Laura Jedeed (Misanthrophile)

It is that time of year where idealistic voters and pragmatic voters fight about who's destroying the country Gonna do a thread about it

The idealistic voter sees their vote as an expression of their convictions. A chance to give the system feedback An idealistic voter may vote for a third party candidate who closely aligns with their views, or not vote at all as a way to express their disapproval

A pragmatic voters sees their vote as a weapon to be used for larger ends. They may vote for a candidate they despise because they think the other one is worse, or because they think that candidate will move America closer to wherever they think it ought to go

Viewed through a pragmatic lens, idealistic voting is bad because it doesn't get results But the ideological voter either believes their method will change things long-term, or isn't concerned about results so much as not actively facilitating a revolting candidate/system

Viewed through an ideological lens, pragmatic voting is bad because it empowers genuinely bad people and denotes hypocrisy: "You say you're a leftist and yet you've voted for this de facto Republican" But the pragmatic voter doesn't vote for a candidate. They vote for results

I'm a pragmatic voter because, like many leftists, I think we don't fix this shit by voting alone Voting is one tool in a much larger toolbox I use my vote to create as much space as possible for those other tools. It's not some expression of who I am as a person