11.2 million. That’s the number of American citizens who rank climate change as their top issue but didn’t vote in the 2024 election, according to research by the Environmental Voter Project. For context, Donald Trump won the presidency in 2024 by less than 2.3 million votes. For a little over a decade, EVP has been [...]Read More... from If So Many Americans Care About Climate, Why Don’t They Vote Like It?
This is a thread about asking why Americans don’t vote at a very high rate. I am pushing back against the sadly very common doomer narrative that people just don’t care, are lazy, or stupid. For starters it’s just wrong, but also it accepts a framing where every single individual is responsible for the current situation we’re in, and therefore they just need to change. This is an entirely unproductive way of looking at things. Individual responsibility blame games are just about making the people making them feel superior to others. It encourages you to sit back and basically just say “I guess democracy doesn’t work! I did my part!”
My comment is the opposite of advocating for apathy. I am pointing out that more needs to be done to fix this problem. If you’re in a position to be angry at people for not voting, you should go do something about that. What are your state’s electoral laws like? Could you change them? What about participation in civic organizations like unions that can organize people to vote? Are there any around you that are doing that work? Do anything other than just telling random internet strangers that they should go vote.
I’m sorry, I forgot we’re on the internet and Poe’s Law applies. Next time I’ll add a “THIS IS SARCASM :D” disclaimer to the end of my posts when relevant.
THIS IS SARCASM :D
I don’t know how you read a post going through all the structural problems with elections which culminates in a point about people not dealing with non-voting in an effective way and not get the point. Other people did.
This is a thread about asking why Americans don’t vote at a very high rate. I am pushing back against the sadly very common doomer narrative that people just don’t care, are lazy, or stupid. For starters it’s just wrong, but also it accepts a framing where every single individual is responsible for the current situation we’re in, and therefore they just need to change. This is an entirely unproductive way of looking at things. Individual responsibility blame games are just about making the people making them feel superior to others. It encourages you to sit back and basically just say “I guess democracy doesn’t work! I did my part!”
My comment is the opposite of advocating for apathy. I am pointing out that more needs to be done to fix this problem. If you’re in a position to be angry at people for not voting, you should go do something about that. What are your state’s electoral laws like? Could you change them? What about participation in civic organizations like unions that can organize people to vote? Are there any around you that are doing that work? Do anything other than just telling random internet strangers that they should go vote.
I agree, I’m saying your comment DOESN’T advocate for any of what you’ve described.
I’m sorry, I forgot we’re on the internet and Poe’s Law applies. Next time I’ll add a “THIS IS SARCASM :D” disclaimer to the end of my posts when relevant.
THIS IS SARCASM :D
I don’t know how you read a post going through all the structural problems with elections which culminates in a point about people not dealing with non-voting in an effective way and not get the point. Other people did.
THIS IS NOT SARCASM :(
Oh, I picked up the sarcasm at the very end… It’s just not well applied.
Sarcasm doesn’t work well as a tool to advocate… It’s great for advocating against though…
You seem to love sending absolute walls of text
That’s fair. Sarcasm can be misunderstood and places the work of interpretation on the reader.
I’m not really the most concise writer but complex issues can’t be easily discussed in the length of a tweet.
THIS IS NOT SARCASM :(
Tell you what, let’s meet in the middle. I’ll work on my writing skills and you work on your reading comprehension and attention span.
THIS IS SARCASM :D
I’m sorry if this got a little mean/heated. I just get really mad about certain issues. We’re on the same team and that’s what matters.
THIS IS NOT SARCASM : (
Man I get heated too, I’ll happily meet you in the middle.
Someone pointed out to me that I was too quick to make angry comments so I’ve been working on sending neutral or positive ones instead…
Still working on it.