Danger: Voting

You know when your younger sibling wanted to play a video game with you, but you didn’t want to teach them how, so instead you hand them an unplugged controller and gaslight them into thinking they’re the NPC?

That’s basically how voting in America works. If you care at all about your country, don’t vote.

I’m not just a cynic, either. It’s been illegal to vote for the Communist Party in America since 1953, and even if you ain’t no filthy pinko rat-bastard, I think you can see how outlawing entire parties shatters the illusion of representation we’re presented with. Voting only benefits the oligarchy and their lapdogs by consenting to play within the game they have created for us. Any working-class person in America can tell you their views are not represented nor are they taken care of. Yet, year after year we go to bat for the lesser evil. Why do you think that is?

This applies to all representative governments, even on the local scale. By virtue of our voting, the government errs towards capital-owners. You need money to campaign. You need money to advertise. People with money have their own interests and ergo, other rich people’s interest in mind. Sure, outliers can slip in, but republics are set up to benefit the ruling class, as the masses have no access to them. 

Anyone that’s taken an entry level poli-sci course, or even just been harassed by the get-out-to-vote-thugs, has probably heard the rhetoric of “You get the government you deserve.” Or that it’s your civic duty to vote.

Right – of course you should feel shame for not politely cosigning the ruling class. They’re not entirely wrong, though; you do get the government you deserve. If you think voting for a candidate that endorses the U.S. war-machine – i.e. genocide – is going to improve quality of life for anyone anywhere then, yeah, maybe we do deserve what’s coming our way.

A hypothetical: If literally no one, not one person, voted this next election, what do you think would happen? The illusion of choice is what keeps America stuck in this rut and no amount of third parties and multiple choice voting can change that, because the very premise of voting benefits the ghouls in charge. The sooner you stop voting, the closer we get to an actual functional government.

I’m not saying anything more intelligent people haven’t already, so I’ll leave you with a quote from one of those folks.

“If voting is the democratic participation in our own oppression, voting as harm reduction keeps us at the mercy of our oppressors.” – Klee Benally

Adam Elwell