We all fully understand that. Well, most intelligent enough people do. Sure, there are some very vocal leftists calling for a boycott to the vote (as is the custom, so nothing new), but most of us know—even with leftist views—that we need to keep trump away from office. We will all just pull the lever for Biden because we have no other choice. It’s a shitty, unappealing and massively problematic choice. But we all know trump will be 10x worse on everything we have a problem with Biden doing. Not to mention, all the trans people, gay people, etc.
But that doesn’t equate to enthusiastic support for Biden. Because we all disapprove. Doesn’t mean we all don’t realize we have to vote for him. We’re just not democrats or Biden fans, so we complain.
But the other side of that coin is that this kind of shit will stop a not insignificant portion of people from voting for him, not understanding what another trump presidency means. Because there are a lot of performative leftists who think holding up an “well I didn’t vote for him” badge is something to be proud of…while LGBTQIA+ people are pushed back into the shadows, sent to conversion therapy, can’t get healthcare, etc. Doing shit like this will turn those people off. And it’s understandable—in a way. Because how can you justify lending your support to someone supporting genocide? Is it really noble to vote blue while they actively aid in the slaughter of Palestinians? Or while they treat immigrants like shit or keep arming police departments to the teeth with war machines and keep passing pro-surveillance laws and working with private equity and participating in every corporatist neoliberal tradition that sickens us all?
Well, it’s the basic concept of harm reduction. Not voting doesn’t help anyone but the non-voter because they get to hop on that high horse any time something goes wrong. It’s an insanely privileged choice, and actually will end up hurting a lot of people if trump wins. That’s the opposite of harm reduction. For example, making drugs legal and handing out free, clean needles, you’re technically supporting people’s destructive addictions. But you’re reducing the harm that inevitable presence of addiction can bring. It’s a good thing to do.
Even if it makes us sick to vote for Biden, neglecting to keep trump from the levers of power is so insanely self-destructive and harmful to vulnerable people and maybe even literally a mistake we will never, ever right. We have a desperate climate emergency on our hands. Four years (if we can actually get him out of office after that) of trump climate policy will literally kill us all.
We all fully understand that. Well, most intelligent enough people do. Sure, there are some very vocal leftists calling for a boycott to the vote (as is the custom, so nothing new), but most of us know—even with leftist views—that we need to keep trump away from office. We will all just pull the lever for Biden because we have no other choice. It’s a shitty, unappealing and massively problematic choice. But we all know trump will be 10x worse on everything we have a problem with Biden doing. Not to mention, all the trans people, gay people, etc.
But that doesn’t equate to enthusiastic support for Biden. Because we all disapprove. Doesn’t mean we all don’t realize we have to vote for him. We’re just not democrats or Biden fans, so we complain.
But the other side of that coin is that this kind of shit will stop a not insignificant portion of people from voting for him, not understanding what another trump presidency means. Because there are a lot of performative leftists who think holding up an “well I didn’t vote for him” badge is something to be proud of…while LGBTQIA+ people are pushed back into the shadows, sent to conversion therapy, can’t get healthcare, etc. Doing shit like this will turn those people off. And it’s understandable—in a way. Because how can you justify lending your support to someone supporting genocide? Is it really noble to vote blue while they actively aid in the slaughter of Palestinians? Or while they treat immigrants like shit or keep arming police departments to the teeth with war machines and keep passing pro-surveillance laws and working with private equity and participating in every corporatist neoliberal tradition that sickens us all?
Well, it’s the basic concept of harm reduction. Not voting doesn’t help anyone but the non-voter because they get to hop on that high horse any time something goes wrong. It’s an insanely privileged choice, and actually will end up hurting a lot of people if trump wins. That’s the opposite of harm reduction. For example, making drugs legal and handing out free, clean needles, you’re technically supporting people’s destructive addictions. But you’re reducing the harm that inevitable presence of addiction can bring. It’s a good thing to do.
Even if it makes us sick to vote for Biden, neglecting to keep trump from the levers of power is so insanely self-destructive and harmful to vulnerable people and maybe even literally a mistake we will never, ever right. We have a desperate climate emergency on our hands. Four years (if we can actually get him out of office after that) of trump climate policy will literally kill us all.