Lebanon’s health minister has said what is happening in his country is “carnage”, as hospitals struggle to cope with the number of casualties from two days of widespread Israeli air strikes targeting the armed group Hezbollah.
Dr Firass Abiad told the BBC it was “clear” that many of the 550 people killed in Monday’s attacks were civilians, including children and women.
Voting is the easiest, least frequent form of participating in democracy
Not voting is a valid democratic choice until they give us a choice that includes “none of the above” on every ballot race
It’s not on me, it’s on the candidates and parties to court my vote. They don’t even bother 🤷
Not voting gets to systemic change. Voting tells the system that you’re satisfied with its current form
Complete backwards logic in an electoral democacry. You must vote. If you only show up to vote for president and you aren’t fist fucking your local elections like its going out of style (by your comment it seems to be) then you aren’t participating in your own governance and allowing others to decide for you. Not voting is how we got here, because that allows unpopular people and ideas the privilege of no competition. Not voting is how you get your rights taken away.
Address each point?
You MUST NOT vote. If you don’t like the choice then you have freedom to abstain
You can vote in local elections and abstain from races in which you don’t like the choices. I firmly believe we need “none of the above” on all ballot races
Participation in government is not only limited to voting. See my Point 1 in the previous comment. If anything, insistence on voting as the be-all-end-all allows people to ignore the actual hard work of democratic responsibilities
“unpopular ideas get no competition” is logically false. If both choices are unpopular or unsatisfactory, the ideas are competing against the threat of losing the race due to apathetic voters
What rights have ever been gained by voting? In the US, pretty much every positive social and legislative change came via collective direct organization and action and/or threat of violence (if not actual violence).
Your talking points are tired, illogical, and smack of received wisdom rather than coming from a deliberately thought-out set of ideas and understanding of the world.
I ask you this: How do you know I will vote how you want me to vote?
I dont. But you should partake in your government. I’m not answering all your points. Go ahead and dont vote. But dont go around convincing people that the only way to win is not to play. Thats exactly how you surrender in this sort of system. You can propose shit and get it ratified as well, but abstaining from voting in elections outside of party primaries as a protest means nothing when most of the country doesnt do it anyway.
Actually, voting for the “lesser evil” is how we got into those mess and how it will continue
We need serious and deep election reforms in our country. These parties are trash. “Less evil” is still evil. You’ll look the other way for the next four years while Gazans continue to die from American bullets
Don’t vote! It feels great!
Wild assumptions honestly. Enjoy other people controlling how.you live your life I guess.
It’s absolutely disgusting how you keep using dead Palestinian children as political pawns for your shitty argument.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Ah yes, I should be ashamed. Certainly not the people in power who stand by and let American guns kill children on Gaza. Certainly not people like you who have decided that you’re fine with it
Yes only one person can feel shame at a time. GOOD point.
Good so you also feel shame then?
You completely misunderstand politics.
Voters aren’t consumers. Politicians aren’t companies trying to maximize market share. All they need is 51% of the people who actually vote. If you don’t vote, then you literally aren’t part of the equation.
“It’s on parties to court my vote” is like “It’s on Starbucks to court my filling out a comment card”. Starbucks doesn’t care at all if you fill out a comment card or not. They just want the people who do fill them out to write positive comments.
This is totally illogical and you know it. And your Starbucks gift card “metaphor” is a complete false equivalence.
Why do parties run campaigns if their job isn’t convince voters? Billions of dollars and endless hours of research are spent courting votes but you say it’s not their job and they don’t care? Wha???
Yes, their job is to convince voters. The people who will actually vote. They are not trying to convince nonvoters. Nonvoters don’t matter.
How many Harris campaign commercials are playing in Paris? Zero, because Parisians can’t vote. Harris isn’t trying to court Parisians, and for the exact same reason she isn’t courting American nonvoters. You’ve been written off as irrelevant to this election.
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The circular part is where you wonder why nobody is doing anything to help Palestinians.
I’ll give you a hint: after the election, pollsters will ask people who voted what the most important issues are to them. Since people like you aren’t voting, very few voters will answer “helping Palestinians”. Politicians will look at those polls and simply maintain the status quo regarding Palestine, since voters have little appetite for change. And the status quo is sending arms to Israel.
Again and again, the left shoots itself in the foot.
Astoundingly dumb, I mean it’s actually a bit remarkable.