TownieDeac
words are futile devices
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
- Messages
- 76,189
- Reaction score
- 16,923
Thanks birdman, I recognized it came from a good place.
Electoralism is just such a self-defeating or self-limiting ideology. It's always been easier for me to tear down than to build up. Everybody is cynical about politics but to different ends, I think.
I was listening to a podcast yesterday about conspiracy theories, and I thought there was an apt description there: Conspiracy theories are coping mechanisms for the difficult to explain, the means of said coping is projecting a concept that there is someone, somewhere, in charge or in control of every situation. It's interesting to me to reframe that in terms of electoral politics. I think the 40% of nonvoters have a less self-defeating ideology in many ways than voters convinced of their self-importance. Voting is a naive if well-intentioned sense that your voice can be represented, that you're contributing to representative democracy and that your voice is going to be heard by somebody who will be able to control the direction of the country. A way to frame it culturally would be: it's more ideologically coherent to follow the X Files as your way of understanding government (as a dumb show written by dumb people) because of the doubt it casts on the reality of representative government and control in a postwar society than it is to follow West Wing (a smart show written by smart people) which posits that government is a meritocracy run by ideologues.
That concept, the idea that we're having all these weighty conversations about the election and the role of our rhetoric still boils down to one vote at the end of the day for each of us, and it's why I think I can shit on Biden all day every day, cast my vote for him, and focus my energy instead on local organizing and labor power. The opposite idea makes no sense, it places far too much power on a single vote or a single voice, it's sort of what we've known because of behavioral economics for a long time, that there is no rational or perfect consumer, but we still base all our fundamental theories on the idea that a market is made up of rational consumers.
Anyway I was on a long run yesterday listening to this podcast, thinking about this thread, trying to dodge people walking four wide wearing no masks on a city sidewalk, and I decided it's probably best, whether I can get my thoughts out on this or not, for me to just focus my energies on having good vibes generally. Wanna be a good vibes guy. Probably won't post much on politics board anymore, because the vibes are of questionable quality.
Electoralism is just such a self-defeating or self-limiting ideology. It's always been easier for me to tear down than to build up. Everybody is cynical about politics but to different ends, I think.
I was listening to a podcast yesterday about conspiracy theories, and I thought there was an apt description there: Conspiracy theories are coping mechanisms for the difficult to explain, the means of said coping is projecting a concept that there is someone, somewhere, in charge or in control of every situation. It's interesting to me to reframe that in terms of electoral politics. I think the 40% of nonvoters have a less self-defeating ideology in many ways than voters convinced of their self-importance. Voting is a naive if well-intentioned sense that your voice can be represented, that you're contributing to representative democracy and that your voice is going to be heard by somebody who will be able to control the direction of the country. A way to frame it culturally would be: it's more ideologically coherent to follow the X Files as your way of understanding government (as a dumb show written by dumb people) because of the doubt it casts on the reality of representative government and control in a postwar society than it is to follow West Wing (a smart show written by smart people) which posits that government is a meritocracy run by ideologues.
That concept, the idea that we're having all these weighty conversations about the election and the role of our rhetoric still boils down to one vote at the end of the day for each of us, and it's why I think I can shit on Biden all day every day, cast my vote for him, and focus my energy instead on local organizing and labor power. The opposite idea makes no sense, it places far too much power on a single vote or a single voice, it's sort of what we've known because of behavioral economics for a long time, that there is no rational or perfect consumer, but we still base all our fundamental theories on the idea that a market is made up of rational consumers.
Anyway I was on a long run yesterday listening to this podcast, thinking about this thread, trying to dodge people walking four wide wearing no masks on a city sidewalk, and I decided it's probably best, whether I can get my thoughts out on this or not, for me to just focus my energies on having good vibes generally. Wanna be a good vibes guy. Probably won't post much on politics board anymore, because the vibes are of questionable quality.