I voted for Biden in 2020. This was despite the fact that he is one of the main architects of modern American slavery through his crime bill which made the US the nation with the highest proportion of its own citizens imprisoned by far, who are quite literally slaves according to our constitution. This was despite him participating in the lies which caused us to murder hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis in our pursuit of blowing up Halliburton’s stock value and taking control of large parts of the oil trade. This was despite his support of the neoliberal consensus which has lead to the deterioration of the economic, social, and physical health of the average American while the wealthiest’s share of the economy continues to grow meaninglessly. In fact, it was relatively easy for me to vote for Biden because the person he was running against was Trump who demonstrated worse tendencies on all of the above (while actually softening some prison laws, still fostered the increased social acceptability of acting according to blatant racism so I can’t even give him credit here) and more. According to my utilitarian principles, the evil choice I made was morally superior to the evil choice I did not make. Recent events have me re-considering this motivation.

To be clear, my opinion of Trump has not changed. Under Trump, I am sure I will be more likely to lose my loved ones or even my own life, although I am personally less at risk than his main targets. I am also sure that his influence would at least maintain if not increase the atrocities committed by the Likud-lead Isreali government with whom he has a strong relationship. Christian Nationalism is extraordinarily dangerous and if some of their desires are pushed through there’s really no telling the extent of future horrors we may have to deal with. If Project 2025 has a certain degree of success we may consider any pretense of democracy to be nullified. If I were only considering the immediate consequences of my decision, I would still support Genocide Joe.

I phrased that last sentence like that intentionally and it is the inspiration for this essay. The lesser of two evils in this case is now facilitating a genocide and I think that’s significant. In 2020 I didn’t think I had a red line which would cause me to allow a greater evil, and within the last few months I’m coming to find that I do have a red line I have to consider in and of itself and that line is genocide.

This is what I find particularly frustrating when I try to engage this topic in good faith, even among Biden supporters who are lucid about recognizing what is clearly happening before their eyes with their implicit support. Yes, they tell me, there is a lot they don’t like about Biden but he is the better choice. There is some equivalence implied here. Biden is guilty of a lot of things like union busting, failure to support a public option despite promises, the continuation of many unfair border policies, and oh yeah genocide too. I really want to emphasize that we are talking about the categorization and systematic elimination of a group of people from their homes which could not be happening as it is now happening without the economic and political support of the Biden administration. This is now among the issues we are telling Democrats we are ok with or not ok with via the use of the only political currency left to us being our votes.

“Vote Blue No Matter Who” is a phrase that made me sick the first time I heard it and I have only grown to detest it more, especially since I acted according to it it through my actions in 2020. Recently I realized that this is less of a call to action and more of a threat. More explicitly, this phrase can be understood as “Vote for our candidate or the Republicans will fuck you up.” We better pay up or they can’t be responsible for what happens to us. Like other organizations who make threats like this, by paying up we are supporting them in what they do even if it’s under duress. As long as their heavy, the Republican party, is out there fucking people up the Democrats have license do anything as long as it’s not as bad. The DNC made a hard right-wing shift with Clinton and have been moving right since then, just not as far as the Republicans have. This is where damage control has gotten us. Democrats have pushed through so many boundaries and now we’re at genocide. Now the promise is, “You better support our genocide, or the Republicans will make it worse and fuck you up too.”

What is going to happen if we tell the Democrats that even though they are facilitating a genocide, we’re still going to pay up? What is the message the DNC will read from that? What precedent is going to be set? Are we going to be safer now that genocide will be seen as something we can compromise on? Do we really believe that Trump is the worst threat they can make, or that the lesser of two evils couldn’t eventually be worse than Trump? Do we really think by making this compromise here, on top of all the compromises we’ve made over the last few decades, that after this time everything will suddenly change and we can start talking about making average peoples’ lives better for once?

I can’t responsibly ask these questions without recognizing that the threat is very real. I am not an accelerationist and I do not desire the further deterioration of our society in hopes of a positive outcome through violent revolution. I do not want to have to risk imprisonment and death to resist government persecution. I recognize that a breakdown of democracy and subsequent shift to political violence would only advantage those most equipped for and skilled in the use of violence, whose society of nails would be governed by hammers.

It seems to me that failing to support the Democrats this cycle puts us at greater immediate risk of the above, and that is shocking enough to bring most reasonable people under control. The thing is though, I think that by leaving genocide on the table for anyone across the Overton window of elected officials to consider as a socially acceptable tool is a far greater risk in the long term.

I think that by making genocide just another issue of managing how much we can tolerate among the two sides, making it something that is tolerable under some circumstances, or especially encouraging the thinking that the charge of genocide is conditional on the political expediency of it victims, we are ultimately normalizing the general idea that genocide is an acceptable tool for elected officials across our “political spectrum” of right wing and big tent(right wing, centrist, some left wing) to support or even employ in the worst case as long as they call it something else regardless of international law. If this is ok, what is the next boundary the Democrats will push? I want to stop digging the hole we’re in now, suffer the consequences, and deal with Democrats who at least understand they will not get elected if they facilitate genocide. Honestly I’d like one day to not have to make the least evil choice and have the opportunity to support something after the DNC primary, and it doesn’t seem like damage control is leading us in that direction at all but away from it.

In practical immediate terms, Trump is hated outside of his base and has demonstrated that his endorsement is poison to politicians who are not himself more often than not. He is dangerous, but inspires so much more opposition to himself and his ideas than any other candidate I can think of. I even think that Trump’s genocide is going to be received very differently than Biden’s genocide since Trump will be far less tactful and far more honest about his motivations. The worst case scenario is possible under Trump and I don’t think it’s ok to dismiss that, but it is by no means a guarantee that Trump is the one to lead average Americans into fascism. It is a fucking frightening risk allowing a greater evil through inaction, but I think it’s the actual least bad option this time.

I’m open to being challenged on or discuss anything I’ve said here in good faith. I’m also open to rage-induced teardowns of the ideas I’ve proposed here as long as those teardowns are against my ideas and not against me as a person or others who are sympathetic to these ideas. I understand that this is an extremely charged topic and would like to encourage honest conversation as long as it doesn’t bleed into abuse which won’t help anyone.

Edit: Whew, that was some important discussion. I hope it was clear that my intention was to clarify my thinking and explore different perspectives on my argument rather than me judging others for coming to different conclusions or trying to convince everyone I am sure I am absolutely correct. Importantly, I realized this entire argument is secondary. What is important now is direct action. Depending on the degree of success we have with disrupting this sick order, this whole conversation could become moot and that is my strongest desire. See y’all on the street.

  • huginn@feddit.it
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    8 months ago

    Trump emboldened and supported Netanyahu and made It entirely clear that he would support Israel being a fascist strongman state.

    You think he wouldn’t compound the genocide? He’d support Russia in Ukrainian genocide. He’d put American jets in Gaza. Hell he’d put boots on the ground if he thought it’d make him more money or solidify his control.

    Stop falling for this bullshit.

    Biden is reprehensible but there is nothing, nothing positive in Trump’s entire track record. The worst possible decision? He’s made it at every turn. Cartoonishly exaggerated in his love for despots and dictators: he thinks the fascists belong in power.

    Vote Biden. Not because you like him but because the alternative really is that much worse. Always has been.

    That’s being a utilitarian.

    • SGNL@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      It’s like you didn’t even read the original post. Your first three paragraphs are redundant because the OP already mentioned that they agree with you, barring calling it bullshit.

      Your utilitarianism the the whole problems they’re pointing out, if you read the actual post, you’ll notice that all it does is draw us further and further to the right, with no end in sight.

      • averyminya@beehaw.org
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        8 months ago

        If left unchecked, maybe, sure.

        Sounds like we all just need to get more involved and hold our politicians accountable. Rather than not voting, I would argue that we should vote to be in a safe place so that we can vote to be in a safer place. By not voting, we don’t have any say. By voting Democratic this time around, we can vote Leftist next time around.

        Otherwise I feel like we’re just repeating 2016, which was repeating 2004, which was repeating 1980, which was repeating 1969… That is to say, The U.S. tends to be in a good spot after a Democratic President and it seems to quickly get drawn down to the gutters with Republican ones, and the way in which Americans interact with the world around us seems heavily related to our current President.

        And the social aspect is almost more important, as now we’re seeing the direct results of shameless narcissists. That’s exactly why their comment is relevant - just look at how people had been interacting after they chose a side, Ukraine or Russia (and politically, who tended side with which) only barely 2 years later to have almost the exact same situation in Isreal. We can’t say for certain, but I feel very confident that had Trump won 2020, we’d be in the exact same situation except he would be actively inciting harm towards Palestinians in the U.S.

    • Kwakigra@beehaw.orgOP
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      8 months ago

      This is a different argument than the one I was making but I will address it.

      The next 4 years would be far better under Biden than Trump. I don’t think it’s good to consider allowing Trump to win and I am terrified of what could happen if Trump were re-elected. The reason I am considering allowing this immediate consequence is that it could be a better option than continuing the unabated rightward shift of both parties. Every election in my lifetime prior to this one, on issues such as war there was an option for and an option against. Now that genocide is on the table, the option is between for and for but worse. How did this happen? We assume there are no consequences for permitting the Democrats to do whatever they want as long as they’re not as bad as the Republicans and here we are. Both parties continue to move right and voting for every candidate who is more right-wing than the candidate who came before them just because they aren’t as radical as their series of opponents who will always be more right-wing than them just means we are demonstrating that we will tolerate anything they do as long as it’s not as bad as their opponent who will always be worse. There is nothing to stop the parties from continuing to move right. What is the next horrible choice we will have to make? Do we really think this election is the end of the process of moving away from voters and toward corporate interests which went into high gear with Citizen’s United by both parties? When the investors are all universally profiting from genocide, how can we redirect Democrats from going with that and profiting majorly from it other than causing them to associate supporting such things with election loss?