this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
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Although a lot of the other points deserve (more?) attention, I just want to share this because I never thought how hard this would feel.
I'm in my early 30s and come from a very apolitical family. About 1.5 months ago I voted for the first time in my life. At an embassy in the fraudulent Russian election.
Of course I knew my vote would not count. I always knew that every Russian election since I was a kid was a fraud. I did it for a statement and to partake in an event that resembled a demonstration, to do the limited thing I can do. But I would have never imagined that feeling that would hit me once I had actually voted.
After standing in line and passing the security checkpoints and ruining the bulletin (which in theory should count as a vote against everyone in the percentages). Once it was done. I was... furious, enraged, desperate. Much more than I thought. On a rational level I knew my vote didn't matter. The results were already calculated no matter what. Even before I got in line. No matter whether I had smuggled in my non erasable pen or not. But once I had actually voted for the first time, I didn't want anything more than this vote to count. Not to win, just for someone to acknowledge that bulletin. I felt so angry and helpless and I wanted to scream until my lungs would start to bleed.
So, yes, this freaking matters. I hope none of you will ever feel this way after voting. And for the love of God, if you have a passport of a country who has somewhat fair elections, please go vote.
I feel the same way after voting in Texas. Different method for caging and disenfranchising voters, but the outcomes are functionally the same.
I don't think presuming my vote will be traunched and kettled and rendered meaningless through statistical manipulation feels any better simply because I know it will be counted. Its still a rigged game. The outcomes are overwhelmingly predetermined.
What I want more than anything is for my city of Houston to go its own way. To be independent of the corrupt cesspool of bigotry and fear that dominates the capital building. I don't want to simply be counted in the minority. I want my independence.
Your vote is not just counted, but even meaningful. Shenaningans in Texas try to affect the outcome by playing with things to control the odds and making it more difficult for “the wrong people” to vote. It’s really an entirely different scale.
Texas Conservatives are manipulating the vote with “legal” actions and can only affect percentages. A likely result is very different than a predetermined result. A “legal” manipulation is subject to at least some checks and balances and can be changed, which is very different from something that can just be dictated by those in power
do you know anyone who'd choose joe biden? like honestly, if there was a better option?
do you know anyohe who'd choose Donald trump, other than brainwashed fanatical cultists who literally worship him?
over 60% of Americans, and even a majority of republicans, want, according to polls: single payer or otherwise socialized healthcare-no more insurance, federally legal cannabis, abortion access. I suspect the numbers are similar for: tax the rich, net neutrality (once explained), do something about climate change, stop all the bridges collapsing, gimme public transit(maybe), and 'don't give the military obscenely expensive shit they've literally said they can't use', maybe also 'stop cops killing randos in their homes while they sleep what the fuck'.
weird how none of that is happening and we have the precise opposite being done on most of that.
its not the same, you need to pretend more, but for me, sitting here? its not different enough that I can really throw stones.