The fundamental tenet of a working democracy is voting. Everyone should have a vote and everyone should exercise their right to vote. To that end we have been seeing posts attempting to shame/mock or otherwise influence people not to vote. While this is a meme community, the idea that people shouldn’t vote goes against the fundamentals of a democracy by the people and for the people. To that end, we are adding a new rule that disallows posts that discourage or shame people from voting. This doesn’t mean that you can’t address how people vote, but even those who don’t agree with you and your political views should still vote. We all should. Everyone. Part of the reason we are in the mess we are in now is because participation in democracy is abysmal. Posts discouraging people from voting are essentially propaganda and will be removed.
PoliticalMemes is a community for having fun at the expense of our political hellscape we find ourselves in. People not voting is a big part of why.
We are taking feedback on this change, please let us know if you agree or disagree in the comments and why.
I fundamentally disagree with the underlying assumptions of this change, but understand its rationale, especially during an election year.
I fundamentally disagree with the underlying assumptions of the “Patriot Act,” but understand its rationale, especially during a War on Terror.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to prove here. Take any statement, put it in an absurd context, you get an absurd statement. Sure. But why?
“I disagree with capitalism and the elite hoarding all the wealth but I’m not sure I can do much about it alone”
“I disagree with Pineapple pizza and the cooks hoarding all the dough but I’m not sure I can do much about it alone”
Ok.
The difference is that I can share the underlying goal of what the mods are trying to achieve, while I wouldn’t share the underlying goal of the war on terror.
But you already guessed that I’m sure. A few edgelord points cheaply scored. That’s nice.
This isn’t about me or you. It’s about an unnecessary rule that forbids “thought crimes.”
Benjamin Franklin
Well, after giving it a second thought, I suppose Lemmy may be small enough to avoid be targeted with both domestic and foreign efforts to favor Trump by having part of left demographics abstain.
If that’s indeed the case, there’s nothing I agree with in the suggested rule.
Voting/Abstention can be manufactured to a certain point. But if we take that away, it’s a matter of strategy. I’ve always been an abstentionist.
(my two replies may display in the wrong order, this is the latest one)
It’s a shame the mods are turning this community into another /politics or /world clone. I found it charming when it had eclectic and strange news stories you wouldn’t find anywhere else.
Imho, voting is a right, not a duty. It’s as stupid to try to convince people to vote than the other way round. What I was thinking about when I wrote my message is, well, the probability of a coordinated effort from right wing networks to turn left leaning demographics away from voting. This, I agree, would make some kind of anticipation measures useful.
What I fundamentally disagree on, and actually a bit more than “disagree”, is the idea that abstention leads us where when are now. As a political science professor, I’ll just say it goes against most, if not all, contemporary research findings.
(And yes, I can be a professor and have trouble writing correct English. To the brilliant mind who may want to phrase such witty comment, consider for a second that I may very well be from a non-English speaking country. Those still exist to this day)
It’s probably less than that now. It’s nice to think it’s important, but it’s not.