this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Not necessary in actual democracies where you have 10+ different parties.

There, abstaining is just an other party. One with a powerful voice telling the politicians that if enough people not vote, it is a big sign that something is wrong with the system and things will need to change to prevent riots.

It is not the same as voting blank, which is also possible. Then your vote gets added to the most popular vote. In a way of saying that you are content with any.

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I feel like even a protest party would be a louder statement than abstaining, but yes, this is most applicable to ultra-fucked two-party FPTP systems.

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[–] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 6 points 1 month ago (5 children)

If "harm" and "less harm" are the only two options, then the only question is how quickly you die. There's the argument that we have to do "harm reduction" in order to buy time to organize for something better, but we've been procrastinating for decades apparently. Since all of history informs us that humans act only when inaction is no longer tenable (and sometimes not even then), really the only material difference between "harm reduction" and accelerationism is, again, the timeline.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

The harm or less harm are thanks to Ordinal voting.

First Past the Post is the absolute worst offender, but every single Ordinal voting system will eventually devolve into a forced choice between this or that.

Thankfully there are Cardinal voting systems. Those always boil down to the word and. For example, I can say that I support getting ice cream, and sandwiches, and a slushy, and even just finishing the route, but not going over that cliff.

My support for any given item is counted independently of my support for any other option.

To see what option wins, you just look at total support.

Different Cardinal systems have their own little quirks, but the key in all of them is that ability to give multiple items identical levels of support.

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[–] csverdad@midwest.social 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yeah fuck that. We’re throwing the cliff people off the cliff. Y’all can keep playing these stupid games.

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[–] Asswardbackaddict@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Yeah.... But also, Carlin was right saying this shit is all a stage. We've got groups of bullies picking on us, and I'd rather throw bricks than help them decide who to pick on next.

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[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (9 children)

Is voting for controlled opposition harm reduction?

Like I agree that Kamala was the correct choice, but her inevitably milquetoast liberal policies would keep us stagnant until people voted in the next Republican out of boredom

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[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (6 children)

i mean i've had some ice cream, i contest the validity of the last position

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[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Can we blast the last point with a megaphone 24/7 in people's faces or is that too much to get the point across?

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[–] peteyestee@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The people who don't vote don't care when it comes down to it. its like when people call Nazis Nazis as if offends them. Or when someone calls a gay person gay... It's just like... Oh okay.

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