This is the key difference:

[auser@mastodon.social]

@nemeciii @randahl If you haven't let Trump get elected ICE wouldn't be on the streets in the first place.

[fazalmajid@social.vivaldi.net]

@GoSeiGer @benroyce @randahl Sure, but I remember circa 2000 when I worked in Amsterdam, my Duch sales rep from Worldcom bemoaning how the Dutch tax authorities had insisted they do a Black-Scholes cptions pricing calculation to value their stock options and calculate their income tax liability, and he ended up losing money on them. Even the IRS hasn't gone that far...

[reflex@retrogaming.social]

@randahl 2024 had the second highest turnout in a US presidential election since 1968. While yes more turnout is a good thing, I would not assume it would have actually changed the results.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@imanormalperson @GoSeiGer @randahl

if someone doesn't vote, you can talk about valid reasons for that, and i have no problem with their valid reasons for not voting

but you can also talk about people who don't vote for invalid reasons

both camps exist

and i am continually needing to say that my words are scoped *only* to those people who can vote, but simply choose not to

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@imanormalperson @GoSeiGer @randahl

"fighting for the people that want to vote"

yes

that's called voting

so anyone who can vote, but doesn't, is betraying those who are disenfranchised

so join me in castigating such assholes

[reallyflygreg@mstdn.ca]

@blaue_Fledermaus @randahl Canada too.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@imanormalperson @GoSeiGer @randahl

"other forms of political action are necessary"

oh yeah? like what?

"voting alone isnt going to fix gerrymandering and systemic oppression"

if people fucking showed up, it will fix that

[caravantraveller@social.cologne]

@randahl

Hungary kept their problematic leader for 16 consecutive years. Don't be like them!

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@imanormalperson @GoSeiGer @randahl

and such politicians are aided by people who can vote, but just give up and accept their abuse

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@imanormalperson @GoSeiGer @randahl

so you vote, and sustain, and iterate, and shit gets better

but if you go community organize, and ignore the vote, then we go full fascist, and so they just show up and machine gun us while laughing

please: community organize

*and* vote

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@imanormalperson @GoSeiGer @randahl

right, and i continually encounter this

me: "everyone vote"

"some people can't vote"

me: "yes, i know, i'm not talking about those who can't, i'm talking about those who won't"

"we should do other things"

me: "yes i know, i never said we shouldn't. organize, educate, protest, boycott, resist: do it, all of it. and vote"

i've been in this conversation 1,000 times

[pmonks@sfba.social]

@benroyce @imanormalperson@kolektiva.social @GoSeiGer @randahl 137,242 times to be exact - I’ve been keeping count!

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@imanormalperson @GoSeiGer @randahl

so you get some people who think like you

you organize

you make your strike

but since the great mass of american society is soft, you're a tiny group

so you get caught and sent to jail

then trump and the MAGA fascists use your action remove more of our rights

like so:

Reichstag fire - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

just fucking vote

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@pmonks @GoSeiGer @randahl

[ariaflame@masto.ai]

@benroyce @imanormalperson@kolektiva.social @GoSeiGer @randahl In Australia the only non-citizens who don't vote are probably in a coma. If you can't make it to a voting place due to ill health etc. they will come to you!

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@imanormalperson @GoSeiGer @randahl

so revolutions happen when people can't eat

as long as bellies are full, there's no revolution

and yes, there's hunger in america, but not enough to cause a critical mass

maybe someday, considering how the plutocrats are impoverishing us

(and ps, the american revolution wasn't a revolution, it was a war of independence)

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@imanormalperson @GoSeiGer @randahl

i'm sorry, but i don't care about cosplay revolutionaries

if the usa is going to have a revolution, the critical mass for it is a long way off

until then it's a futile effort that just winds up with people in jail, and fascists using it as an excuse to clamp down on our rights

just fucking vote

[nemeciii@mastodon.social]

@auser @randahl kinda moot point in my case. I have no right to vote in US elections, I'm not US citizen.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@imanormalperson @GoSeiGer @randahl

marx wasn't a revolutionary. he wrote books

and yes the nazis did false flags attacks. as if goering wouldn't lie. as if fascists wouldn't use a real attack as an excuse to remove rights

but go ahead. do your attack. then come back and tell me about naive and stupid from the prison computer

you gotta be smart. violence has to be surgical and thought out if you take that route. not "LEROY JENKINNNSSSS..."

[whitecattamer@mastodon.online]

@mxchara @benroyce @GoSeiGer @randahl It sucks, because I think that’d be even harder to do from a 1A angle, as you’d either have to force the press to not cover someone/thing or you’d have to prevent the candidate from speaking, and as the media environment has moved from standard papers and channels to streamers and podcasting, it gets harder to stem the flow that could be coming from anywhere, at anytime, to anyone, about anything.