[ edit: if you're going to complain about this, you have to actually read it instead of trying to replace it with your own knee-jerk reality you came up with after the first paragraph. Thanks in advance :). I'm fine with discussion but, c'mon. At the very least do a cursory web search on what you're bringing to bear, thanks. ]
T'other day I saw someone say, basically, that the US was lost to fascism, a trump win was inevitable, and thats why you shouldn't vote for biden. Ol' sleepy joe. Who can't make it through a debate and keeps fucking up on live TV (as anyone does... it just doesn't get covered when it doesn't fit into a narrative.)
And I need to ask, why are you yelling about things that the opposition wants you shouting about? That they want you shouting because then they can re-task resources they otherwise would have dedicated to pushing that?
You're choosing neither opponents, nor winners, nor people who you have to feel moral obligations for putting a ballot in -- you're choosing the field and conditions of battle upon which the next four years of anti-fascism will have to be fought. That's all presidential elections are here anymore. Since the 70s, really. This year, as with most years, the vote is for administrations, not presidents. One of the admins puts sand in some of the gears of the machine, and the other one just slathers them with lubricant and turns up the engine RPM.
For the sake of those of us who are or will be busy fighting it, I do ask you to at least stop yelling about the convenient narrative while couching it in concern for elders when you're adding one more drop to the stress that's likely not making things better for them, let alone a whole lot of ableism around armchair diagnoses of Parkinson's that don't actually show. We don't need another generation of anti-fascists to burn themselves out, or the old ones to do it a third, fourth, fifth, sixth time.
I hate the current prez, but as someone who's already fought tooth and nail for 5 years since 2016, then 2 years to counter the pandemic misinfo and rise of the right wing cult there, like. If you aren't gonna help, at the very least stop removing spin from the flywheel. You can't run a candidate and win in 4 months -- not even if every single person left of center went out and canvassed daily starting today, for some milquetoast compromise candidate that everyone knows the name of who would be necessary for the turnout.
this shouldn't have to be said. If you're the milieu yelling about Biden's gaffs after the bad debate performance, and actually fear full emboldened fascism? With the current plans laid out by Heritage and the presidential immunity ruling?
What the fuck are you doing. Are you not thinking strategically? Is it weed? I'd love an answer that isn't just "my social media circles have been bombarding me with this" -- since when does the left toe the narratives of the NYT, MSNBC, and the democrat party with these calls for replacement with four months left?
"But my conscience." I'm sorry I don't remember where the quote is from, I want to say Kali Akuno said it in a speech but I can't find it anywhere on the web: "Even if Malcolm X were president of the united states, he would still be The President of the United States." If you're expecting good people there, I'm sorry to say that's an impossibility, as the country will absorb them. If you want to help fix that, yelling to cause upheaval for the current incumbent to be replaced by someone without much name recognition three and a half months from elections is sort of the opposite way to go about fixing things.
I'm sure someone will spin this as me supporting the genocide of Palestinians, but right now it seems we have two options: the guy who's dragging his feet on military aid that lets them wage a forever war there, and the guy who would gladly start sending tanks over. One of them has room for protest making a difference, the other one would prefer you get shot for protesting military shipments at the docks.
When you do this, you're choosing between all of us willing to fight fascism burning ourselves out for a third time fighting fire after fire after fire instead of being able to build anything on even the month-scale that has staying power. Go build things, even if they're online, that'll help enable us to shift things. At the very least, if you think things have Already Fallen to Full Fascism, you've got 4 months to prepare. WYD writing all this instead of preparing?
Use your heads. Go read some coverage that isn't just a spiral of people saying the same things.
the NYT doesn't need any help from people who consider themselves to the left. Roll up your sleeves because it's going to suck either way. But you can be helpful, or you can help build the walls that will make things even harder.
stop shooting yourself in our feet
you're being manipulated, maybe give a thought as to who you're helping. Go roll up your sleeves instead of this shit, even if that's just analyzing the Heritage leaks. The recent supreme court decisions and Project 2025 have changed the game and raised the stakes even further. Replace someone with four months left? Are you KIDDING ME?
If you're going to be accelerationist, at least mean it instead of sleepwalking there.
C'mon.
