this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2025
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I have problems with people who abstained. The hard thing is, how do you change voter behavior?

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[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 55 points 1 day ago (8 children)

This push to demonize the strawman protest voters is an ongoing propaganda campaign to cause poor people to infight.

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (35 children)

Strawman?

6.27 Million more people voted for Biden in 2020 than Harris in 2024. That's not strawmanning, those fuckers stayed home and that is exactly why we are in the current situation.

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[–] MisterScruffy@lemmy.ml 2 points 19 hours ago (5 children)

Trump wouldn't be able to talk about "rebuilding" Gaza now if Biden/Harris hadn't already helped demolish it

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[–] Lux@lemmy.blahaj.zone 80 points 1 day ago (21 children)

How do you change voter behavior?

You don't. If you want someone to vote for you, you need to provide something that they want. The point of democracy is not to change the people to fit what the rulers want, it's to change the rules to what the people want. If you can't do that, the people don't want you.

[–] loudiamond@lemm.ee 29 points 1 day ago

It’s also to appeal to candidates , which doesn’t get talked about enough in the case of Gaza

Joe and Kamala did nothing to appeal to those voters, going so far as to cancel a Palestinian speaker at the DNC who agreed to have her entire speech vetted

so why arent we pointing the finger at them?

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[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 133 points 1 day ago (21 children)

The hard thing is, how do you change voter behavior?

Give them something to vote for. You can write articles of many paragraphs to analyze the course of the election, but in the end it boils down to this: The DNC pissed off too many of their voters and offered nothing in return.

[–] Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee 15 points 1 day ago

Give them something to vote for.

This. We saw the energy and joy when Biden dropped out, and it was reflected by Harris almost matching Obama’s small donor numbers. Hope. Change. They were simple campaign slogans, but people coming out of the Bush era wanted to believe, and had a candidate to believe in.

It’s a damning indictment that my most genuine electoral engagement, in my entire adult life, was voting “Uncommitted” in the 2024 Democratic primary. That was my most enthusiastic, “I 100% support this” vote ever, because almost every other time has been against something/one, or accepting lesser. From ballot initiatives, Senate races, down to the local comptroller chair.

Contrast that to my vote for Kamala in the general afterwards. It’s so unbelievably hollow to say “our democracy is strong” when the choice is always ‘well they’re better than them’.

[–] Death__BySnuSnu@lemmy.world 47 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Exactly this! You can't just "lesser of two evils" your way through life as you slide towards hell. "Lesser of two evils" isn't a choice, it's a hostage situation.

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 day ago

The lesser of the two evils didn't go after the bigger evil, offered nothing, said the economy was doing great as people suffered higher rent and groceries, and then wondered why people listened to the lying devil saying that they would fix their problems.

They don't want to offer solutions, they want votes.

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[–] burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (2 children)

i hate the big d Democratic party. i dont like their platform, i don't like their candidates. i voted for harris in2024. the time to make political statements and form a movement is now. do you know what you are supposed to do during election season? VOTE!

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[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago

The democrats tried everything except for actually grappling with the subject. Now blaming the voters completely misses the point .. that the dems where supporting Israel and clearly stated they would continue the current path. Trump had the decency to lie to the constituents. And now they cope by convincing themselves it's part of his plan. The voters where duped.. but the Dems did this.. not the voters.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I wrote the comment below on a thread that got locked while I was writing. TL;DR: Any bonehead who thinks that every single voter is politically-engaged and fully-informed, and that 6 MILLION of them all made a rational, reasoned decision to sit out the election is dumber than they look.

Oh, well, 18 months, what a slog! /s

Look, I've spent close to 30 years now detailing that this fucking insane "lesser evil" slide-to-the-right thing that Democrats were doing was going to end in evil. (That is, fascism.) Either the Democrats themselves would become what we feared, or the greater evil would happen to win.

Guess what? I was fucking wrong. I admit it now. I didn't guess that BOTH would happen simultaneously. It was bad enough more than 20 years ago when my Senator was the only vote against the PATRIOT ACT. It got worse when Obama decided to abolish due process and the rule of law. But by 2024, Democrats were straight up aiding and abetting the biggest war crime of all. Jesus jumpin' Christ on a pogo stick, how did we get to a place where that is the lesser evil?

Y'all couldn't vote for Nader in 1996, because "he can't win." Well, guess what, bucko, we had to change course somehow. He, or a spiritual successor, had to win, or we'd get... well, look around. It was clear even back then. We had to at least try something different, other than the lesser evil every time.

As they say, the best time to change was then, and the second-best time is now. But, no, Kamala Harris couldn't change her mind on genocide to win. No, sir! We have standards of evil to maintain, you see. Meanwhile, the billionaires weren't going away. The wealth inequality wasn't shrinking. Late-stage capitalism wasn't on track to make the serfs' lives better. The climate crisis would still loom. Charismatic fools like Rogan et al. are still young. So the choice in 2024 was fascism now, or fascism later. 2032, most likely, when the partisan pendulum would predictably swing the other way. 2028, possibly.

Is it any wonder that many voters felt overwhelmed, hopeless, defeated, and declined to participate, through the fabulous power of denial? Politics is depressing, the system is big, my vote is inconsequential... Y'know, denial, that power that we've all honed through a lifetime of practice—knowing the horrors of industrial meat production and still ordering a burger, knowing the role of CO~2~ in the climate disaster while waiting in the car at the drive-thru window for it, knowing the causes of cardiovascular disease and still eating it?

Knowing that someday, eventually, we have to fix our political system now that radicals have found its cheat codes, but still browbeating those disengaged voters that they are the ones responsible for this calamity. Yeah. Denial.

The same denial as 30 years ago. This election has been a long time coming. A year and a half? Get outta here.

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[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (3 children)

Wow, I haven't had Philip DeFranco on my mind in a minute, bro. I grew out of him quite fast. He was talking a load of gossip and I just wasn't interested anymore. Must be 10 years since I watched a video.

[–] Cataphract@lemmy.ml 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Interesting, I wasn't really a fan of his before but been watching him off and on for the past couple of months. His format must've changed because I wouldn't really consider his video's gossip (I only get his news videos in my feed, not sure if he does others).

Ok, so I was curious and went to his channel and browsed his videos. You're absolutely right it used to be all internet "fame" gossip lol, with maybe a news story sprinkled in here and there. It seems he's decided to shift his stance looking at the last couple of months. I honestly don't mind the gossip sprinkled in because I don't have the energy to keep up with all the influencer drama and I'm usually left confused when I hear about it.

I'll admit I was surprised with realizing that post was from defranco, usually he's way more neutral about his position when reporting on things. He's trying to come off as genuine but then it all falls apart when he describes people yelling and just generally using a negative tone giving his position away.

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[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 41 points 1 day ago (9 children)

Honestly, the election was three months ago, and we have bigger fish to fry right now. My default assumption now is that anyone still trying to relitigate the Gaza voters is a Russian troll trying to sew division among the left.

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[–] loudiamond@lemm.ee 30 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Seems like this is more of a candidate problem than a voter problem - Joe and Kamala were very aggressive to anti-genocide voters and protestors - Gov Shapiro even wanted them arrested

Vote shaming will not get these voters to your side, but you know what will - candidates who will listen

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