I've been having some Thoughts on how the push to vote in the past has given people the wrong idea of what voting can accomplish but also why it's still something you should do. I'm not gonna try to convince people who are ideologically against voting (though I have some raised eyebrow Opinions on people who stick to ideology over actionable results/goals set in reality that I'm probably gonna end up ranting about here) but I WILL push back against the people who seem to want everyone else to also not vote and get all high and mighty at any mention of voting.
Some basic facts right off the bat;
1) Voting ON ITS OWN will not stop a fascist state
2) Voting will not Fix Everything
3) If you ever approach voting as only going for who you Believe In you will be disappointed. Politicians are not your friends. They are not heroes. I don't even think 99.8% of them are good people. Ideological Purity and politics don't mesh in reality.
4) Our system sucks. It is flawed. You can't change that by voting. You also won't change it by NOT voting and being smug online about it.
5) Voting Is Step 1. It is the LEAST you can do for civic change.
Bold on the last bit for a reason! You can not change the system from within the system, but voting is not the same as say, becoming a cop thinking you can change the entire institution by being "one of the good ones." A vote does not lock you into the system. You can vote and then go flip a cop car over and spray paint a confederate statue. You can vote and then join a co-op for community improvement.
So why vote if it won't fix shit?
Well for one thing it should be noted that there's a REASON Republicans are putting a lot of focus into make it harder for you to vote. If that doesn't set off a little ding then idk what does.
Anyway my view of voting is something I said for the 2020 election; it's a tourniquet. A tourniquet will not heal a wound. If you ONLY use a tourniquet without any other actions you just delay the inevitable, but the tourniquet is the Step One to give you more time to take those actions.
Voting won't stop a slide into fascism but it can help put breaks on. Things suck and haven't gotten better but you can't convince me it wouldn't be so much worse if Trump won in 2020. There would be MORE hyper conservative judges being put in place, erosion of rites would be happening WAY faster. You vote to slow the bleeding down even slightly so you have less of a battle than you would otherwise.
As soon as you stop thinking of voting as "this is how I will make a difference by voting for who I believe in and like" and think of it as harm reduction you can get way more strategic about it. An example from my red state is how a lot of leftists handled the primaries. There's no way someone even left of center or moderate is going to win here. It just won't happen! So for the primaries a LOT of left leaning people changed their voting registration to Republican to vote for the least awful guy.
They were all awful. All of them are harmful. But ONE was an open supporter of Q-anon endorsed by Trump and his goons. A lot of votes went to the one who still had shit views but at LEAST said Biden won the election and made wishy washy noises on abortion (as opposed to loudly yelling about banning all abortion and birth control. It's understood he will still likely vote against birth control, but he also seems to care about appealing to moderates so you can push back at him more). He may switch later but there's less of a chance of that guy going full throttle on overturning voting rights, and it was understood that guy would be less of an uphill battle than the other one. That guy won. I know other people in deep red states doing the same thing.
This also is a state to state thing. Here you can change party affiliation for the primaries then change again for the main election, which is what everyone is doing because we accepted that we'll probably end up with that shithead but we're still going to vote against him because we want it to be clear that there IS opposition here.
There's also local elections which are SUPER important. Every left community outreach org I've talked with or read up on pushes local voting and they're probably accomplishing more than the average online leftist arguing The Ideal Revolution. We GOT here because the right wing is VERY good at mobilizing a voting base and they have spent DECADES purposely starting from the local level up. Q-anon and openly white supremacist groups are targeting city councils, school boards, all that.
Go to ballotpedia.org, look at everything down the ticket. Then look up that person's social media. See who they're friends with. See what they were posting about two years ago. Look at who follows them and who they surround themselves with.
It's boring. It also often just takes me a few hours or less in an afternoon to look it up and vote down the ballot. The president really is the LEAST important part of the vote except for how they can shape their party direction (moreso for Republicans than Democrats. Republicans tend to fall in line with whoever their Top Man is. Because they're fascist adjacent at best and outright fascist at worst.)
Also most importantly for a lot of you lefties (especially younger ones):
Ideology and Reality are often not compatible. Do not trust that a great Revolution will overturn everything and Fix It because a lot of problems are rooted in the cultural, not political. Revolutions more often than not end in such massive death and upheaval that a fascist power just comes in and promises order anyway. Also even if you DO pull off a revolution, the moderates and neolibs and conservatives will still be here. People will still be complicated and won't fit into ideology. And I think it's pretty substantial that so far I only see a whole lot of talk about how the system needs to be torn down but not what could realistically take it's place. People have been trying to make a perfect system of government since we started living in tribal groups bigger than a village. An ideology is good for an aspiration and basis "if I could have my ideal what would that look like?" but reality will almost never fit that ideal, and you have to be able to learn how to not throw out "slightly better" because it isn't perfect.
I am not a politician or political scientist. I'm not a sociologist. I do not know how to "fix it." I don't think anyone solidly does. But I know that just saying "the system sucks I won't participate" doesn't change the system, and could cause greater harm to those who are in more danger from it than me. I hold my nose and vote based on the approach of harm reduction (even a TINY reduction of harm is a reduction). I expect all politicians to be rat bastards, I try to help my community and friends and work towards what I actually want from that level up. The vote is the base layer.
(anyway Robert Evans on Behind the Bastards recently put it really well. He's a half feral anarchist bastard Man who also believes voting can't fix the system or even change much, but he said he still votes because "voting won't cause more harm and there's ALWAYS a chance that I'm wrong about what it can accomplish." Basically if he's wrong and voting DOES make a slight difference, then he is causing harm by not doing it.)
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Do you have a fav of the Pacthesis charas? I love the entire Number Days cast (especially Arlo) but I also especially like Xolga, Mr. Toko, Daichi, Jack, and Lewis :D Arlo is my best boy and Evelyn is my best girl, though if we’re talking MCs Saige’s my second fave
OOH good question!! :D
Arlo and Bryce from Number Days are my two favorite dateable options out of all of the games!! Number Days is also my favorite out of all of Pacthesis' dating sims. I love the story, I love the mechanics, I love the cut scenes, I love the character designs. All of it is gorgeous and funny asf. Lena's also my fave romanceable girl 😍😍😍
The Xolga and Mr Toko series is AMAZING, I remember crying the first time I played it. I don't even remember how old I was... I probably wasn't even a teenager yet... I think it was also my first time ever experiencing a visual novel and I was so fascinated with how complex everything was. I loved figuring out the puzzles. Pacthesis really has such a way of making her games so emotional, and with such unique twists! I really miss her games and would be thrilled to play any of them again, I'm still hunting for sites that might possibly have any of her games archived. Especially Number Days!
OHHH DAICHI!!! WOW I looooved Memory Days!!!! Daichi is such a Sweet Boi. Kai was my favorite from that one :D I also very much LOVE Emmett from Chrono Days 🥰 I remember liking Quoto quite a lot when Star Days was released, too. Oh my gosh, I remember the first time Star Days was released, it was a complete and total shock. Pacthesis returned from her years-long hiatus out of nowhere and completed the whole game and none of us had any clue. It was just... suddenly uploaded, such a pleasant surprise, I was so excited. It was such a treat to see her art again. I remember she used to have a website with backgrounds on ALL of her characters -- I wish I could find it again bc I really would love to look back on 'em!
YESSSSS you have such good taste in characters!!! I love the MCs you chose, I agree those are also my top two favorites as well :D
Have you seen her Redbubble? I really want the tree hugger merch, IT'S SO CUUUUTE!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰 Thank you for the lovely message btw!!! :D
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Hi, I've noticed that in your writing (which I love, btw) you mention a lot of books and it gives the impression of you having read them all. I used to read a lot, but I haven't in a really long time, and I'd love to get into it again. Are there any books you'd recommend?
unfortunately there are actually a lot of books in my fics that i haven’t read, i’ve just done a lot of research on them and read analysis so that i can have characters talk about them in a way that like, actually makes sense. that said, i myself am trying to get back into reading too (bc for years it’s been this academia-based thing that I have to do rather than a leisure activity i get to do) and i def recommend starting off with easily consumable YA books. they can help you to get into a rhythm and feel less intimidated about reading as a whole. i definitely wouldn’t rec starting with a long, tough classic like jane eyre or something. this month i read two of the summer i turned pretty books and was able to finish them both within a matter of hours, which def made me feel like less of a loser when it comes to reading, lmao. im gonna finish the last book of the trilogy and then move onto something lengthier and more challenging!!!
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