It’s a great way to lose an election.
Thats how it is in our grayscale world
Not choosing is also a choice. It may or may not be the right or wrong choice.
The concept of the “lesser evil” operates as a manipulative technique, much like the neoliberal slogan “there is no alternative” (TINA). In both cases, the spectrum of alternatives is artificially narrowed to create the illusion of fewer choices than actually exist. For example, while the United States has roughly fifteen multi-state political parties, the lesser evil strategy deliberately implies there are only two.
You are intentionally shutting out reality and choosing to believe that third party candidates are viable but they absolutely are not
You are intentionally shutting out the meaning of my comment.
Which is? If it’s not trying to convince people to piss into the void by voting third party, I’m all ears
No, the First-Past-The-Post system + media polarisation makes it a two party system. If you had proportional election you would have more parties, because the rest votes don’t dissappear. The US election system is from the 1800s and outdated.
If you had proportional election you would have more parties, because the rest votes don’t dissappear.
The US election system is from the 1800s and outdated.
So, would the better option not be to fight for a better system or infiltrate one of the two parties and change it from within?
I think the biggest problem I have with the way the US has been working is that we just vote for the lesser evil and call it a day, thinking we’ve done our part. We’ve done all we can do. It makes things simple. It makes us feel good.
The real solution is a long, hard fight for change that will actually solve some of our problems. It involves convincing others, fierce public debate, and may result in violence. You will not be alone, but there will also be countless others who may not agree with your solution and will fight you every step of the way. Your opposition may be inspired by a genuine passion for a different solution. They may have an irrational fear of change. Some may simply benefit from the status quo and prefer to protect what they have than solve any problems for the rest of society. It’s so complicated and it’s just so much easier to offload that work to politicians.
Unfortunately, the most powerful among us know this and work as hard as possible to convince the politicians that they know better… or they just buy them out.
A friend of mine puts it this way: “I don’t vote for who’s turn it is to lead the KKK either.”
The day the KKK has control over your friend’s day-to-day existence, that will be a relevant policy.
I mean, couldn’t we all just join the KKK and vote in a more moderate grand dragon?
When it comes to politics, it’s dangerous thinking that got us in this hellhole in the first place. It proved to anyone getting into politics that you can be a massive shit stain, but just be a slightly smaller shit stain than your opponent and people will support you to no end. Alternatively you can be the exact same level of shit stain as your opponent, but say things in a nicer way or just not at all and get the same results.
I personally have refused to accept this outcome since the only thing it leads us to is a slower death. I’d rather put my time and effort into supporting those that keep us alive even if most refuse to support that decision and call it idiotic.
Choosing the lesser evil is the cornerstone of our great democracies!
Obviously true? In real life I’ve found it’s often worth doing a bit of thinking / effort to find a third option though. Not always possible though - like when voting - though I don’t think picking the least worst (imho) option when it comes to political representation is immoral
Seem fairly sound and self evident. Obviously there can be disagreements on judgement, but I can’t think of an scenario where the greater evil should not be opposed.
What’s to think about? You going to choose the GREATER evil?
Depends on the context, but almost always a strawman imo.
Evil is simpler and easier to pull off than good (because you don’t have to value everyone in your equation), so “reasonable” compromises with evil compounded enough times leads to some pretty evil outcomes.
almost always a strawman
Tell me what party should I vote for then :(
False dichotomy.
Also, read Witcher. It have like 9 books about it.
And watch Master & Commander while you’re at it.
I think it’s like the trolley problem: a trolley (like a train) is barreling down the tracks to a fork in the tracks. You have a lever that will divert the train. Tied to the tracks dead ahead are five innocent people who will all certainly die if you don’t throw the lever. However, one innocent person is tied to the tracks that you would divert the trolley to. Assume the trolley has no passengers and all five (or the one) will certainly be killed by the trolley.
The dilemma here is that by doing nothing, you could say you have nothing to do with the five people dying. You didn’t put them there. You can blame the person who did put them there, but by doing nothing, you can say you have no blood on your hands. Or you can pull the lever, but then the blood of the one person is absolutely on your hands, but you can say you saved the other five.
Diverting the trolley is the lesser of two evils. But is it the right call? Depends on the situation.
And of course, there’s also the unsaid option of diverting it and liberating the one in time, then the rest.
But, that is more difficult to pull off. Though better. I think if both the greater and the lesser evil support a greatly harmful outcome, then the only winning option is to support neither and fight for an option that’s better.
With FPTP in the USA, the winning option would have been that everyone who normally voted Dem, voted for Green or the Democratic Socialist Party. But again, harder to pull off since you gotta convince so many people.
Five people call out to you to save their lives with the simple pull of a lever and you shout back to them “No, I am too principled. Perhaps if I had the abilities of Superman I could save you all with this lever and then also save that person with my hands but I recognize my limitations and will therefore choose the outcome where more people will die rather than fewer.”
They’re all so proud of you for those next five seconds.
Diverting it to the direction of the one, and liberating the one, is what was meant. It’d be good to read before commenting.
With FPTP in the USA, the winning option would have been that everyone who normally voted Dem, voted for Green or the Democratic Socialist Party. But again, harder to pull off since you gotta convince so many people.
This is you not pulling the lever.
I was in a discussion a couple months ago with someone on here who told me “you have to vote for the lesser of two nazis.” That wasn’t hyperbole. We were literally discussing how you could vote in election where the two options were Nazis. Something about Elon musk’s new party I think I forget. But the guy thought that if there’s two Nazis running the responsible thing to do is to vote for the one you think is less bad. Which I don’t know how you make that decision but okay. By the way that discussions seemed a little more absurd a few months ago now it seems downright prescient.
That discussion kind of perfectly encapsulates my feelings on the subject of voting for the lesser of two evils. Now I get the Strategic reasoning of voting for the lesser of two evils. I get the logic. But my feeling is it always does eventually end in what we were talking about. Voting for the lesser of two evils eventually is going to get you the point where you’re voting for a literal Nazi. That’s where the road leads.
There is no such thing as good or evil. There’s only the things that make us feel good and things that do not. For some people, the things that make them feel good are also things that make others feel good; but there’s a lot of people who only feel good by causing others to feel bad.
The only thing that matters is balancing what makes you feel better with the things that make the people you rely on feel better.
