it's legal to vote, voter suppression is very real. When I last voted it took me 20 minutes. The polling station was 5 minutes from the house, there was no queue since there are plenty of polling stations, and I wasn't in work so I didn't have to fit it around a schedule. That is a very privileged position to be in. The election before that I couldn't vote because I wasn't near a polling station and couldn't afford transport. Voting now, with my health the way it is, I would need a postal vote. I would have to remember to get it in time (which is not easy, with ADHD brain), fill it out, remember to send it off in time, have the strength to walk to the post box.... and so on. Still, I am in a privileged position compared to many of the people who make these posts. Having to wait in line for almost an entire day, having bosses who would rather break the law than let their employees miss a shift to vote, having to travel far to a polling station with no money, having to balance some of this and children, or university, or disability. The people who make these posts are not the privileged people for whom voting takes 20 minutes. They are the people for whom voting is actually very difficult, and they have learned through experience that it does little for their communities, and that their energy is better spent on mutual aid and other activism.
I do want to reiterate that your points aren't exactly wrong, but I do believe that they are a misrepresentation of what people actually mean when they say these things, and why they say it.
babushka - Excellent insight, thank you so much for providing context! I was kind of writing based on overall impression from both Russia and America, and i honestly wasn't aware that the pressure to vote can even exist. (I saw a meme of a dude with a "vote or die" T shirt but i kind of assumed he was the only one...) The attitude i saw was along the lines "voting doesn't get anyone anywhere anyway" which kind of weirded me out. And I forgot to post my answer to an anon which would have described the Russian side of this situation. Im gonna do this if i won't fall asleep.
There is something i've failed to add to my original post but failed to formulate and i think i got it now:
No one should go around and harass a person who hasn't (or has) voted and say that the current state of politics is somehow their individual fault.
What i mean is: saying stuff like "your kind voted for a big evil so in am gonna blame you personally" (even if you don't know who they voted for) or "you didn't vote and let the bad guy win" (even though the good guy won the popular vote, and it's the system's fault) doesn't get anyone anywhere and is just mean.
babushka - addition: i do actually see people writing essays about how they are specifically not going to vote because they are above everything and not once mentioning anything they wanna do/try to archieve instead of voting, but not in America though
lol I'm still bent out of shape about that time a server owner said I was being rude for setting a boundary publicly even after I said I didn't feel safe doing it privately
and it's been at least a month or two
I'm debating copying over a thread of tweets that Roman (a headmate) made earlier about Homestuck and June Egbert, because it's really good, simply put, and puts the feelings of people ahead of slinging buzzwords around.
And it's sitting in my head and the only person to interact with it there, gave it literally no useful thought at all. Just called it meaningless because it didn't have all those buzzwords. And I know it is good.
But also shit is controversial. Please let me know your thoughts? I don't want to waste the effort/spoons.
I really do only feel security in my opinions when I'm tired and give no fucks bc I'm grumpy.
Rhodochrosite on Manganite
N'Chwaning Mines, Kuruman, Kalahari manganese fields, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
Fallen - Digital Oil Painting
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carrotcube - One of the amazing things about having OCs and world building is that you dont need to base it off the real world and include LGBT+phobia or racism in it.
Sometimes you just need to remind yourself you're just a complicated plant with emotions and treat yourself like a child, hold your own hand before putting on a show you know you enjoy.
“You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress, simultaneously.”
— Sophia Bush
Note to self: Research local area activism groups