Sock Puppet Pundit: When people are broadcasting, “Voting doesn’t matter,” if 100k people across the nation don’t vote, it can change the results of a national election.

very much the words of a man who has never once worried, not for a moment, that he would be outside the law

More anti-democratic thoughts from 2018 the NYT allowed this writer to exclude from his current piece. Delivered with an air of detached irony, as if he miiight be joking or exaggerating. But is he?

There are times when people express a desire not to vote, and while I might disagree, I can understand. This, on the other hand, isn’t even an argument. It’s incoherent in many ways. I disagree with it, but it’s also inept persuasive writing.

He begins with “it’s pointless” because a single vote won’t change the outcome (which on a local level isn’t even necessarily true!), and then deals with “it matters when lots of people do it” by saying “I’m not responsible for other people.” It’s sleight of hand, pure sophistry.

I’m a Georgia voter. Every vote matters, even on a national level.

What I’m saying is that it is literally and simplistically true that in national races, your one vote if you consider it completely individually, which you should not, will generally not change the outcome. But that’s a nonsensical way to think about voting!

When people are broadcasting, “Voting doesn’t matter,” if 100k people across the nation don’t vote, it can change the results of a national election.

Also, look at who the message is coming from. These rich, white, cis het, Christian men aren’t bothered by the right-wing agenda. They get their Christo-fascist state and tax breaks if Trump wins. If Biden wins, they’ll pretend they weren’t backing the right-wing agenda.

You do not have to tell me this! My entire point was that this op-ed is awful and makes no sense. We absolutely agree about whether people should vote!

Totally agree. I just think we should look at the people who aren’t voting and assume they will benefit by Trump winning. If they are rich, white, cis het dudes, they will benefit. This describes most of the pundit class shitting on Biden.

I agree! That’s why it’s a nonsensical way to think about voting. Of course voting matters. You don’t need to talk me into anything, believe me — I’m talking about how to answer people who say “I look at election results and it wouldn’t have been different if I hadn’t voted at all.”

I just had this conversation with my hair dresser. I think I convinced her that her vote makes a difference in local elections, I'm not sure I was convincing about state / national.

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