• x00za@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    1 day ago

    Hexbear people go two ways. They either come up with an amazing take, or they decide to manifest all of the collective stupid into 1 post.

    This one is the latter.

  • Randelung@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    2 days ago

    Never understood the “throw your vote away” thing. Only one person will win. Almost 50% of people will not vote for them in any given election. Did they “throw their vote away” by not voting for the winner? That’s just what voting is.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      In the US, the statement only truly applies when voting for a 3rd party, due to how our absolutely fucked FPTP + gerrymandered + electoral college system works, which additionally gives rural (predominantly conservative) areas disproportionately more electoral power. The bar is very literally higher for liberal (in the American sense of the term, not the European/global sense) presidential candidates. So if you vote green or socialist or whatever, you are absolutely voting against your ostensible interests in a statistically-provable sense.

      • Randelung@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 day ago

        I fear the expression leads to voter fatigue. Why bother if 65% votes one way and I’d vote the other. But what they don’t factor in is that if EVERYONE voted, those margins are small.

        • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          1 day ago

          For me, I go through the motions under the assumption that the other side is going to show up in droves, and am then pleasantly surprised if they don’t and it’s not that close. But that’s the nature of voting - you don’t really know whether YOUR vote will “make the difference” until after the fact.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 day ago

        But realistically, it really doesn’t matter in more than 3/4 of the country, due to how the Electoral College works. If your preferred candidate lost by more than all third party votes combined, there’s zero way your vote could’ve changed anything.

        And that’s the situation I live in. My state (Utah) almost always gives 65%+ of the vote to the R candidate. In 2016, Trump won w/ only 45% of the vote, but that’s because the other 20% or so went to Evan McMullin (Hilary got ~27% of the vote). I even tried voting Biden in 2020 because I figured people hated Trump enough (he got dead last in the primary here in 2016, below candidates that had already withdrawn), and I guess I helped because Trump only got 58% of the vote to Biden’s 38%. Excluding McMullin (basically a conservative), third parties got 5.5% in 2016 and 4.2% in 2020. I’d be very surprised if Trump gets less than 60% of the vote this election.

        It really doesn’t matter who I vote for, so I make my vote count by voting third party. If they get enough votes, people will take them more seriously and politicians might take some of their policy positions.

    • spidermanchild@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 day ago

      Totally agree. It’s like saying scoring a goal was a waste when your team still lost. Just score the damn goal and move on.

      IMO people often attach way too much meaning to what a vote even is. It doesn’t mean that you are swearing fealty to or even agree with them, it literally just means you think that person is better for the seat. I vote in every single election for every single race, it’s just not even a consideration that someone wouldn’t live up to my moral code on every issue because that’s not what a vote even means to me. Vote early and vote often, and stop letting candidates define you.

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 day ago

    While I strongly disagree with the dogwhistles here, it’s true. If your state voted for Trump or Clinton/Biden with >10% margin in the last two elections, there’s almost zero chance the Trump/Harris election will go any differently.

    I personally dislike both major party candidates (but dislike Trump more) and since my state (Utah) voted for Trump with ~20% margin in both prior elections (even in 2016 w/ McMullin taking >20% of the vote), I feel comfortable voting my conscience. I even voted for Biden last election on the off-chance that people here hated Trump enough to matter, but no, >20% spread.

    So I’m back to voting third party. Even if every third party vote went to Harris, my state would still elect Trump with something like 15-25% spread. The only way that changes is if Kamala converts to my state’s predominant religion and Trump literally outs himself as worshipping Satan, and even then we’d probably still go with Trump for some stupid reason.

    So I vote for the next most popular third party, and in this case, that’s Chase Oliver from the Libertarian Party. I’m also registered Libertarian, mostly because I think they have the best chance to actually get a message out about voting reform, but also because I’m probably closest to their views (though I disagree with the LP on a ton of issues, especially recently, and especially the local UT LP). He’ll probably get 2-3% of the vote, perhaps less this year because he’s gay. If that instead were the Green Party, I’d vote for them (even though I have even less in common), because my goal here is to send a message that the 2-party system sucks.

    If your state is that polarized, there’s really no point in voting for the minority party candidate, go third party and make a statement.

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 day ago

      I’m glad you’re sending a message about the two-party system in a way that actually matters. Voting third party in a state that will never change is like, the one time it’s safe and effective to do that.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 day ago

        Exactly, yet I get so much pushback on that.

        Yes, if your state has any chance of flipping, choose the lesser of two evils. And don’t just look at the last election, look at the last 5 or so. If any of them were anywhere near close, vote for the lesser of two evils. Or if your state is trending toward being competitive, vote for the lesser of two evils. If you’re not willing to check, vote for the lesser of two evils.

        But if your state consistently votes a certain way with a huge margin, then vote your conscience. For me, that’s the most popular third party.

        • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 day ago

          believing your state is hard locked in one party is exactly the mindset that makes it hard locked. My state is ‘hard red’ but it wasn’t always like that. California was a solid red state but no longer is. Until we have ranked voting, we’re stuck with two parties at the federal level. Voting 3rd is only serves to signal to the majority parties where to not waste their energy.

          • Fox@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 day ago

            Donald Trump actually showed up to the Libertarian National Convention, I don’t think such an arrogant dickwad would have bothered if he didn’t think it was important to appeal to third party voters. They already spend less time in their ‘safe’ states.

  • Maxnmy's@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    98
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    I don’t understand why these people who pretend to be supreme leftists are putting alt-right dogwhistles in the Democratic candidate’s name. I guess you can just call everyone you don’t like a Nazi when everyone who disagrees in your echo chamber gets banned.

      • Maxnmy's@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        2 days ago

        I’m not unconvinced that the whole leftist presence on that federated side of Lemmy is a psyop.

      • AMillionNames@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        2 days ago

        My bet is on troll factory workers slinging ideas around to see what and who sticks, and then they continue to sling ideas with their growing group. That was what the early days strategy of The_Donald on reddit were.

        It doesn’t matter that lemmy is relatively unimportant, what matters to them is having a testbed for what is and isn’t sticking along with growing a crowd of supporters they might be able to take elsewhere where it matters.

      • GHiLA@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        They tried to pretend Lemmy was just software and call “their platform” Haxbear, in some sad attempt to culture-roll Lemmy itself.

        Not a really square plan when 90% of the user base are leftist socialist code-monkies.

        They should rename Haxbear to “Rekt Center”.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      51
      ·
      2 days ago

      I mean, they’re in there praising nations that are state capitalist and producing hundreds of billionaires, so it clearly isn’t the leftist economy part that they like.

      They want Donald to win so that China and Russia can gain more global influence. I guess they are bad at propaganda and just forwarding what their MAGA allies invent or something. Makes sense, they all have the same goals this election.

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 days ago

      The political spectrum is a circle. If you go to far left or right, authoritarian ideas start making sense to you, you parrot authoritarian talking points, everyone who doesn’t agree with your extreme ideas about how the world ought to be is either weak or evil, and you end up kissing the boots of some authoritarian leader or other.

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 hour ago

        In this case kissing the boots of several great world supreme leaders who just happened to be responsible for the deaths of millions.

      • frezik@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        2 days ago

        Horseshoe theory is bunk. The extreme left is full of anarchists, not authoritarians. What appears to be authoritarian left cares more about replacing US worldwide influence with Chinese or Russian influence than actually building a more leftist society.

    • emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      2 days ago

      Im not even on hexbear but i see it fairly often. Im also not american so maybe that gives me some different perspective, but do you really not get it or are you just being obtuse? Kamala and biden are actively supporting a genocide, and thats not even hyperbole. Theyre sending billions of dollars of weapons. Its not like they just wont publicly condemn israel, theyre explicitly and outright supporting them. Say that trump would be worse all you want, but the nazi association seems obvious when you considee that theyre actively supplying weapons to a genocidal regime.

        • emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          I probably would vote for her. But i also wouldnt attack people raising legitimate concerns, and i would try to put as much fucking pressure on the democratic party to stop fucking around as i could, which means not unconditionally supporting them no matter what they do.

          • Fox@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 day ago

            If you’re not just taking the piss, you should really know that Hexbear absolutely does not deserve the benefit of the doubt in hearing out their arguments. There is always a punchline in the form the shittiest take imaginable.

          • Twentytwodividedby7@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            22
            ·
            2 days ago

            I get it, but stop pretending that Trump wouldn’t be so much worse. Trump has literally said he would give Isreal carte blanche.

            That is your alternative. Voting 3rd party is just going to help Trump since he has never won the popular vote.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    40
    ·
    2 days ago

    It takes a lot of personal discontinuity to say that either the KKK or the SS would be voting for a black woman.

    And yes, personal discontinuity is meant to be a nice way to say: you dumb.

  • jbk@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    31
    ·
    2 days ago

    these people remind me of 4chan. idk if they’re trolling, and there’s definitely a chance that they’re not. also yeah most seem like idiots or sadly really brainwashed

  • drdiddlybadger@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    2 days ago

    Abortion is on the ballot in ten states that isn’t good for Republicans at all. Expect to see way more trolls talking about how they are suddenly voting for the green party despite there being an actual socialist candidate to vote for. Republicans are desperate and know they’re in for big losses if they can’t pull something out.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 hour ago

      I’m pretty sure the majority of the US does not want someone that is so far left. That’s the mistake of the democrats. They are pleasing the most loyal democrats at the cost of the swing voters. The 2024 election was almost a 50/50. There is no way Harris is going to win this as it doesn’t take much to make her lose. Also a lot of original Biden supports have lost faith and are considering voting for Trump.

      Some back to me after the election and tell me I’m wrong

    • uienia@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      2 days ago

      The thing is that it is on their own internal instance from which most other instances have defederated, so the audience they are trolling are mainly themselves. That kinda debunks the “they are only trolling/baiting” claims in my view.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 hour ago

      Ah yes, the organization that used to work with police to carry out public linchings. They are so incredibly liberal and inclusive

  • multifariace@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    2 days ago

    Florida has seen a huge increase of Republicans moving here from states where they were the underdogs. I expect a much wider margin in red favor this year. I would expect the compliment is true, that their states will have a wider blue margin. That is as long as they aren’t committing voter fraud in one or the other state.

    • osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      2 days ago

      That is as long as they aren’t committing voter fraud in one or the other state

      I hope you realized it as you were typing it