Do you want to feel good about your choice or do you want your choice to make a small difference?
I want wars and genocides and murders and suffering and death and sickness to be minimal or zero. I want my fellow humans to be happy and healthy and thrive. I want my labor and work to be a positive thing for society and also benefit me fairly. I want to be a part of ensuring the ecosystem doesn’t collapse. I want to learn from others and I want to be able to teach others. And I have a feeling you agree with me on those things.
But I also am approaching this from reality. And I am acknowledging that with our voting system as it is today, you can either vote for 1 of 2 candidates or you don’t care who wins and are complicit with their choices the next 4 years. That is simply reality.
But I also agree with you that ideally we could vote for not-genocide. I want that so badly. But we have to have a viable means to do that first. So let’s work together and push for a system where our voices can be heard and can make a difference. In the meantime I’d rather see Biden in office which gives us a chance for those things vs Trump which has said and demonstrated he will try to end it.
I’m not trying to be difficult, I’m trying to make the point of reality vs ideal. And we aren’t at ideal yet, so we need to work toward it.
You sound reasonable, truly. BUT, I have zero tolerance for genocide. I don’t think that is an extreme position. I couldn’t sleep at night because I rationalized genocide. It is that bad. I wish more people would do the same.
The problem with putting your foot down on this issue and refusing to help prevent Trump from winning is that we are all saying that historically, in every previous election, doing that ends up getting the worse of 2 options elected.
It’s like we have a burning building full of people and the only water we have is Nestle, so you stand there declaring you will not use that water and be complicit in using that product. But that is ignoring the problem of the fire. Let’s put the fire out first with whatever we can use and THEN we need to be talking and fighting as hard as we can for better options later.
That’s what everyone is trying to get you to see. We have a fire. Here. Now. Let’s put it out. Then we can all go work on the next issue of not using toxic water.
This really is a Trolley Problem, because both main candidates lead to some amount of suffering. But refusing to pull the lever IS making the choice to let the default happen and that DOES still make you complicit just as much as pulling the lever left or right does.
We are all stuck in this and there is no ethical choice no matter what you do, so we are trying to choose the least total harm.
And again, with our voting system it’s a first one across the finish line wins thing. Two candidates have tons of momentum and have gotten 90% there, side by side, all the other candidates are essentially barely off the start line. It makes no sense to try to push 3rd party now here in the final moments. You have to build that momentum WAY before now.
Here is another thing to consider. Imagine Trump or Biden in the next 4 years as president. Now also imagine we all get together and protest and campaign and demand action be taken to stop Israel. How likely is it that Trump would change his mind and help? How likely is it Biden would? To me, it sure seems like the former is a 0 and while the latter isn’t great, it’s above 0. Maybe there is a chance we can elect Biden and all protest and petition enough that he gets it and does something. Make it clear we demand some action to help stop the killing. But if Trump gets in there’s no chance.
Lastly, I just want you to know I don’t resent you for whatever choice you make. I hate the system, not you. We are stuck in a shitty system and I don’t want to be fighting with you, our fight is the bigger one. Obviously you will do what you feel is right, whatever that may be. And I will too. I hope we can make things better for the future, friend.
I mean this in the kindest way possible:
Do you want to feel good about your choice or do you want your choice to make a small difference?
I want wars and genocides and murders and suffering and death and sickness to be minimal or zero. I want my fellow humans to be happy and healthy and thrive. I want my labor and work to be a positive thing for society and also benefit me fairly. I want to be a part of ensuring the ecosystem doesn’t collapse. I want to learn from others and I want to be able to teach others. And I have a feeling you agree with me on those things.
But I also am approaching this from reality. And I am acknowledging that with our voting system as it is today, you can either vote for 1 of 2 candidates or you don’t care who wins and are complicit with their choices the next 4 years. That is simply reality.
But I also agree with you that ideally we could vote for not-genocide. I want that so badly. But we have to have a viable means to do that first. So let’s work together and push for a system where our voices can be heard and can make a difference. In the meantime I’d rather see Biden in office which gives us a chance for those things vs Trump which has said and demonstrated he will try to end it.
I’m not trying to be difficult, I’m trying to make the point of reality vs ideal. And we aren’t at ideal yet, so we need to work toward it.
You sound reasonable, truly. BUT, I have zero tolerance for genocide. I don’t think that is an extreme position. I couldn’t sleep at night because I rationalized genocide. It is that bad. I wish more people would do the same.
The problem with putting your foot down on this issue and refusing to help prevent Trump from winning is that we are all saying that historically, in every previous election, doing that ends up getting the worse of 2 options elected.
It’s like we have a burning building full of people and the only water we have is Nestle, so you stand there declaring you will not use that water and be complicit in using that product. But that is ignoring the problem of the fire. Let’s put the fire out first with whatever we can use and THEN we need to be talking and fighting as hard as we can for better options later.
That’s what everyone is trying to get you to see. We have a fire. Here. Now. Let’s put it out. Then we can all go work on the next issue of not using toxic water.
This really is a Trolley Problem, because both main candidates lead to some amount of suffering. But refusing to pull the lever IS making the choice to let the default happen and that DOES still make you complicit just as much as pulling the lever left or right does.
We are all stuck in this and there is no ethical choice no matter what you do, so we are trying to choose the least total harm.
And again, with our voting system it’s a first one across the finish line wins thing. Two candidates have tons of momentum and have gotten 90% there, side by side, all the other candidates are essentially barely off the start line. It makes no sense to try to push 3rd party now here in the final moments. You have to build that momentum WAY before now.
Here is another thing to consider. Imagine Trump or Biden in the next 4 years as president. Now also imagine we all get together and protest and campaign and demand action be taken to stop Israel. How likely is it that Trump would change his mind and help? How likely is it Biden would? To me, it sure seems like the former is a 0 and while the latter isn’t great, it’s above 0. Maybe there is a chance we can elect Biden and all protest and petition enough that he gets it and does something. Make it clear we demand some action to help stop the killing. But if Trump gets in there’s no chance.
Lastly, I just want you to know I don’t resent you for whatever choice you make. I hate the system, not you. We are stuck in a shitty system and I don’t want to be fighting with you, our fight is the bigger one. Obviously you will do what you feel is right, whatever that may be. And I will too. I hope we can make things better for the future, friend.