Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) shares his message to voters in the Uncommitted Movement who are considering not voting in the presidential race over the Biden administration's handling of Israel.
You need to realise that the world is not black and white - it exists in shades of grey where nobody gets everything they want, and have to accept compromise for the greater good. You seem to be stuck in a mental state where you can’t bring yourself to vote for a party that isn’t offering a perfect world to you, and you must get past that and look at the bigger picture, and the impact of disgruntled blue voters staying home in protest. If trump wins, your protest will have contributed to that win, and you’ll have to live with that.
If trump wins, your protest will have contributed to that win, and you’ll have to live with that.
No, I promise you, I won’t. Me living with being in a world where killing innocent people is politically acceptable is far more harmful than the guilt I will feel on Trump winning. This is because my protest is not contributing anything to that win whatsoever. You might as well ask me to feel unhappy that the moon has craters when I - as far as I can tell - am not a large mass hurtling through space that has hit the moon.
If Trump wins, then that will simply show that enough Americans want to hurt innocent people. As is shown by America being a country which finds itself unable to strongly counter IDF terrorism visited upon Palestinians.
I will be sad, but I won’t be completely surprised.
I say it again: my protest will have no effect on Trump winning.
My protest will also have no effect on innocent lives being taken. This is because we live in a morally grey world, where people can rationalise harming innocent people as an acceptable byproduct of doing business. After all, the price of compromise for me getting a better candidate is allowing brown strangers to die. Doesn’t that sound great? I deserve more than them. I’m not brown, after all! It’s their fault for being born where they are.
And, finally, my protest will have no effect on Trump winning.
You can tell yourself that but it doesn’t change the reality that you will have directly contributed to Trump’s victory, and the elimination of the Palestinian people (and as anyone who knows anything about WW2 will tell you: genocides can get worse).
Well in that case, despite my attempts to educate you, you’re simply delusional, and I’m not saying that to insult you - I really want to help you see the bigger picture here - I’m saying it because you’re suffering from delusion, and you’re not seeing the world for what it is. You are so focused on “punishing” the dems for not blocking aid to Israel (and to that point, I strongly recommend you read the comment below at https://lemmy.nz/post/15784628/11773697 as to why it isn’t as simple as you might think), that you’re willing to throw away what could be a deciding vote - the polls right now are so even that even a few hundred votes in the right places could throw the election the other way. Perhaps you live in a solid blue state, where you expect Harris to win regardless of how you vote, but when you post comments such as yours on a public forum, other people are going to read them, and be influenced, and if your post makes someone stop and think ‘hmm… you know what, I don’t agree with Biden’s actions, so I’m going to abstain and punish them’, and those voters are in swing states, then your actions will have had consequences. Your anger is preventing you from being able to see the bigger picture.
As for your comment that I’m seeing things in black and white, you couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m not even an American, so I literally have no vote here, but the outcome of this election will have global consequences that will impact me, and that’s why I’m keen for common sense to prevail, and for Harris to win. That’s why, all things considered, and despite objections I may have to Biden, or even Harris’s policies as they impact the rest of the world, the alternative, where Trump wins another term, simply does not bear thinking about.
I promise you, my protest against killing innocent people will have no effect on Trump winning. You might be seeing things in black and white.
I don’t know why you can’t take me at my word.
that’s why I’m keen for common sense to prevail, and for Harris to win
I’m not fond of a ‘common sense’ which allows for the killing of innocents. Can we please establish a ‘common sense’ which agrees that killing innocent people is wrong? Reducing harm is great, I agree, but not from a benchmark of ‘still kill innocent people’. That is simply not acceptable.
Also, to some people ‘common sense’ is to vote for a fascist. It’s what people want. If enough people want that in a democratic system, what are you going to do? ‘Common sense’ won’t help, if it is ‘common’ enough to ‘sense’ that fascism is good.
Perhaps ‘common sense’ was a poor choice of terminology there, because it’s often far from common, or sensible, and I suspect your idea of common sense would differ from mine. in any case.
That said, what I meant by the term was that if you look at the bigger picture, instead of fixating on one aspect, you’ll see that there are so many other factors to consider here - woman’s rights, lgbtq recognition, racism, sexism, work class quality of life, minimum wage, unions, and so much more, and that every single one of those would become worse under a trump presidency, for everyone except methheads with guns, and the disgustingly-wealthy. I’m going to assume that you’re not in either of those groups.
I do not wish to participate in a system where I am forced to trade the lives of children for my own rights as a queer person, as a feminist, etc.
I do not accept that my health and ease are more important than the health and ease of others.
I will die, at some point, regardless of who wins the election.
I will know suffering, at many points, regardless of who wins the election.
I will have my identities scoffed at, at many points, regardless of who wins the election.
The one thing I can be sure of is that I protect my values, which tell me that I am not better than anyone else simply because of my perspective, and that I accept the loss of their life for no good reason as little as I would accept the loss of my own.
Don’t worry - the Terminally Online Leftists will change their tune from “It won’t change the election” to “If Palestine gets genocided by Israel, it’s only fair minorities in the US are genocided too”.
Again, you’re treating both options as if they were equally bad, and they are most certainly not.
You say that both will result in the deaths of innocent people, but you completely ignore the scale. It’s like if you had to choose between being punched in the face once, or every day for the rest of your life, you would choose neither, because you don’t want to be punched in the face, but while you’re standing on your soapbox protesting face punching, the election rolled on, the worse option won by a handful of votes, and now you’re going to be punched in the face every day, regardless of what you wanted.
If Trump wins, and you think that you can absolve yourself of any responsibility for what he will do in Gaza, or Ukraine, or for any other suffering resulting from his callous narcissism, then you’re just fooling yourself. If trump wins, I will have no sympathy whatsoever for people who refused to vote, out of some sad idea of holding themselves to their principles, while at the same time allowing a literal fascist to take power.
Who exactly do you think is sending arms to Israel? Who is rubber stamping the budget?
There are several actors involved in this dance including the Republican House of Representatives and the military industrial complex.
Russia is killing innocent people and will kill many more when Trump “ends the war in Ukraine” by giving Russia Ukraine. Trump will give Gaza and likely Lebanon to Netanyahu. So because innocent people have been killed you’re like whoa, guess I gotta step back and advocate for the terrible perspective of not voting at all, a stance that is supported by propaganda actors backing a Trump win.
Evil includes seeing evil being done and choosing to do nothing, and advocating for the side of doing nothing.
Evil includes seeing evil being done and choosing to do nothing
Agreed, and it is terrible that Dem politicians do that. It makes it hard to pick between the two parties when they both allow the killing of innocents to happen.
What do you want me to do? I can’t vote in an election for a country which I am not a citizen, a country I’ve never even visited.
You need to realise that the world is not black and white - it exists in shades of grey where nobody gets everything they want, and have to accept compromise for the greater good. You seem to be stuck in a mental state where you can’t bring yourself to vote for a party that isn’t offering a perfect world to you, and you must get past that and look at the bigger picture, and the impact of disgruntled blue voters staying home in protest. If trump wins, your protest will have contributed to that win, and you’ll have to live with that.
Samvega isn’t even American. Don’t bother trying to talk with them about this.
Dammit, I got trolled.
No, I promise you, I won’t. Me living with being in a world where killing innocent people is politically acceptable is far more harmful than the guilt I will feel on Trump winning. This is because my protest is not contributing anything to that win whatsoever. You might as well ask me to feel unhappy that the moon has craters when I - as far as I can tell - am not a large mass hurtling through space that has hit the moon.
If Trump wins, then that will simply show that enough Americans want to hurt innocent people. As is shown by America being a country which finds itself unable to strongly counter IDF terrorism visited upon Palestinians.
I will be sad, but I won’t be completely surprised.
I say it again: my protest will have no effect on Trump winning.
My protest will also have no effect on innocent lives being taken. This is because we live in a morally grey world, where people can rationalise harming innocent people as an acceptable byproduct of doing business. After all, the price of compromise for me getting a better candidate is allowing brown strangers to die. Doesn’t that sound great? I deserve more than them. I’m not brown, after all! It’s their fault for being born where they are.
And, finally, my protest will have no effect on Trump winning.
You can tell yourself that but it doesn’t change the reality that you will have directly contributed to Trump’s victory, and the elimination of the Palestinian people (and as anyone who knows anything about WW2 will tell you: genocides can get worse).
I promise you, that is not possible.
Oh right, you can’t vote.
They aren’t American
You’re quite mistaken about that. You will be responsible for trump if you had the option to vote against him and chose not to do so.
I promise you, my protest against killing innocent people will have no effect on Trump winning. You might be seeing things in black and white.
Well in that case, despite my attempts to educate you, you’re simply delusional, and I’m not saying that to insult you - I really want to help you see the bigger picture here - I’m saying it because you’re suffering from delusion, and you’re not seeing the world for what it is. You are so focused on “punishing” the dems for not blocking aid to Israel (and to that point, I strongly recommend you read the comment below at https://lemmy.nz/post/15784628/11773697 as to why it isn’t as simple as you might think), that you’re willing to throw away what could be a deciding vote - the polls right now are so even that even a few hundred votes in the right places could throw the election the other way. Perhaps you live in a solid blue state, where you expect Harris to win regardless of how you vote, but when you post comments such as yours on a public forum, other people are going to read them, and be influenced, and if your post makes someone stop and think ‘hmm… you know what, I don’t agree with Biden’s actions, so I’m going to abstain and punish them’, and those voters are in swing states, then your actions will have had consequences. Your anger is preventing you from being able to see the bigger picture.
As for your comment that I’m seeing things in black and white, you couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m not even an American, so I literally have no vote here, but the outcome of this election will have global consequences that will impact me, and that’s why I’m keen for common sense to prevail, and for Harris to win. That’s why, all things considered, and despite objections I may have to Biden, or even Harris’s policies as they impact the rest of the world, the alternative, where Trump wins another term, simply does not bear thinking about.
I promise you, my protest against killing innocent people will have no effect on Trump winning. You might be seeing things in black and white. I don’t know why you can’t take me at my word.
I’m not fond of a ‘common sense’ which allows for the killing of innocents. Can we please establish a ‘common sense’ which agrees that killing innocent people is wrong? Reducing harm is great, I agree, but not from a benchmark of ‘still kill innocent people’. That is simply not acceptable.
Also, to some people ‘common sense’ is to vote for a fascist. It’s what people want. If enough people want that in a democratic system, what are you going to do? ‘Common sense’ won’t help, if it is ‘common’ enough to ‘sense’ that fascism is good.
Perhaps ‘common sense’ was a poor choice of terminology there, because it’s often far from common, or sensible, and I suspect your idea of common sense would differ from mine. in any case.
That said, what I meant by the term was that if you look at the bigger picture, instead of fixating on one aspect, you’ll see that there are so many other factors to consider here - woman’s rights, lgbtq recognition, racism, sexism, work class quality of life, minimum wage, unions, and so much more, and that every single one of those would become worse under a trump presidency, for everyone except methheads with guns, and the disgustingly-wealthy. I’m going to assume that you’re not in either of those groups.
I do not wish to participate in a system where I am forced to trade the lives of children for my own rights as a queer person, as a feminist, etc.
I do not accept that my health and ease are more important than the health and ease of others.
I will die, at some point, regardless of who wins the election.
I will know suffering, at many points, regardless of who wins the election.
I will have my identities scoffed at, at many points, regardless of who wins the election.
The one thing I can be sure of is that I protect my values, which tell me that I am not better than anyone else simply because of my perspective, and that I accept the loss of their life for no good reason as little as I would accept the loss of my own.
Again, you’re treating both options as if they were equally bad, and they are most certainly not.
You say that both will result in the deaths of innocent people, but you completely ignore the scale. It’s like if you had to choose between being punched in the face once, or every day for the rest of your life, you would choose neither, because you don’t want to be punched in the face, but while you’re standing on your soapbox protesting face punching, the election rolled on, the worse option won by a handful of votes, and now you’re going to be punched in the face every day, regardless of what you wanted.
If Trump wins, and you think that you can absolve yourself of any responsibility for what he will do in Gaza, or Ukraine, or for any other suffering resulting from his callous narcissism, then you’re just fooling yourself. If trump wins, I will have no sympathy whatsoever for people who refused to vote, out of some sad idea of holding themselves to their principles, while at the same time allowing a literal fascist to take power.
I’m heading to bed now.
Who exactly do you think is sending arms to Israel? Who is rubber stamping the budget? There are several actors involved in this dance including the Republican House of Representatives and the military industrial complex.
Russia is killing innocent people and will kill many more when Trump “ends the war in Ukraine” by giving Russia Ukraine. Trump will give Gaza and likely Lebanon to Netanyahu. So because innocent people have been killed you’re like whoa, guess I gotta step back and advocate for the terrible perspective of not voting at all, a stance that is supported by propaganda actors backing a Trump win.
Evil includes seeing evil being done and choosing to do nothing, and advocating for the side of doing nothing.
Agreed, and it is terrible that Dem politicians do that. It makes it hard to pick between the two parties when they both allow the killing of innocents to happen.
What do you want me to do? I can’t vote in an election for a country which I am not a citizen, a country I’ve never even visited.
Your advocating for the side of doing nothing is evil.