this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
719 points (84.3% liked)

Political Memes

5506 readers
1887 users here now

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.

No misinformationDon’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.

Posts should be memesRandom pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.

No bots, spam or self-promotionFollow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 172 points 5 months ago (7 children)

I'm with you on what the meme is trying to say, but the bottom track needs to be shown looping around to the Republican track and running over everyone.

Because that's where the third track leads.

[–] DarkCloud 92 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (7 children)

Yep, not voting is unironically pretty much the same as voting for the party you least want in charge.

Because you're making it that much more likely.

Don't throw away a right that your ancestors fought for, as it may result in future generations no longer having that right.

[–] GraniteM 21 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Hitler's government was a popular government; the vast majority of Germans preferred the rule of gangsters to the effort of thinking and doing for themselves. They abdicated their franchise.

[...]

The former Berlin businessman I referred to earlier told me that he blamed his own group, people with the time and the money and the opportunity to know better, for what happened to Germany. "We ignored Hitler," he said. "We considered him an unimportant fellow, not quite a gentleman, not of our own class. We considered it just a little bit vulgar to bother with him, to bother with politics at all."

They thought of the government as "They." The only possible route to a clear conscience in politics is to accept political responsibility, either as an active member of the party in power or as an equally active member of the loyal opposition.

—Robert A. Heinlein, Take Back Your Government

[–] grue 18 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

Similarly, MLK saw "the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice" as the biggest impediment to civil rights.

The bottom line is that being secure enough in your position in society to think you don't have to engage in politics, or that you can afford to vote your principles instead of tactically, is itself a form of privilege. Those sorts of privileged people think themselves neutral or uninvolved or maybe (in the case of professed leftists refusing to vote Dem as a protest) on their own third side, but the reality is that they are the right-wing authoritarians' greatest ally every single time.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] bazus1 55 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Like so?
Also, let's have 'im on the track too.

[–] samus12345 23 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (10 children)

"Oh, no, I'm not in any of those groups on the track, so I can safely not vote and have a clear conscience as it crushes everyone!"

Then they came for me...

load more comments (10 replies)
[–] Pacmanlives 33 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

As someone who for the first time did not vote in 2016. I started voting in the Bush era. I fully agree, no action leads to fascism apparently. Don’t do what I did because I was pissed that Bernie was cheated out of the nomination. Vote or Trump will be back in office.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't matter where the track leads if the trolley can't get to it. It could lead to rainbows and sunshine, but that isn't where the trolley is headed because there is no possibility that someone other than Trump or Biden is elected president. A few cry babies voting third party won't get some third person elected. A vote for the third track is a vote for a track that will not be ridden.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] ignotum 98 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm guessing the joke is that third party voters ignore the trolley about to go down one of two paths, instead deciding to stand next to a short piece of track connected to nothing with no trolley on it, so they can pretend the imminent disaster happening on the other track isn't real

[–] [email protected] 44 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

And there's also a contingent of people on the trolley who are trying to get it to slow down, working their asses off to improve long term actual outcomes in the real world, whether related or not to the little lever, and the guy standing next to the empty disconnected track is claiming to be one of them and saying you must be against them and how dare you, you person-running-over-enabling monster, if you say anything against his strategy.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 5 months ago (3 children)

This is why I, as an autistic person, think internally using a sort of infinite mechanical analog diagram sheet thing.

Physical analogies are beautiful for how quickly they can convey a concept. Those disconnected tracks are a great representation of the third party voting situation we face, the “throwaway vote” problem.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] mycodesucks 43 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 40 points 5 months ago (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Shardikprime 37 points 5 months ago (6 children)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Phegan 37 points 5 months ago (6 children)

The problem is that we have two choices, and we will never not have two choices unless we do something about it. I can both say that Joe Biden sucks and we should do better and also vote for him because the other option is worse. This discourse that makes it seem like any criticism of Biden is pro trump is how we will end up in a slightly less terrible place. Cool. Really looking forward to that.

Also like what the fuck...I guess we have to kill Palestinians no matter what.

There is a third fucking option and it's not doing a genocide.

[–] grue 39 points 5 months ago (6 children)

There is a third fucking option and it's not doing a genocide.

That's only an option if you have a viable strategy for accomplishing it.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (7 children)

Which, of course, they don't. It's a vanity vote. They want to pretend they have actually done something without actually having to do anything of consequence.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] UnderpantsWeevil 16 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

The problem is that we have two choices

The problem is that we don't. If you're not in a "swing" state, all the votes in the world for Joe Biden are meaningless. Win California by another million votes. Win it by another 10M. Have every single eligible voter in California turn up and vote for Joe Biden. He still loses the EC when the SCOTUS tells Arizona to stop counting ballots the minute Trump is in the lead.

Also like what the fuck…I guess we have to kill Palestinians no matter what.

We have to keep sending money to Israel because its the means by which we control the Suez Canal.

Except... the Houthis have control over the back end of the canal so long as they're able to scare off shipping in the Gulf of Adan. So now we're endorsing a genocide just for shits and giggles.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Katana314 36 points 5 months ago

It’s interesting how much the vote DOES resemble a trolley problem. Generally, the only real point in favor of not pulling the lever is “You’re killing someone, it’s immoral to get involved. Life shouldn’t be in your hands.”

Which is still setting aside all the conscious choice by other human beings that IS happening come election season. Probably the biggest way it diverges is that a trolley is moving under its own “natural” momentum. In reality, it’s as though some Nazis are pulling the trolley along the track to the 5 people.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 5 months ago (9 children)

If that third track were an option the trolley problem would never have existed. If there really is a third track in the real-life situation, then the trolley problem is not a good analogy of that problem.

Sadly, in this election there is no third track and we are forced into choosing the lesser of two evils.

If you want a third track, push for ranked choice voting!

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (8 children)

the joke is that you are actively removing yourself from the situation by making a decision to do nothing. In essence, that track has no trolley on it, and no people on it, meaning nobody dies.... As long as you don't look over your shoulder.

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (8 replies)
[–] theywilleatthestars 24 points 5 months ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm assuming the third track being entirely disconnected and therefore not a real option is intentional.

Either way, accurate

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] BadlyTimedLuck 21 points 5 months ago (15 children)

Guys, I don't know what's going on in the world and their wars. I just want a president who isn't abhorently evil. Do we have to revolutionize to find that 3rd option orrr?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago

Do we have to revolutionize to find that 3rd option

Pretty much. It's against the interest of both parties to have more options because both are near-guaranteed to lose power if there were more options.

load more comments (14 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (1 children)

this one is actually really funny, i like this one.

Good shit.

[–] go_go_gadget 31 points 5 months ago (6 children)

I appreciate OPs honesty that Palestinians are dead either way.

[–] ashok36 15 points 5 months ago (40 children)

Less palestinians will die under Biden. People who says "how could it be any worse?" have a severe lack of imagination and/or historical knowledge.

load more comments (40 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (10 children)

stop the trolley, dumb fucks 😂

load more comments (10 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›