This is the key difference:
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@fazalmajid @benroyce @randahl
I live in the Netherlands. If I didn't have my own small company, it would take me a visit to the government tax website, a run through everything they already know about me (just to check) and a press on the button: maybe 15 minutes. And usually I get money back.
My company takes more time, but that is my own choice.@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...
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This is the key difference:
In 2024, only 63 percent of US voters voted, and Trump became president.
Sunday, 80 percent of Hungarian voters turned out to vote, and Orbán was removed.
Be like the Hungarians.
@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.
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@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
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@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
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@randahl
Here in Brazil voting is not considered as a right, but as duty to democracy, not voting is penalized with a fine. USians allowing themselves to not vote is completely baffling.@blaue_Fledermaus @randahl Canada too.
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@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
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This is the key difference:
In 2024, only 63 percent of US voters voted, and Trump became president.
Sunday, 80 percent of Hungarian voters turned out to vote, and Orbán was removed.
Be like the Hungarians.
Hungary kept their problematic leader for 16 consecutive years. Don't be like them!
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@imanormalperson @GoSeiGer @randahl
and such politicians are aided by people who can vote, but just give up and accept their abuse
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@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
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@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
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@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
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@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:
just fucking vote
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@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
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@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)
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@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
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@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..."
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@WhiteCatTamer @benroyce @GoSeiGer @randahl ugh. it's difficult to argue against the free-speech angle: compartmentalizing elections and party politics seems like a non-starter
could maybe...ONE thing be standardized at least, and that's the season? would it be possible at least to say something like "the campaign season is exactly one month long" or something that isn't practically round the clock the way it seems now? would a time-dependent restriction on political speech be legit
@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.
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@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.
@mxchara @benroyce @GoSeiGer @randahl I think the best bet is to deep-six the “money is speech/corporations have rights” bullshit. You’ll still run into the problem of “if Candidate A goes on a cooking show and makes a recipe while talking about their grandma and growing up [area where campaigning], is that political speech/does the show have an upper limit of donateable time to this?” which is also part of the free speech angle
