Pinterest takes my award for most annoying and useless platform on the internet.
Every link to there is trash that never actually shows you what you clicked on. I quite genuinely detest that site and feel like the internet would be a more functional place without #Pinterest clickbait BS mis-directions infesting (image) searches.
Long before #AI was turning everything to crap, Pinterest was already fire-hosing search with BS.
Non-voters, whether for protest or political apathy or other reasons, are so crucial to establishment control.
In the 2016 US presidential election 43.2% of voting age didn't vote.
54.8% voted
24.7% for Hilary
26.3% for Trump
3.8% for others
Even just a small chunk of that 43.2% could have made Trump now a distant memory of failure that was quickly abandoned, and shifted the US political landscape majorly towards more progressive policies, just by denying success to the republicans.
@ArtBear A lot of poor and low-wealth people don’t vote because they don’t think it will change a thing or their vote doesn’t matter. But if even a small percentage of them vote it makes a big difference! If they vote regularly it will radically change politics in this country. That’s why the #poorpeoplescampaign organizes them to vote and engage politically in other ways.
(We are however non-partisan and don’t endorse or oppose specific candidates or parties.)
Economics as a field, having played a front & centre role in severely damaging the viability of planet earth to safely support human life long-term, starts to occasionally experience some mild twinges of introspection from a handful of it's faithful about it's contribution to the state of well, everything.
@ArtBear everyone: "man the autocorrect on my phone is horrible."
Tech companies: "what if we used incredible amounts of compute to increase the scope of it and made it the basis of absolutely everything??"
Foreign media reported #Brexit far more responsibly than UK media.
Foreign media reported #Trump far more responsibly than US media.
#Russia gvt grip on domestic media and blocking of foreign media has served it's population incredibly badly. Which is why Republicans & Conservatives would love to follow suit.
Rendering of a #TinyHomes concept with a definite design nod to solar panel facing / yield. Although I wonder a little about the pitch angle / latitude.
A third of the populace don't vote. Many of them feel politics is just a tool for the rich and powerful, or don't see how it affects their life, are persuaded by apathy and 'nothing really changes', and many also are turned off by the divisions.
Libtard & Snowflake being yelled by 1 third, Nazi and Fascist being yelled by the other third, and a third just check out & wash their hands of it all. Typically those people are not on the #Fediverse and will need to be engaged elsewhere, often more successfully in day to day life, by asking questions and listening.
It's important to speak to non-voters in language they can accept. Things do get worse when we don't vote. Engaged voterbases have better outcomes. Not only will politics shape how most parts of society we take for granted either continue or decline, but also how humanity survives coming challenges (tolerably, badly or or barely at all).
Voting has a direct impact on everyone's day to day life, our healthcare, our age care, our disability care, our childcare, our emergency care, our grocery & utility bills, our kids education, our illness & maternity cover, our pay & working conditions, how safe our food air and water is, and how much everything costs our families.
#TacticalVoting is becoming more important than ever. Yes the rich and powerful try to rig the systems, that's why tactical voting is so important. Here are some good UK resources.
Big shout out to all the folks who can't decide between:
Candidate A who:
Wants to increase genocide in #Ukraine.
Wants to increase genocide in #Gaza.
Wants genocide in #USA.
Will happily order quadruple genocide with a side order of fries.
Doesn't do science, facts or truth.
Does do lies, crimes, conspiracy theories.
Wants to infect you with COVID.
Wants to end democracy in US.
Has tried to end democracy in US.
Is trying again.
Wants to deport or imprison minorities & critics.
Is a racist rapist mobster.
Has committed treason in multiple ways.
Candidate B who:
Hasn't stopped genocide in Gaza. #Trump#Biden
Candidate B will NOT stop democracy in your country.
If you vote for candidate B, you will still get a chance to vote for someone you might prefer, in the future.
If you vote for no-one you get candidate A & his openly anti-democratic supporters, probably for a lot of years, maybe it even takes a civil war to overturn.
@ArtBear Those who think that not voting isn't tipping the balance over to Trump, are not doing the math. Every vote matters. Sometimes a single vote makes the difference. We must outnumber the crazies who will vote in Trump & Corrupt Co.
#Labour took a minus 44% swing having suspended their own candidate over comments on #Israel & #Gaza.
#Galloway won by campaigning on Gaza ceasefire discontent and dissatisfaction with Labour's lack of socialist policies mostly, but also campaigned against trans rights wokeness etc in parts of the constituency. Showing a much more sophisticated micro targeting & granular political machine than most independents can ever muster/afford.
Nominally pro-gaza pro-Muslim Galloway also received support from radical islamaphobe, far right white nationalist Nick Griffin. Which makes absolutely no sense what so ever.
Unless you put stock in factoring they are both the sort of extremist divisive agitators that #Moscow & #Putin seeks to support in driving wedges in to democracies.
The sad loss for the people of Rochdale was decent local independent #DavidTully with a normal independents low level election machine and backing only came in second place. After being entirely ignored by mainstream media, as a decent not inflammatory candidate with integrity that doesn't bait clicks.
Galloway, called a divisive grifter by some & regular on #RussiaToday channel, will doubtless continue to get completely outsized media coverage as an 'exciting figure' that generates views. Many politicians and commentators are already using this upset to 'prove' the UK electorate support some version of their personal views.
#UnpopularOpinion, if people in #USA & #UK on here are serious about 2024 elections & not losing to Republicans & Conservatives in 2024 they need to spend more time talking to swing voters.
That means either getting them in here, on #Fedi, or talking to them where they are.
@Thebratdragon
In Scotland there's a real alternative vote in the SNP.
BTW what the chart is showing is that labour did an excellent job removing food insecurity after Tories. That the 2008 GFC had an impact worldwide but the disgusting explosion in poverty & food insecurity comes from policy changes once Tories implemented new practices, DWP, PiP, DLA, IAS/ATOS, WCA.
#TLDR letting Tories win, creates misery & gets people killed.
❌It's bad if you murder 1 person and you'll probably end up in prison.
✅If they murder hundreds of thousands of people that's just austerity and that's fine.
❌If you steal thousands the law comes after you.
✅If they steal hundreds of millions or even billions in covid fraud they get off scot free.
❌If you lose all your money at the casino you take the consequences.
✅If they lose all of everyone's money making shitty bets on bad property, they get hundreds of billions in free money printed up for them and suffer zero consequences.
Modern justice appears to be basically go big, or go to prison.