Doing my part

"Well, I also was good at finding faults in anyone who were trying to improve some things and attack them for not improving all things."
- "Have you considered that it just wasn't thrilling enough for me to vote against literal fascism?"
  
  I'm still not sure what was the reason not to vote the lesser of two weevils here. Some hope that if you show Democrats by not voting them they'll do the things those people have been calling for? I'd fear they'll just think of those people as unreliable voters and will just try to get the votes from those who do vote.
  Pretty risky move in any case, with Trump being the other alternative.
- Absolutely hate the people who would sell out my child’s future over some holy war in the desert held by idiots—I mean religious zealots—terrorizing each other. They’re both wrong, don’t sell us out over it.
  
  Idk, that seems like a pretty shit take to me. It's not the voting choice I made, but I can see where people are coming from. It's not just the US selling arms to hostile occupiers, it's running around with the Cheney's and the general abandonment of the working and middle class.
  
  It's comments like these that make non-americans like me pray for the fall of the American Empire. Seriously, you people don't even see the people you murder overseas as human.

If you want something more hands on, work on local races this year. They are how we can fight back
Elections are run at the state level in the US. Even for federal offices
Many states have elections this year even despise it being an off year
There are special elections today in Virginia thay will determine who controls the state legislature. If dems remain control, they can block a lot of the Republicans governors attempts to disenfranchise
There are special elections in Minnesota on Jan 28th to determine control of one house of the state legislature
There is an election that will determine control of the Wisconsin state supreme court on April 1st. The more recent Progressive control has lead to Wisconsin getting fair maps as the gerrymandered maps were overturned. We are going to want to keep it that way and build further
There are special elections for various US house members like to replace Matt Gatez on April 1st. Should we win any suprise flips, it will be even harder for Republicans to get things through congresss with their already tight 3 seat majority
And so on
Here's a frequently updated spreadsheet with various at home volunteering options
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jxO8g7q9VO3ZMAABcrvR7PMyX4Yl6dgIYhD3eRTKk1M/htmlview
- Just to add onto this, don't think that just because you live in a deep red or deep blue area, you can't mobilize and make a serious difference. Most incumbents get by due to public indifference. Replacing members of both parties in entrenched areas with progressives is possible, but those progressives need help. Any time you can give is always appreciated!
  
  And to add another point, people en masse are followers. They vote the way they are told. At some point, progressives got the idea that it is impolite to tell people how to vote. That means the loudest voices are the most impolite. That's a breeding ground for fascists and charletains. Speak up, challenge stupidity and lies, and make bigots feel bad again.
- We get to pick between a pro landlord, pro oligarchs dem or a milquetoast horrific status quo dem for mayor next year.
  Will fighting for one of them to win help anything?
- When the only thing you can offer is "make it harder for Republicans" you've already lost.
  
  We lost with Citizens United, but it isn’t nothing to fight to keep things from getting worse

"But daddy, mommy said all you did was circle jerk with strangers online".
- "Honey, you can't circle jerk online. That's why daddy has all his bros come over on Thursday."

If you are looking for inspiration, we @ContinueToServe@lemmy.world just finished a 1.5 hour session with lawyers from NLG, historians, and activists to help service members understand their rights and responsibilities when it comes to illegal orders potentially being issued by this administration.
We just uploaded it to youtube and its available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsrwIJcxYWY

“Fucking legend”

I like how both sides are constantly complaining about the erosion of free society and democracy but both sides also support questionable legislation.
- One side is demonstrably worse in literally every political action/debate. I'm no Democrat but this both sides stuff has to stop if we're ever going to make progress.
  
  That's only true if you believe one side. The Democrats have also repeatedly expanded surveillance just like the Republicans. There only seem to be a handful of congress people who are are concerned with privacy.

Hey now, give me credit:
I also texted them to conservative family members from burner numbers!

Storming buildings isn't wrong to do I hear. Just saying...
- Funny, but SO many of those fuckers are either in prison or are facing federal charges still. Like, more than 1200 of them. And that number will only increase.
  
  And Trump is president of the United States of America.
  The 2 tiered justice system proven to have no clothes, over and over. Streamed in real time and in high definition. Not that there ever was a time it was otherwise.
  Its just that no one even bothers with the illusion anymore. Why would they? What are you going to do about it... vote republican?
  Even those sleeping the "American Dream" feel these slaps to the face.

The revolution will not be hosted on the fediverse.
- You seriously think it's on reddit or Twitter???
  Just kidding, join your local protest and mutual aid group! See you on the street!
- Nostr obviously

"Not have you, you're welcome"
- Totally legit response in regards to resource exhaustion and climate change, but IMO not regarding the degradation of democracy. In a larger scale this could easily lead to a demographic shift towards regressive political views.
  Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna put into a kid into this world, especially not for reasons of ideological puppeteering, but to conclude my too serious take on the meme and your comment, I do not quite see how they are related.

bOtH pArTiEs ArE tHe SaMe LoL aMiRiTe WhY bOtHeR vOTiNg sLeEpY jOe memes!
Then I did nothing about it between presidential elections. Nothing. Did not lift a single goddamned finger. Four years later, I demand the party cater to me, Me, ME. An utterly useless deadweight. And smug about it.
- bOtH pArTiEs ArE tHe SaMe LoL aMiRiTe
  The Daddy Party comes home drunk from the party and beats you with his belt.
  The Mommy Party cries in the corner, telling you there's nothing she can do because you didn't support her enough.
  Then I did nothing about it between presidential elections.
  People blink in and out of existence between elections. Nobody actually exists when they aren't voting.
  Nobody organized with their coworkers to form unions. Nobody carried for relatives that had lost work or gotten sick from the pandemic. Nobody provided care for young children or volunteered to help impoverished neighbors or mucked out homes after devastating hurricanes. Nobody went to school to get advanced degrees in fields necessary for building out green energy or modern transit or dense housing or criminal justice.
  Nobody. Did. Anything.
  Four years later, I demand the party cater to me, Me, ME.
  When you think about it, denouncing genocide is an entirely selfish act.
- Well, it would be happier if at least one side catered to voters as opposed to billionaires.
  That said, it's not the fault of only Harris and her campaign, it's the Democratic leadership from the past 20 years that allowed it to get this bad.
- Smug is such a perfect word for all the morons that decided not to vote, because Harris wasn't able to fix a 8 decade long problem from the vice president's desk.
  Smug and stupid, because a lot of the Palestine crap posted was done by bots and saboteurs to fracture the left, and oh boy did it work.
  Have you noticed how no-one is screeching about Palestine since the election?...........
  
  .world banned all the criticism
  After it would do any good at all, mind you. Good Job Mods? You saved democracy?

The kids of parents who actually tried to fight to give them a decent future and world to live in:
"My parents died in prison. They committed suicide in their cells by shooting themselves in the back of their heads somehow."
- They should've just memed like the rest of us.

We’re friends :’-)
- 🤗

Fighting the good fight 🫡

If you really want to help make things better: don't focus on elections (that includes more local ones).
Real political power doesn't come from the ballot box, but from political organizing.
Here's a video discussing how to start organizing
- Nooo, you have to blindly pick a side and act like you’re infallible and the other fallible.
  Don’t let up from the culture war, or else you might look to see the class war running everything.
- What's the point of political organizing if the goal isn't to get your people into elected positions?

"But I did refuse to vote, cuz that would just be perpetuating a broken system that doesn't give us any good choices."
"Oh... how's the system doing now?"
"Still broken."
"And the choices?"
"Still no good."
"So, it worked?"
"Not really, but I did get to just sit on my ass and post memes."
- “But I voted every 4 years for decades and it only got worse. Eventually I realised doing the same thing was never going to get a different result, especially when my voice was taken for granted”
  “Did voting help”
  “No, but I got to feel good for myself like I was on the winning team”
  
  "Did voting help?"
  "Yes, it got Trump kicked out of office in 2020. But the next time people decided that not voting would be the best option, so he got voted right back in."
  
  MAGA: That's right, we feel good about ourselves, that's the only consequence. Now shut up and get in the van.
- I mean, you do that whether you vote or not. But when you try to tell people that they have to do more than vote, they don't like it.

"I said a the name of an assassin several times."

Too close to home

If you've never received thousands of downvotes for stating a boring position, are you even alive?

Naw, it's gonna be "What did you do during the genocide in Gaza?"
- Hey I was more aware of it than the last three (that I know of) in my lifetime.
- Bruh should I travel my gay white ass to Palestine and stand in front of a Merkava tank?
  
  You can
  Join the BDS movement
  Donate to groups like A Jewish Voice for Peace
  Protest in your home country, if your home country is supporting Israel
  Lobby your politicians

As an aside, I like how the intention of the original poster aged like milk. No one sees "The Great War" as great by those who survived it and by the future. It is not talked about positively in the same way as Napoleonic wars or the Second World War (except if you were an Axis soldier or civilian victim of war crimes of course).
- Stop glorifying wars they all suck
  This is the best definition of war I've heard:
  Big wigs know each other and can't get along. Then they send people who don't know each other to kill each other. Big wigs lives are never under threat.
  
  Not trying to glorify wars, but what I'm saying is that some wars have a purpose or cause at least. Like the Napoleonic wars is about new type of government under new found liberal values versus the old system of absolute monarchy that values stability and familiarity. The current war in Ukraine is about stopping imperialism and the wanton violation of international rule (there isn't technically any rule because international laws are non-binding but that is a different topic I won't delve for now).