this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2024
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Political Memes

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Welcome to politcal memes!

These are our rules:

Be civilJokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.

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Rule Change for PoliticalMemes (self.politicalmemes)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by Tenthrow to c/politicalmemes
 

The fundamental tenet of a working democracy is voting. Everyone should have a vote and everyone should exercise their right to vote. To that end we have been seeing posts attempting to shame/mock or otherwise influence people not to vote. While this is a meme community, the idea that people shouldn’t vote goes against the fundamentals of a democracy by the people and for the people. To that end, we are adding a new rule that disallows posts that discourage or shame people from voting. This doesn’t mean that you can’t address how people vote, but even those who don’t agree with you and your political views should still vote. We all should. Everyone. Part of the reason we are in the mess we are in now is because participation in democracy is abysmal. Posts discouraging people from voting are essentially propaganda and will be removed.

PoliticalMemes is a community for having fun at the expense of our political hellscape we find ourselves in. People not voting is a big part of why.

We are taking feedback on this change, please let us know if you agree or disagree in the comments and why.

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[–] needthosepylons 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I'm not sure what you're trying to prove here. Take any statement, put it in an absurd context, you get an absurd statement. Sure. But why?

"I disagree with capitalism and the elite hoarding all the wealth but I'm not sure I can do much about it alone"

"I disagree with Pineapple pizza and the cooks hoarding all the dough but I'm not sure I can do much about it alone"

Ok.

The difference is that I can share the underlying goal of what the mods are trying to achieve, while I wouldn't share the underlying goal of the war on terror.

But you already guessed that I'm sure. A few edgelord points cheaply scored. That's nice.

[–] TokenBoomer 0 points 9 months ago (2 children)

This isn’t about me or you. It’s about an unnecessary rule that forbids “thought crimes.”

” Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. ”

Benjamin Franklin

[–] needthosepylons 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Well, after giving it a second thought, I suppose Lemmy may be small enough to avoid be targeted with both domestic and foreign efforts to favor Trump by having part of left demographics abstain.

If that's indeed the case, there's nothing I agree with in the suggested rule.

Voting/Abstention can be manufactured to a certain point. But if we take that away, it's a matter of strategy. I've always been an abstentionist.

(my two replies may display in the wrong order, this is the latest one)

[–] TokenBoomer -1 points 9 months ago

It’s a shame the mods are turning this community into another /politics or /world clone. I found it charming when it had eclectic and strange news stories you wouldn’t find anywhere else.

[–] needthosepylons 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Imho, voting is a right, not a duty. It's as stupid to try to convince people to vote than the other way round. What I was thinking about when I wrote my message is, well, the probability of a coordinated effort from right wing networks to turn left leaning demographics away from voting. This, I agree, would make some kind of anticipation measures useful.

What I fundamentally disagree on, and actually a bit more than "disagree", is the idea that abstention leads us where when are now. As a political science professor, I'll just say it goes against most, if not all, contemporary research findings.

(And yes, I can be a professor and have trouble writing correct English. To the brilliant mind who may want to phrase such witty comment, consider for a second that I may very well be from a non-English speaking country. Those still exist to this day)

[–] TokenBoomer 0 points 9 months ago

with a total of 66,000 monthly active users as of 27 July 2023. Source.

It’s probably less than that now. It’s nice to think it’s important, but it’s not.