Absolutely begging my otherwise sensible fellow leftists to stop dismissing anyone who engages with voting and elections as a Stupid Liberal. Voting for someone as a leftist doesn't mean I agree with them, it means I'd rather fight against their bullshit than the even worse bullshit of whoever the other options are. It's a harm reduction tactic to avoid making our own fight harder than it needs to be.

Refusing to vote for "the lesser evil" because of your own reactionary purity politics actively erodes what remains of a political left wing while allowing even greater harm to come to those most vulnerable in our society. Refusing to acknowledge there are objective and concrete differences between political parties and dubbing them "all as bad as each other" actively ignores the direct and immediate danger specific policy differences can have for poc, trans people, disabled people, poor people, homeless people, and otherwise marginalised folks.

Electoral politics is not the battleground where we will win the fight against capitalist oppression, but the people are also not about to pick up their pitchforks and storm parliament tomorrow. This fight will take years if not decades, and I would rather spend that time fighting progressives and liberals than conservatives and right-wingers.