• grue@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    55
    arrow-down
    15
    ·
    5 months ago

    There is a third fucking option and it’s not doing a genocide.

    That’s only an option if you have a viable strategy for accomplishing it.

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      34
      arrow-down
      14
      ·
      5 months ago

      Which, of course, they don’t. It’s a vanity vote. They want to pretend they have actually done something without actually having to do anything of consequence.

      • Liz@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        5 months ago

        If we’re interpreting their “third option” as a voting strategy and not convincing Biden to step in and stop the genocide, we can at least implement Approval Voting so that they can vote for all the “no genocide” candidates without having to worry that doing so could somehow backfire. Then, if they want or need to, they can cast a strategic vote to differentiate between different magnitudes of genocide.

        • grue@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          5 months ago

          we can at least implement Approval Voting

          No, you can’t. You do not have the power to implement Approval Voting, and nobody who does have the power wants to do it. So it’s not gonna happen, at least not in the short term. Right now, anybody who wins has to win in an environment of First Past the Post. Nobody capable of doing that currently supports Approval Voting, so right now it is effectively not on the ballot.

          This is what I mean about “hav[ing] a viable strategy.” Magically wishing Approval Voting into existence ain’t it.

          • Liz@midwest.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            5 months ago

            Well the strategy is to work your way up from the local level because:

            1. It’s easier for people to make change at the local level, Fargo and St. Louis have already done it.

            2. Politicians tend to work their way up the ladder, and will be more open to using the system at higher levels if they already proved they can win under that system.

            You have to remember that any real social change takes years, even decades of organized to realize. We didn’t go from Jim Crowe to the civil rights act in a fortnight, it took big organizations applying decades of pressure in multiple different ways.

            If you want to be a part of the solution, join an organization dedicated to improving things. It doesn’t have to be the one I linked, but Election Science is the one working on approval voting. Local elections are such that one highly motivated person can build and run the organization to flip their local election laws, it could be you, but it won’t happen overnight.

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          5 months ago

          Yes, we need to change the way we vote before voting for POTUS can really move away from a binary choice.

        • wanderer@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          Great. That is a state issue, so pay attention to your state government, vote for state representatives that support better voting methods, and contact your state representatives to push for reform.

          That doesn’t change this trolley problem.

          • Liz@midwest.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            As someone else pointed out, those in power are unlikely to change the voting system to reduce their own power. However, you really start at the local level with referendums, and work your way up. First, it’s easier to force change at the local level and second, politicians working their way up will be less hostile to changing to approval if they’ve already shown they can win under that system.