If you are looking to help bail water, @teodor_from_achewood recommend Mobilize.us to find opportunities to get started. We are all in this boat together.
So what’s the plan to change it? All I have heard proposed is don’t vote or vote third party. No third party is remotely close to having a real shot in the near term. I am disappointed in Biden on some things like Palestine, but what are my options in the near term? We need to build a progressive grass roots party but that takes time, money, and a lot of work no one seems to want to do. Protests are a path but not one that seems to be making enough impact. I hear so much negativity like this but it seems to all point towards options that won’t fix the issue. Getting Trump back will set back progressive movements drastically with the rights hold on the courts and the house. Biden has done some compromise to the left at least. We need a real path to change and it’s got to be a long term plan because democracies move slowly.
I get the people are too nervous to do it this election cycle, but the real answer is to create an organized movement in which you explicitly tell Democrats they will not get your votes unless they change course.
Let’s say that this movement occurs within the next four years and not during this election cycle. If they genuinely want to win, they will have to capitulate. We just need to give them enough time in advance and the make clear concise demands.
Join up withElection Science and switch your elections to Approval Voting. That’s the first step. Approval means it’s always safe to vote for your favorite, so third parties will start to see their true level of support in elections with approval voting.
But, if we leave it there we won’t get more than a few extra third party candidates in office because single-winner elections always force two-party dominance. So once we get enough elections switched to approval, we go to multi-winner elections in legislative districts and use Sequential Proportional Approval Voting. Which is just the multi-winner version.
Approval is a very easy switch. If your election commission can do at-large elections (practically guaranteed) then they can do approval elections just by setting the selection limit to the number is candidates in the race.
Let me know if you want to know more. Running a referendum campaign is a lot of work and massively rewarding. It’s the kind of “bigger than yourself” project that really makes people love their community.
Changing the voting system would do a lot. First Past the Post sort of locks in a 2 party only matchup, and if we move to a better system (ranked choice, star, etc), third party candidates would be a real option and we could start to make those changes you want. As always, it starts local, some places are doing it already, we just need to keep expanding.
All I have heard proposed is don’t vote or vote third party.
This is how the Conservatives ensure they can keep drilling holes. All research points to vote-splitting or abstaining as helping the cons, since a hallmark of their culture is loyalty over all.
Meme is missing another citizen not bailing and saying “just vote for someone else” and then a body floating face down in the water that says “3rd party candidates”.
Oh and approximately 2 more citizens dumping buckets of water back in the boat, screaming about how their rights to drill holes come from god and that the people bailing water are what is really wrong with the whole boat.
Or is it enough to say that I was just sharing what could very generously be called art to express my point of view and hoped that it resonated with folk and would prompt discussion that might be in it’s own small way a part of the change I hope to see?
People on this sub react to memes that criticize both parties without explicitly mentioning they still vote for Biden, the way that most Westerners react to somebody criticizing Israel without explicitly mentioning they condemn the October 7th attack.
On the contrary, it all matters. Try like hell, go down kicking and screaming, vote for Biden if only to prevent more holes from being drilled, push for class consciousness and solidarity, get organized, get involved, and bail water like crazy.
Just don’t mistake where you are in this image, and don’t mistake the Dems for allies, they are at best a useful tool.
I spend my available volunteer time assisting a local homeless shelter, and I donate roughly 3% of my income on supporting groups that I believe do good. Much less than I’d like, but I believe every bit helps.
Your not wrong (well I kinda hope my donations help on those fronts or I’m throwing away money¯\(ツ)/¯ ), and focusing on the big political goals is extremely important. But I’ve got my own battles to face and I do what I can with the time I’ve got.
But I fully appreciate folks like you who are at the front lines of these issues! I checked out the mobilize.us site you recommend, and it seems like a good way for folks to get involved if they don’t know where to start. If you don’t mind, I’d like to add it as a recommendation to the text of the meme.
They absolutely can. When you’re a hectomillionaire or richer or good enough friends with one, you don’t depend on a functional society to be safe. They made sure of that.
A man with a hundred million dollars in 1990s Mogadishu would be safer than a man with a hundred thousand dollars in 2020s Milwaukee.
A man with a hundred million dollars in 2060 is worth the same as a man with 0 dollars, because once global society collapses so do your dollars.
These geniuses think they can escape to their bunkers and keep their security forces loyal to them. That won’t happen, the people with the guns will take the land and the resources and leave the billionaires dead.
A man with a hundred million dollars in 2060 is worth the same as a man with 0 dollars, because once global society collapses so do your dollars
Nah, they’ll have ways around that such as alternate currencies or converting their money to gold or other valuable commodities.
They’re already own or are increasingly owning all sources of food, fresh water, large scale power generation and fuel.
Also, you’re REALLY underestimating how much the people with the most guns love following authoritarian leaders unquestioningly. Blind obedience of authority figures is one of the cornerstones of their religion, after all…
The food is going to be among the first things to fall. The climate will make growing large amounts of crops increasingly difficult, regardless of money thrown at the problem. Once food becomes globally insecure, the rich will be worldwide targets. The rich are not escaping the hell that’s coming. Their wealth will help them suffer it a little longer than the rest of us though. No one is getting out of this. Money can’t buy off extinction.
The real tragedy to me is neither one of us are. Weird time to say it, but I appreciate your consistency in making posts that push for a better future.
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