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1. Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 15-May-2024 23:40:43 JST Aral Balkan

   If your democratic process leaves you no option but to vote for genocide, your democratic process has already failed.

   • Distant Replay (distantreplay@mastodon.online)'s status on Thursday, 16-May-2024 00:44:53 JST Distant Replay

     in reply to

     @aral It's really not at all clear if you are advocating to fix democratic processes or abandon them.

     And I think it's very troubling that your post can be fairly interpreted either way.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 16-May-2024 00:44:53 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Distant Replay

     @distantreplay I think it’s troubling that there’s a genocide going on.

   • Chris Ferdinandi ⚓️ (cferdinandi@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 16-May-2024 02:06:52 JST Chris Ferdinandi ⚓️

     in reply to

     • Josh “Yoshi” Vickerson

     @josh @aral I cannot convince Aral that voting against Biden (or not voting at all) is going to be EVEN WORSE than voting for Genocide Joe.

     There won't be a democracy to save.

   • Josh “Yoshi” Vickerson (josh@vickerson.me)'s status on Thursday, 16-May-2024 02:07:02 JST Josh “Yoshi” Vickerson

     in reply to

     @aral yeah dude, we fucking know that. what is your god damned point?

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 16-May-2024 02:07:25 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Chris Ferdinandi ⚓️
     • Josh “Yoshi” Vickerson

     @cferdinandi @josh You don’t have to convince me of it, I already know it.

     What I don’t see are the same liberals telling people to vote Biden no matter what on the streets demanding Biden stop the genocide and moving heaven and earth to reform the two-party system. Folks seems resigned to just vote every four years until some flavour of Trump wins and it’s game over. Ditto in the UK and parts of Europe.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 16-May-2024 02:26:20 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Chris Ferdinandi ⚓️
     • Josh “Yoshi” Vickerson

     @josh @cferdinandi All I’m saying is that if it was over 35,000 Americans killed and over 15,000 American kids murdered because of guns that Biden sold, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. The sad truth is that dead Brown folks on the other side of the world just doesn’t tilt the scales the same way.

     (And the students protesting don’t have tons of privilege and they are, perhaps more than anyone right now, having an impact.)

   • Josh “Yoshi” Vickerson (josh@vickerson.me)'s status on Thursday, 16-May-2024 02:26:21 JST Josh “Yoshi” Vickerson

     in reply to

     • Chris Ferdinandi ⚓️

     @aral @cferdinandi As we have explained to you numerous times, turning up in the streets to protest requires a ton of privilege. The risk of losing your job, healthcare and absolutely everything is too high. A majority of Americans are <$1,000 away from bankruptcy. The scale of "taking to the streets” to push reform is unachievable, so we have to find other means. And simply survive in the meantime.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 16-May-2024 02:32:16 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Chris Ferdinandi ⚓️
     • Josh “Yoshi” Vickerson

     @cferdinandi @josh I get that. And my criticism isn’t aimed at you. It’s aimed at the people who have agency and aren’t using it but rather protecting Biden from any and all criticism and equating criticism of Biden’s genocidal policies with getting Trump elected as if there isn’t a third way of actually doing whatever is possible to get Biden to stop arming this genocide.

   • Chris Ferdinandi ⚓️ (cferdinandi@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 16-May-2024 02:32:17 JST Chris Ferdinandi ⚓️

     in reply to

     • Josh “Yoshi” Vickerson

     @aral @josh I wouldn't call the kids at MIT, Princeton, UCLA, etc. without privilege by any means.

     And yes, of course if our own President was murdering us, things would be "different." It's not a lack of care, Aral. It's a lack of agency.