FAQ
Q: why not organize and stop treating the bus as a legitimate entity? why aren’t you working to stop the bus?
A: do both. cut the fuel line. break windows. put oatmeal in the gas tank. but maybe your efforts don’t succeed this election cycle. and if so don’t fucking throw away your vote if it can help your neighbors fucking survive. “harm reduction” is not a political strategy for action. it is a last minute, end of the line decision to save lives, after all other resources have been exhausted.
voting is not harm reduction
i see a lotta people saying that with not a lotta evidence.
i challenge you to tell that to an LGBT person facing a growing wave of anti transgender bills
perhaps try arguing that to the women and medical professionals who fear legal action for what used to be standard medical procedure resulting from the overturning of Roe v Wade.
tell that to Gazans who are undergoing forced starvation with genocidal intent, a process that one of the presidential candidates has vowed to “finish.”
sure, maybe voting isn’t harm reduction. but it seems capable of reducing at least a little bit of harm so…
harm reduction has a specific meaning. voting for fascist politicians isn’t harm reduction whether they are red or blue.
Have you considered that fascism is a spectrum that starts at colonialism (genocide Joe) and ends at dismantling democracy at home (Trump)? Ask yourself who is served by ignoring this nuance. Hint: it isn’t the working class.
I disagree that the nuance is meaningful, or that ignoring it doesn’t serve the working class
so don’t vote for fascist politicians then.
genuinely what is your goal for this conversation? that i tell people it’s in their and their loved ones’ best interest to sit this election out?
i for real don’t get the motive of this talking point except to sow complacency, and complacency has given life to fascism pretty darn effectively in recent history.
my goal is that you would stop misinforming people about what harm reduction is.
okay
It is when not voting risks harming people
https://www.indigenousaction.org/voting-is-not-harm-reduction-an-indigenous-perspective/
“I’m punishing the system by not voting” is still working within the system.
no one said they were punishing the system by not voting
This article is such an interesting case given that it somehow has achieved nearing 100% SEO coverage for “voting harm reduction” on all search engines since its publication and my first reading of it in February 2020. I don’t know why that is. While I do appreciate the dedication and values that go into it, unfortunately I find the output of this organization in general to be exceptionally and painfully polemical such that the arguments put forward are incredibly hard to find compelling. I don’t expect anyone to adopt my opinion on this; this is only my personal perspective.
That said, I do want to share this article by an Indigenous legal scholar, Ashley Courchene, which tends to be more balanced in my view: https://policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/election-2019-moving-beyond-“-vote-or-not-vote”
I’ll try to finish it this week.