Voting is not a civic duty. I have every right NOT to vote. It's my voice and I can use it as I please. Forcing me into a ballot box to pick between two awful choices is not civilized.
You can vote against people. To me that's a tacit admission that you're accepting the proffer. As there's no way on your vote to indicate that it's a vote of protest vs. a vote of support. The candidate you vote for will see no difference. You'll have reduced your already meager position even further.
I do not accept this.
I mean if you want to get into the anti-democratic nature of the Unit Rule next I'd be happy to oblige you.
Your position is not automatically "good" just because school and MTV told you it was.
A civic duty is not a legal duty. You have the legal right not to vote. My opinion is you are failing your government and your own interests when you don't vote.
I agree that plurality voting is bad. We should have a system where candidates are ranked, so voter sentiment is better expressed and more than two candidates have a chance at winning.
The system we have now needs to be worked, until we get a new system. If you dislike all options equally, then vote for someone else as a protest. If you have a preference of one major candidate over the other, it is in your interest to express that. Sitting at home and doing nothing is the worst.
I challenge you to at least research ranked-pair or ranked choice voting (or any alternative form of voting) and write your city councilman about it. Or contact a voting reform organization to ask how you can help change your city.
> Ah so your sense of civics is that easy to depart with?
I don't really agree with the sentiment of "be nice to people doing stupid stuff" that seems to permeate around here, so it's not really a "gotcha" to point out that I'm being a judgmental asshole.
> I take it you think no one could judge you for your position?
I don't give a shit if people judge me. I have my opinions. You're free to think that position is stupid if you want. There's eight billion other people on this planet, there's always going to be people who think my opinions are stupid. I think yours is stupid. It's a beautiful system.
I don’t even know that I agree with the conclusion that people would hear more of my opinions if I were nicer, but even if I grant that, I also don’t particularly care if my opinions have reach.
I was going to type up a lecture to why I think it’s dumb to not vote, but I am sure you’ve heard it before, and frankly even if I had the most eloquent and amazing argument ever I doubt that it would change your opinion on this, so I can’t really be bothered.
How does this make me a fascist? I am a fascist for thinking you’re dumb if you were allowed to vote and didn’t? I can’t judge someone for something without being called a fascist?
I think we have some very different definitions of words here.
