Man, I’ve had family deported by this administration who’ve been in the country for two decades with no prior close-calls. Bad things are happening. People are being murdered on the street. What little public healthcare there is is being used as a political tool to suppress dissent. Aid to Ukraine against Russia’s war of imperialism and genocide has been frozen almost since the start of this administration. We may end up in a fucking war with Iran. These are all very nonzero factors that could have very easily been avoided under a less shitty shitty administration.

In a FPTP system, you are given the choice of two evils. You can choose to not exercise your power to reduce harm, contributing to the suffering and death of literal millions, because you want to feel good about what you wrote on a piece of paper; or you can exercise your power to reduce harm by filling in a circle on a piece of paper one day every 4 years, which does not interfere with any other activism.

It’s dogshit. But I’m struggling with health benefits because of this administration, my (very liberal) state’s deficit has skyrocketed due to fascist defunding bullshit which may end up causing cuts to public services and welfare, my grandmother is struggling to keep up with the sharply spiked food prices from the trade war idiocy, and perhaps worst of all, I have to see that orange moron’s punchable half-melted face every time I check the news.

If you’re asked on a secret ballot, with a result determined by majority vote, if you want the state to kill 10 million people or 9 million people, and you know 10 million and 9 million both have near-majority support, please… just write down 9 million. You may save a million lives. If you write down 0, knowing that it’s nothing more than a protest, you’ll have saved 0 lives - or killed 1 million, depending on how you care to count things.

I know you’re an Aussie where things are less fucked and you have legitimate other options than Team Red or Team Blue, which we generally don’t in the US, but it’s broadly applicable (and also the guy in the meme has a Dem pin). If there are only two evils in a situation’s outcome, allowing the greater evil helps no one - except the fascists, of course.

I’m not saying don’t gamble on long odds if you get the chance. If you think there’s a legitimate 1% chance of success for a dark horse challenger that you support, or if it’s a legislative seat that isn’t in a make-or-break election against fascism, that’s absolutely your call. I’m just saying don’t play odds so long you may as well be playing the lottery. Don’t waste your vote, in spirit or in practice. It’s not the biggest tool in a person’s arsenal, but it is a tool, and one that can have very real repercussions. Benefits - or simple avoidance of deteriorating circumstances for organizing and human existence, if one prefers to see it in those terms.

Do what the Brits did. Labour suck so in the recent by-election they voted green. The media are trying to spin this as a bad thing because they clearly got the Muslims to vote for them and you all know Muslims are bad because they hate liberal democracy, so they… Uhh, voted for a woman. In a party run by a gay Jew.

lol, the desperation.

In identical news, evolution isn’t immediate so there’s no point.

Well I don’t want the other lizard to win, now do I?