OckhamsRazor OckhamsRazor

Vote or shut UP!

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Vote or shut UP!

Oh come on....

from JoeUser Forums
Don't take my tone here as ascerbic as it reads. I don't intend it that way. To quote George Carlin, "I just get pissed, goddammit!"

I see it every election year. Somebody suggests that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about what happens next. And quite frankly, I'm about sick of it.

Listen, folks - picking hemlock over curare doesn't improve your chances any. I do NOT vote. I don't vote because I think we've outgrown our current system and that politicans are absolutely corrupt. Everyone wants to believe that the Messiah of politicians is coming, but I'm sorry. I just don't see it.

In the older days where this system was conceptualized, the presidential candidates would have to go reach all the people. They did this in numerous ways - none of which was so expedient as photo opportunites, interviews with sympathetic press members, and a whole truckload of supporting pundits on the internet. These days, Presidential candidacy is all about spin, and while I LOVE the band "The Spin Doctors," their namesake is absolutely abominable to me - as I'm sure it was to them. To me, they represent the temple that Jesus supposedly broke up when he saw it had been filled with money grubbers.

Don't ask me to pick between meat Puppet A and meat Puppet B and then tell me if I don't pick, I have no right to complain. I have a very good right to. I think they both do whatever they have to do to get them what they want. Power, mainly. I haven't seen a genuine interest in actually solving any problems in years - if ever - and I'm tired of the self-righteous hypoAmericans claiming some sort of intellectual authority over my decision simply because I didn't choose death by strangulation over death by drowning. I'm looking at you desselpastrami. Or whatever your name is.

Some of you folks need to take a squeegee from your nearest gas station, and clear, completely, the crust off of your third eye. (That would be the one that sees from within the brain) If you think for a skinny second that any one of these candidates is going to actually do anything except what their campaign donators want them to, you're living in a naive dream. The decisions that will come from the next president of the United States are already being determined beneath tables and behind closed doors. God, am I a conspiracy theorist now? Really? Read your history and look at what you have to choose from.

The question is, American citizen. When will you finally get tired and fed up with it? Well, that's actually a silly question. You already ARE tired and fed up with it. But what choice do you have? Meatpuppet A and Meatpuppet B. And that's about it. When will you notice that yet another 4 years have gone by, and none of the promises by either side - in Congress, or in the Oval office, or by your local state senates and governors, are coming to fruition? When will you garner the courage to turn those tables over?

Sadly...very sadly...the only thing that disappoints me more than politicians are the people they dupe. What would happen if we all refused to vote? It'll never happen, but man, I can dream.
politics
20,710 views 28 replies
Reply #26 from JoeUser Forums Top

My point was that if you do nothing to either participate in the system, or to try and fix the system, you have no room to complain.  If you're not willing to do something... anything... and just want to sit there and gripe about how broken things are, you're a hypocrite.

Of course you never lose your right to complain, that's a constitutionally assigned right.  What you do lose is the ability to be taken seriously in any discussion on the government, politics, elections etc.  If you don't participate in some way, even if it's in protest, you've given up your voice in the process.  Democracy isn't some free lunch sort of deal where you get it all for nothing.  The expectation is you participate in some way.  The easiest way is to take a few minutes of your time every now and then and fill out a ballot.

"I don't like it.  It's wrong and broken.  However I refuse to expend any of my own time or effort in an attempt to fix it.  Nor will I lend support (i.e. a vote) to anyone who does.  I expect someone else to bring the world to me.  Until my expectations are met, I will merely criticize and complain... and to hell with anyone who suggests I do otherwise!"

Reply #27 from JoeUser Forums Top
Zoomba, I appreciate your comments. And I understand what box you've placed me in, and why you have done so. I am an observer. I have stated what I observe which you might or might not have noticed is a small instance of "doing something...anything..." How your own words managed to escape you, I cannot say.

So is writing a blog post doing something? Maybe not in the way you accept. But maybe it makes one person think. And then there'd be two of us.

You are reacting to what you think I am, because there are so many that say the things I say, (as you stated you have noticed since 2000, was it?) and so it's easy to place me in the box with them. But I caution you not to be too overzealous in your decision that you understand who the man behind "Ock" is. I can tell you already, whether you like to believe it or not, that you do not.

What you do lose is the ability to be taken seriously in any discussion on the government, politics, elections etc


I've read many such discussions and find them to be mostly a waste of space. I'll tell a little story. I was born in '62, and so I was fairly young when the whole Watergate thing went down. My Dad had 5 brothers, and Dad and all of the brothers except one were staunch republicans. Through some weird twist of fate, I just happened to be visiting that one democratic uncle for the summer when the Watergate trials were going down. Here's what I saw.

My Republican father and 4 brothers (and their Dad, my grandfather - which I forgot to mention) all defending Mr. Nixon and his cohorts. "Ends justifies means" became a buzz phrase. Argument of whether ends actually do justify means continues to this day. And in the privacy of his house, my lone democratic uncle sat slavering,daily, over the chance that that damned republican was going to get it in the neck. It wasn't a pretty sight. Either side of it.

But we've grown used to it, haven't we? Because it goes on all the time as "business as usual" now. Watch TV. Listen to radio shows. Read these very forums, or numerous others, and the true nature of man is apparent. He seeks to kill those that disagree, and if law and repercussions prohibit it, then he'll denigrate them instead. So in short, if I'm not going to be taken seriously by these types, well it's only fair. I don't take them seriously, either.

"I don't like it. It's wrong and broken. However I refuse to expend any of my own time or effort in an attempt to fix it. Nor will I lend support (i.e. a vote) to anyone who does. I expect someone else to bring the world to me. Until my expectations are met, I will merely criticize and complain... and to hell with anyone who suggests I do otherwise!"


Are these words you're putting into my mouth? Then consider:

My contribution to changing things comes by way of being in the Navy which I've proudly been in for nearly 17 years. I'm not a combatant, but I do go on 'cruises,' into places where harm could come at any time, and I am a part of the United States military's mission to secure the seas for the population at large. The President chosen is my Commander in Chief. I'll defend *whoever* it is with my life. But I don't have to vote for them. I'm not ordered to.

Does your contribution measure to more than a vote? Tell me what you do to change things - it might make suffering your denigration of my little ditty on the electoral process a little easier to swallow. And if that's all you got, maybe you should retract that "hypocrite" word and pick up a mirror.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #28 from JoeUser Forums Top
"Hello darkness my old friend..."

I can name that tune in ONE note!