Young voters overwhelmingly say they would support President Biden over former President Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up if the 2024 presidential election were held today, according to a poll released Wednesday.
In the Economist/YouGov poll — conducted via web-based interviews Dec. 16-18 — more than half (53 percent) of registered voters under 30 said they would support Biden, and less than a quarter (24 percent) said they would support Trump.
Another 10 percent said they would support another candidate, 4 percent said they were not sure, and 9 percent said they wouldn’t vote.
Having (what I think of as) a more accurate view of why people do evil things does not mean I think those evil things are ok. The world can sometimes be fair, life can be great, and people can be kind to one another. However, the world is often unfair, life can be cruel, and people can be awful to each other. I don’t have to like it because reality doesn’t exist for anyone. We exist inside of it and are along for the ride.
I refuse to walk away from my best understandings of reality because they aren’t pleasing. I hold a nihilist, deterministic, Hobbesian view of the world. I think we have limited freedom over our own actions and thoughts, we made up all ideas and concepts, and we can never have total certainty about anything. I embrace truths that most people refuse to acknowledge because they find those truths depressing. (I’m not superior than those people, but I am usually more correct.)
However, I still have an optimistic outlook and positive worldview. I think we can overcome our flaws and create a far fairer world. There is no God who cares about us or will save us, but we can save ourselves and care deeply about each other. The fact that there is no objective right and wrong doesn’t mean our morality and ethics are useless. There is no higher meaning outside our constructions, so the meaning we create is the highest meaning there is. We can damn well respect and believe in what we make.
I fully believe that Biden does evil shit, but malice and enjoyment of suffering probably don’t drive him. I won’t delude myself into thinking every evil action is done by a fundamentally evil person. Some people are genuinely evil, but most are not. Many people simply believe in evil systems of morality. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do what is necessary to stop them. A misguided killer and a sadistic killer will both threaten your life, so you can kill them both to defend yourself.
Punishment and responsibility are not inherently meaningful. Punishment and accountability can keep people from causing future harm. Assigning responsibility can reinforce values. Brutal punishment can even scare people into submission. However, you can’t make someone feel bad for their actions if they don’t want to. Making them suffer can only help you feel better.
Justice shouldn’t be thought of as righting the past. We can only make things better in the future. We should hang up the classic idea of justice for one that can actually materialize. Otherwise, justice will never be achieved in any way.
So you’re voting for the Genocide guy again???
That’s how you are going to achieve justice?
You would unironically humanize Hitler if he was alive. Genocide Joe is a scum of the earth piece of shit. I don’t care how much you think he looks like a warm grandpa. Biden should burn in hell along with Mao and Stalin.
I’m going to vote against the even worse genocide guy. Biden has been the least genocidal president since Carter, not because he’s great, but because Obama, Clinton, and every Republican were worse. Trump may have cheered on Hamas after October 7, but that was because he holds a personal grudge against Netanyahu for backing Biden’s presidential victory. Hillary probably wouldn’t have recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, precisely because it would inflame regional tensions. Trump only did it because he respects fascist strongman like Netanyahu. Republicans are so much worse, so Democrats are my pick by a mile.
Yes. I don’t like being disappointed because I expect the impossible. Bad people die happy and successful. Only gods can punish people the way you want, so it isn’t our job to attempt it. I don’t think hell exists, but even if it does, we can’t deliver its justice. We can only deliver human justice.
Hitler was not a demon or inhuman monster. He was only able to become such a vile being because he was as complex and powerful as a human. Him being a human doesn’t mean people shouldn’t have tortured him to death and displayed his corpse to be mocked. That evil brutality should be brutally squashed. At least he’ll be remembered for killing himself like the pathetic coward he was.
I don’t care if Biden is scum of the earth or if he burns in hell. The fact that you think I could only view Biden as human because I see him as a “warm grandfather” is telling. You can’t comprehend my way of viewing things. You refuse to accept that someone can see things as I describe, so you assert that I must actually like evil people because I acknowledge their humanity.
Personhood is an essential part of evil, not mutually exclusive to it. Unless I see evidence of evil outside of humans and similar beings, I’ll stand by my analysis.
Humanizing means showing something or someone in an empathic light. Not calling them literal demons. Biden would crush every orphan if it would gain him five dollars. Doesn’t make him less evil because he’s apathic instead of deliberate.
Biden has not committed less genocide at all. His genocide is just beginning. He has destroyed all infrastructure in Gaza and is blocking food and water. Diseases and famine are spreading fast. And all because he wants to defend his oil.
I hate Trump for his internal policies but he did not start any wars. He just let the existing wars that Obama started continue and even withdrew from Afghanistan. Orange Man is objectively less genocidal than Biden with foreign policy (but still genocidal)
And still, voting for less genocide instead of a little more genocide, explicitly enables genocide.
As long as you are able to vote for a party that doesn’t support genocide you are complicit in enabling genocide when you vote for Biden or Trump. Just because all the other Nazi’s voted for Hitler it doesn’t mean it makes it any better when you do so yourself. You are responsible for your actions, not those of others.
Funny. Biden wanted out of Afghanistan since the Obama years. Trump withdrew after Biden won the election. He did it mostly to hurt Biden, not because he’s less genocidal. Take a look at his antagonizing of Iran. He withdrew from the nuclear deal which hurt their citizens and killed a high ranking general to piss them off. Iran is probably going to get nukes now, increasing the chance of nuclear devastation in the middle east. Trump emboldened nationalism across the world and increased the likelihood of World War. That’s all his trade war with China accomplished. Empowering reactionary hardliners in the second place world superpower. Less genocidal my ass.
I can’t read your unwillingness to vote for Biden as anything more than justifying apathy. You use understandable frustration to justify unreasonable actions. Anarchists and Marxists endorsed Biden in 2020. You think Noam Chomsky thought Biden would be better than he’s been? Biden was only to the left of actual billionaires in the primary, yet he’s been more left wing than Obama or Clinton in office. Him saying trickle down doesn’t work and Republicans are “kinda fascist” is more than I expected. I did not want him in 2020, but because the left failed to vote in the primary, we’re stuck with him. Even if Warren wasn’t a snake, Bernie still would have lost.
Flipping the table is not a real option right now, and Trump winning will not make it more likely, but less likely. It was a dumb argument the last two elections, and it’s even dumber now. The DSA strategy of ground up leftism has been far more effective than the Green party focus on mostly just the presidency. Support your local DSA if you want leftism in America, keep the President as left wing as possible, and find a strategy of flipping the table that doesn’t empower fascists.
Deluding yourself into thinking liberals are fascists to excuse apathy is more pathetic than people who say, “I don’t care about politics.” I used to hate those people, but I realize that ignorant leftists are worse. You have serious dunning–kruger political analysis and solutions. It’s not that I don’t see the bullshit you see, it’s that I see more than you.