FAQ

Q: why not organize and stop treating the bus as a legitimate entity? why aren’t you working to stop the bus?

A: do both. cut the fuel line. break windows. put oatmeal in the gas tank. but maybe your efforts don’t succeed this election cycle. and if so don’t fucking throw away your vote if it can help your neighbors fucking survive. “harm reduction” is not a political strategy for action. it is a last minute, end of the line decision to save lives, after all other resources have been exhausted.

  • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    The threat of the spoiler effect could be used to move the Democratic Party’s policy left. You’re not thinking strategically.

      • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago
        1. leftists don’t vote for Biden. big coalition voting for a socialist third party candidate.
        2. Democrats lose or get scared and run someone more left next election. Democrats stop trying to appease centrists and start trying to appease leftists who will demonstrably withhold votes

        pretty straightforward

        • spujb@lemmy.cafeOP
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          7 months ago

          kind of already happening, if on a smaller scale.

          to do it full scale as you suggest you’d need a infeasibly huge chunk of capital to run against an incumbent.

          • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Yes exactly this movement!

            I am not really suggesting that a third party candidate could win during this election, I agree about the capital. But you can pressure the Democrats to take on leftist policies as much as possible by refusing to vote for Democrats, and voting for a third party alternative.

            I honestly don’t see another way that Democrats would be prompted to change their policies, as it is they have remained moderate (aka conservative on a global political context). But if Democrats saw that 10% of the vote went to a Socialist, and they lost because of that?? They would change.

            Right now the Democrats are catering towards conservative moderates who think that a white nationalist candidate a potentially viable option.

            • spujb@lemmy.cafeOP
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              7 months ago

              yeah i totally concur and have been consistently in favor of the uncommitted movement. i also think folks voting third party in deep blue states, where the risk of spoiling for a fascist win is low, aren’t incredibly off the mark. i’m not smart enough to understand polster analysis so i can’t pretend to know if these pressures are working, but i do support them.

              so i don’t really get where your accusations of me not thinking strategically are coming from lol.

              • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                The “game theory” argument is one I see being used mostly by vote-blue-no-matter-who types. And you were trying to dissuade the other commenter from third party voting. So I am genuinely surprised that that is not your position. You were saying that voting third party would have a deleterious impact due to the spoiler effect.

                So, you were saying that people should vote for Biden due to game theory, which is a tool to understand strategy. I was telling you you’re not thinking strategically because I think that by limiting your analysis to just game theory in this single election cycle, you are missing the strategic possibilities enabled by voting third party.

                • spujb@lemmy.cafeOP
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                  7 months ago

                  yeah i guess you just assumed wrong and that there are positions out there with nuance you can’t guess from just a few sentences haha

                  “game theory” is a real field of study of how individuals work together within a system, so i wouldn’t treat it like it’s a dog whistle which is kind of what looks like happened here

                  • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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                    7 months ago

                    I’ve seen a lot of vote-who-no-matter who using game theory the way you did, I think if you look for it you might start to notice it!

                    I think probably everyone is more nuanced than we end up making ourselves seem online 😅