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Memes @midwest.social seahorse [Ohio] @midwest.social

Aren't you?

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  • I’m missing the part where the word matters more than what’s actually happening. If your best defense of Biden is “Well AHKTUALLY! Technically Biden isn’t a fascist because of whatever definition I’m using!” What are we doing here? Just say you don’t care about hurting people. It’ll make things go a lot faster.

    EDIT: Or if I'm being slightly more charitable: Even if you aren't ok with hurting people, you view the decision to support current harm being done to people as at worst a neutral act, and possibly even positive since it could be worse. You don't see how your support for the status quo enables continued once sided violence rather than keeping a fictitious peace.

    What I'm telling you is that you ARE making a decision and that decision IS for more state and structural violence. But you're too caught up in the fantasy land that is definitions and respectability politics.

    I'm deflecting from talking about the definitions? You're using definitions to deflect from reality. What do you even want? If I copy pasted a definition from Wikipedia or the dictionary would you then be happy and engage with the reality of what's actually going on? Are you then going to talk about sending weapons to arm a genocide or grossly expanding the surveillance state? Or will you just move on to some other pedantry?

    • It's not the end-all for me. That's why it matters. Genocide is bad, and I'm sure we both agree. But imagine you can choose a candidate who supports a genocidal regime or you choose a candidate who supports a genocidal regime and makes being LGBTQ federally illegal, and makes abortion federally illegal, and plans to install a theocracy.

      One of those two will be president next year. Period. Choosing a third option will only help Trump, who has a reliable and rabid voting base.

      • You can choose your own moral logic, but for me I don't think this argument holds much value.

        • For one, it takes it as a given that some of that suffering will happen regardless and we are powerless to do anything about it. We're not. There is another choice, you're just not willing to accept it as valid.

        • By supporting the system which causes this suffering, you are enabling the suffering. Period. You are saying "We will not oppose you doing these things as long as you're not doing some other things." Except of course even those other things are on the table because you've already backed yourselves into a position where any amount of evil is acceptable if there is a greater one out there somewhere.

        • How can you assign and weigh the moral value of the suffering of any given group against any other? Do LGBTQ rights for the imperial core help the people getting bombed in various countries around the world? Does the legal right to an abortion help the people who don't have financial access to get one for lack of healthcare? (Remember, in America, a right is only a right if you can afford to exercise it.) How do you even begin to compare the value of any given policy (or lack of policy) to the harm done by living in a surveillance state?

        To me, the harm reduction argument is one that says "We are ok with trading the rights of some people for other people and we believe we have the right to make that decision for those groups." It's horrifyingly easy to hand wave away the suffering of people you don't know. But if you were living in Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Vietnam, Korea, Cuba... actually it'll be faster if I just link this: https://archive.globalpolicy.org/us-westward-expansion/26024-us-interventions.html

        If you were one of the people impacted by US imperialism... would you still make the same choice? Would you still support the US government because a different US government might hurt some US people you don't know?

        • How can you assign and weigh the moral value of the suffering of any given group against any other?

          Because genocide is bad, but genocide plus other human rights violations is worse. Seems like simple logic, to me. Sucks that those are the choices.

          If you were one of the people impacted by US imperialism... would you still make the same choice? Would you still support the US government because a different US government might hurt some US people you don't know?

          1. Probably not.
          2. Yes. And therein lies the difficult choice. It would be much easier if one was obviously better in every way. Real life is much messier, unfortunately, and I can either clutch my pearls and remain "morally pure," whatever good that does, or I can choose the least bad option. Also, the "different government" would definitely hurt people I know, because that's what it did previously and that's what its proponents do currently.

          So for me, it's "choose Joe Biden," who will be complicit in Gazan genocide, or it's "choose Trump," who will be complicit in Gazan genocide and hurt me, people like me, and people I know. If I vote for "third party person" who has zero chance of winning and Trump wins, I will bear the blame for failing to act in my best interest, and my moral purity won't save anyone. If I vote third party and Biden wins, it will be in spite of me, and I will get to enjoy the benefits of people who weren't afraid to get their hands dirty while also being indebted to them.

          And that is not a position in which I wish to find myself.

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