Again, I don’t find your vote offensive. My original comment in this thread was making fun of the guy who was offended by your vote. All I said is that I think voting for Harris was an act of harm reduction, but I understood why so many people couldn’t vote for a candidate who was supporting a genocide. Then, I explained what harm reduction was. Twice. Now, seriously, go slap that English teacher.

“This is a bad analogy; the people being harmed are far away, therefore it’s not as bad,” is one hell of a take.

On this, we agree.

Again, not wrong about the criticism of the Democrats, just what harm reduction is. Putting incompetent, weak-willed centrists in power over literal fascists is practically the definition of harm reduction. Again, that’s doesn’t mean I think Democrats are good. Amputation is better than dying of gangrene, but that doesn’t mean I think having your arm cut off is good.

(Also, yeah, Democrats wouldn’t let Israel annex the West Bank. That’s why Israeli politicians didn’t start talking openly about full annexation until Trump won. Democrats did allow illegal settlements to slowly take portions of the West Bank with little pushback, and that’s fucking despicable, but again, full annexation vs. illegal settlements is a perfect example of harm reduction.)

Buddy, if you’re take away from my comments here are that I’m a, “vote blue no matter who,” Democrat, you should go back to your high school and slap your English teacher, 'cause you apparently made it through without picking up any reading comprehension. For the record, you’re not wrong about the Democrats, but voting for someone who will neglect you over someone who will attack you is harm reduction. Voting for the party that will allow Israel to level the Gaza over the party that will allow Israel to level Gaza and annex the West Bank is harm reduction. Voting for the party that did nothing to protect Roe over the party that abolished it is harm reduction. Voting for the people who are soft of trans rights over the people putting bounties on trans people using the bathroom is harm reduction. That’s why it’s called harm reduction, not harm elimination.

That doesn’t mean that the Democrats are good, or that you should always vote for them in every election, and I clearly sympathize with people who could not bring themselves to vote for them this election. It just means we would be better off if Trump wasn’t going to be President, and personally, I blame the Democratic party for that failure.

OK, so if Harris had decided to roll back protections on the queer community, came out against gender affirming care, and started supporting, “pray the gay away,” shit, would you want straight people telling you to suck it up? Would you want them telling you that you’re a piece of shit if you don’t vote for her? That you’re stupid not to vote for her because Trump is worse? Having the emotional distance to make a cool, detached, “lesser evil,” argument is a position of privilege, and I don’t assume everyone shares it.

I never heard a single person claim the parties were the same this election cycle, and I certainly didn’t hear anyone say they wouldn’t vote for Harris because, “the Democratic Party isn’t perfect.” I heard lots of people say things like, “I can’t vote for Harris because she’s supporting a genocide,” and while I believe they should have voted for her based upon harm reduction, I understand their perspective and I’m not going to reduce it to a false caricatures.

I’ve seen the person who posted this article, return2ozma, called a Russian troll account at least once a week since I joined Lemmy, so color me skeptical. Who knows, maybe you’re right, but if so, then you’re the instance that cried, “bot,” one too many times.

Edit: Based on the original commenters edit, I think we solved the mystery of why all the, “bots,” suddenly disappeared.

Yeah, but was it, though? Or was it full of people making legitimate criticisms of the Democratic Party only to get accused of being bots or told they thought, “both sides,” were the same? Because I know which of these two things I’ve seen more of in the last year.

“Well, what have you to say now, strawman I’ve been ranting about for the entire election cycle? Isn’t it odd that person I made up in my head to he mad at suddenly has nothing to say?”