I’m blaming and shaming now because it doesn’t matter. I know I can’t blame and shame you into voting the way I want.
To be clear, we’re not talking about what you or I would do. You’re also assuming that because I’m focusing my criticism on those in power who could have made different choices that I myself made some choice you don’t agree with. What you or I did individually as far as voting is concerned is immaterial. We’re not in power. And as an aside, if I scratch a penny, will I also find you doing this in 2023/24, when it did matter?
If you want to blame voters, you need to offer a mechanism to move them. I know how we can move individual politicians and campaigns because we’ve done it before. I don’t think we disagree about that. But there is no credible mechanism for changing the inarticulate mass which is the “electorate” to adopt your perspective that they should have just voted to support genocide. There is no tool which performs that operation. You can’t move voters in this manner. A single voter is a grain of sand. It behaves like a solid, like a tiny rock. A mass of voters is a river of sand. They have fundamentally different properties.
Play the following thought experiment out for me. Its August 2024. I’m putting you in charge of the Harris campaign. The campaign had just selected Tim Walz as VP before we put you in charge. You’ve got 1.5 billion dollars to spend, and a week of captured media going into the convention. You have three months.
The experiment (0, 1) is conducted by you answering each the following questions follows:
0 You are not allowed to change the candidates policy positions. Explain how you would use 1.5 billion dollars and 3 months to win an election.
1 You are allowed to change the candidates policy positions. Explain how you would use 1.5 billion dollars and 3 months to win an election.
I’ve done a terrible job maybe of explaining what happened to me mentally and my current motivations. I don’t care about whether I could have changed people’s vote or whether I could motivate them to vote at all. That isn’t where we meaningfully disagree I think.
Before November 2024, I thought most people were OK. I wanted good things to happen because I thought most people deserve good things. I understood that there was a portion of people who were terrible pieces of shit, but that they were a minority. That people permitted Trump to win the first time both because they understandably (if a little stupidly) thought “give him a chance” or “things will hold together” or even “yeah no chance he wins anyway I’m staying home.”
After Trump won again though, this illusion was completely shattered. I realized that I was surrounded by far more awful and petulantly stupid people than I could have imagined. And my desire for good things for most people has almost completely evaporated. I feel a pure existential and near suicidal dread. I feel devastatingly alone and there is no escape. I’m surrounded by troglodytes.
And I can’t delude myself out of it. I wish I could. This account represents me lashing out and screaming into the void.
To be clear, we’re not talking about what you or I would do. You’re also assuming that because I’m focusing my criticism on those in power who could have made different choices that I myself made some choice you don’t agree with. What you or I did individually as far as voting is concerned is immaterial. We’re not in power. And as an aside, if I scratch a penny, will I also find you doing this in 2023/24, when it did matter?
If you want to blame voters, you need to offer a mechanism to move them. I know how we can move individual politicians and campaigns because we’ve done it before. I don’t think we disagree about that. But there is no credible mechanism for changing the inarticulate mass which is the “electorate” to adopt your perspective that they should have just voted to support genocide. There is no tool which performs that operation. You can’t move voters in this manner. A single voter is a grain of sand. It behaves like a solid, like a tiny rock. A mass of voters is a river of sand. They have fundamentally different properties.
Play the following thought experiment out for me. Its August 2024. I’m putting you in charge of the Harris campaign. The campaign had just selected Tim Walz as VP before we put you in charge. You’ve got 1.5 billion dollars to spend, and a week of captured media going into the convention. You have three months.
The experiment (0, 1) is conducted by you answering each the following questions follows:
0 You are not allowed to change the candidates policy positions. Explain how you would use 1.5 billion dollars and 3 months to win an election.
1 You are allowed to change the candidates policy positions. Explain how you would use 1.5 billion dollars and 3 months to win an election.
I’ve done a terrible job maybe of explaining what happened to me mentally and my current motivations. I don’t care about whether I could have changed people’s vote or whether I could motivate them to vote at all. That isn’t where we meaningfully disagree I think.
Before November 2024, I thought most people were OK. I wanted good things to happen because I thought most people deserve good things. I understood that there was a portion of people who were terrible pieces of shit, but that they were a minority. That people permitted Trump to win the first time both because they understandably (if a little stupidly) thought “give him a chance” or “things will hold together” or even “yeah no chance he wins anyway I’m staying home.”
After Trump won again though, this illusion was completely shattered. I realized that I was surrounded by far more awful and petulantly stupid people than I could have imagined. And my desire for good things for most people has almost completely evaporated. I feel a pure existential and near suicidal dread. I feel devastatingly alone and there is no escape. I’m surrounded by troglodytes.
And I can’t delude myself out of it. I wish I could. This account represents me lashing out and screaming into the void.