Somebody commented on my cross-post about the election at my other blog. Well, “commented” isn’t quite the right word—more like “Demsplained.” I’ve been seeing a lot of this, and I am not having it. I’ll spare you the whole self-righteous rant, but I do want to address the overall gist by responding to a few brief excerpts.
Stop blaming Bernie supporters.
Not if they stayed home on election day, no. They absolutely share the blame. (I voted for Sanders in the primary.)
Stop blaming white people.
The ones who overwhelmingly voted for Trump? The ones who stayed home or cast third-party votes in swing states? No.
Stop blaming Black people or Latinos.
Only a Trump-magnitude asshole would ever do that.
Stop blaming people who voted their conscience.
Jeezus Christ. EVERYONE voted their conscience, and even people who stayed home did so because of conscience. Their consciences suck. I can and will hold accountable every single one of them if they had any part in this outcome. Lard knows they’re highly unlikely to ever do it themselves. Especially not with people like you ranting about how blameless they all are.
You’re looking for me to suck it up and sing kumbaya with people who by their own action or inaction threw women, LGBTQs, immigrants, Muslims, Native Americans, the disabled, blacks and Latinxs, the poor, the environment, 20 million people who will lose health insurance etc. under the fucking bus because “They want us fighting among ourselves,” “They want us divided,” and “That’s how they always win.” No. That is an abuser’s tactic, and that shit does not fly with me. Not any more.
I am not the one who did the fucking “dividing” here; YOU are refusing to hold accountable those who are actually responsible. They, and you, need to OWN THAT SHIT.
__________
If you’re getting a sense of deja vu like I am, I think its because the parallels to Big Tent Atheism™ are only too obvious.
False. There are people right here on FtB who admitted that they were going to “hold their nose” and vote Clinton. If I was a US voter, that’s what I would have done. That’s not voting your conscience, that’s tactical voting and it’s shit that it’s necessary and it’s shit that it didn’t work, but doing it is IGNORING your conscience because you know that following your principles will make things worse, not better.
Sing it. I’m already sick and tired of all the people saying, but they voted that way because they have problems, you should be sympathetic! Nope, not in a million years. I have fucking problems too, but I didn’t vote a fucking maniac in charge because I was pissed off about said problems.
Voting tactically even if you thought it wasn’t for the best person who could ever do the job, because you thought that doing the most you could to stop the Donald getting in was more important for the good of the country isn’t going against your conscience.
sonofrojblake: No, it isn’t “FALSE.” Holding your nose to vote for HRC because you understand that the alternative(s) you would prefer ultimately “will make things worse” is an act of conscience. JFC.
Caine:
Exactly. It only works one way: they have problems, you should be sympathetic. But you have problems? They’re not being called out for their cavernous empathy deficits. SEEMS LEGIT.
@sonofrojblake – Voting my conscience meant using the power I had to do the most good and the least harm, and that meant voting for Clinton, despite disagreeing with her in a number of important areas.
Voting for third party or writing in isn’t “voting your conscience”. It’s voting from your rectum.
The election was a binary choice. Very simple concept.
Yes to all of this. I am very comfortable blaming every person who had an opportunity to stop this monster by voting for his only viable opponent and did not. Unless you were someone who got hit with voter suppression and couldn’t vote, I don’t give a fuck what your reasoning was if you did not vote for Clinton.
Because now we have this nightmare.
Couldn’t agree with the OP more.
I have booted EVERY friend and relative who tried to pull this crap from all my social media networks.
didn’t take long… for most of them it was the first thing out of their mouths. made it really easy for me.
OTOH, while I booted a couple dozen people, I gained 20 more who AREN’T false equivalency/fallacy of the golden middle freaks.
winning.
Another “abuser’s tactic” is to expect loyalty no matter what the powerful do to you. To wit, what Sady Doyle and Neera Tanden did to Matt Bruenig. But Matt should have just sucked it up, right? (I don’t know if Bruenig voted for Clinton or not, btw.) Not to mention the garbage that people like Amanda Marcotte made up about the mythical Berniebros.
Saad #6: That’s not how elections work, but you probably knew that already.
polishsalami, #9
Mmm. It was between Trump or Clinton. Binary choice. Make a sound argument against that or shut up.
And you can fuck off too. I’ve read your posts on FtB as well, especially about Muslims.
Saad #10:
It would only be a “binary choice” if two candidates were allowed to run. Literally any other situation makes your statement untrue. In fact, Gary Johnson shearing right-wing votes from Trump gave Clinton four states that she wouldn’t otherwise have won.
polishsalami @11
Does anyone but you consider Saad’s words as literal as this?
No, no they do not.
An effectively binary choice can be presented while there remain “alternatives”. The problem is that those alternatives are infeasible and will not result in any effect whatsoever on the 2 candidates who actually are feasible. Those are the facts.
But yeah, you just hunker down as the Resident Contrarian. I’m sure you’ll get more enjoyment out of that than attempts at being reasonable.
polishsalami @ #9:
No. Fuck you. No.
Berniebros/stans were not a goddamn motherfucking myth. I saw way too many friends and loved ones harassed, trolled, and abused by fucking Berniebros/stans to let you get away with saying shit like this. Listen to the backlog of TWiBPrime during the primaries if you want to hear tales from Imani Gandi and Elon James White about them, or the backlog of The Black Guy Who Tips during the primaries for extremely similar tales from Rod and Keren Morrow.
Only assholes make such fucking idiotic statements. They are not a fucking myth. Cenk Uygur exists. Glenn Greenwald exists. They are the fucking poster children of Berniebros/Stans.
Miss me with that shit, polishsalami, and as Saad already said… fuck off.
polishsalami, #11
On November 8, the two options for president of the United States were Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Appearing on the ballot is not the same as being an option for president. It was going to be Trump or Clinton. You know that very well so stop talking shit.
I have to admit I was only vaguely aware of the Sady Doyle/Neera Tanden/Matt Bruenig story, and was not following it. After polishsalami’s comment I googled it, and read this in Slate. I find so-called centrists like Neera Tanden and Joan Walsh despicable, but unlike Bruenig I can criticize them without punching down or inciting Twitter mobs, doxxing and death threats. Jeezus.
Berniebro denialism is A Thing. I said to Saad in another thread:
Except for “silence,” substitute “Twitter mobs”.
thank you throwaway, butcher of tongues, mauler of metaphor, Nathan and Saad for stepping up in this thread. I was going to block polishsalami for pedantry, but now I’ll block because tedious unoriginal asshole.
I’m sorry. I should have been here too, but I withdrew to mourn privately. That’s my over-privilege showing again.