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Joined 7 months ago
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Cake day: December 24th, 2023

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  • I’m usually skeptical of protest votes, but these primary protest votes are actually effective for the same reason voting is effective. Politicians aren’t as static as we want to believe- their number one priority is reelection. When you vote, you are telling the candidates that you are politically useful and they will begin to pay attention to your needs. When you vote for all levels of government, you are giving deeper detail into what your needs are.

    If a significant portion of a district votes for a Democrat as president, and then a Republican for state representative, the democratic administration will likely make more conservative decisions if they see that portion of the electorate as critical to reelection.

    This naturally reveals a big problem with the electoral college, as there are maybe 5 states with critical demographics needed to win reelection. The people in Ohio, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan are more influential to the type of administration a Republican or Democrat would run.

    If the Gaza protest vote happened in Washington State or California, I doubt Biden would have reacted as much as he did for Michigan. That said, this problem politicians face goes from the President of the US down to the president of your HOA. So I’ll acknowledge that the power of voting fluctuates depending on the specific outcome you are measuring, but there are so many variables. In political science you need to learn to live with paradoxes, and this may be one.

    Either way, I believe we should keep voting; they are paying attention.






  • Hello, I’m meep_launcher, and I’m a recovering moderator.

    Not only did my tools get taken, after the mass exedus, my mod queue exploded. There were so many more racist reports than before, and I was mod of a political satire subreddit.

    Turns out the exedus took all the left leaning redditors leaving behind real pieces of work.

    Glad I made the switch, and I set up cartographyanarchy here, so maybe I can get back to doing what I love, shitposting maps.

    Shitpost maps with me!

    One more edit, I want to get this community up and running, so if you post in the next 24 hours I will write your map a song and post the link in the comments.

    Oh also DM if you want to be a mod! Definitely looking for folks skilled in the art of Lemmy, coding, or just being all around wholesome.


  • I think what has helped me is watching John Green/ Hank Green’s YouTube channels. The fact is bad news happens fast, but good news happens slow.

    A maternity ward was built in Sierra Leone thanks to the coordinated effort of thousands of people across the world. Patents for Tuberculosis tests and treatments have been released in the countries that need it the most. This is a disease that takes millions of lives every year, not because we don’t have the technology, but because people don’t have access to the treatments. Of course this was something that should have been taken care of decades ago, but the fact we can pressure pharmaceutical companies to release their patents for the good of humanity must mean something.

    Despair is seductive, it asks nothing but to feel sad, and you can always find reasons to despair. But the correct answer to consciousness is hope.

    I work in Chicago with non profits that are dedicated to building safe communities, to saving local and global ecosystems, to public health access, to helping house the homeless.

    I fully believe that there isn’t anything wrong with the world that can’t be solved with what is right with the world. And when I feel despair, which I am oft to do, I look at my friends, my community, those that roll up their sleeves, shake hands, and do what they can with what they have.