This really is the “does anything fucking matter?” election.

Darius Kazemi

@fraying the way you frame it linguistically it's a choice between 10/10 evil vs 5/10 evil. To me it's more like 10/10 vs 8.5/10. I'm going to vote for the moderate Democrat but it sucks to see messaging that I'm voting for someone just fine when from where I sit she and the party she stands with are not fine and are, in fact, quite evil! The Republican evil is terrifying villain stuff. The Democratic evil is a boring machine that smiles and blows smoke while enabling awful things. I hate it all

The One Grue Bix

@darius @fraying I admit I find your counterframing baffling. Trump is a literal fascist but Harris is not 85% of one.

Darius Kazemi

@bixfrankonis @fraying all fascism is evil but not all evil is fascism. I wasn't talking about fascism I was talking about adding suffering and death to the world. You can have an extremely well functioning liberal democracy that carries out, for example, let's just say, genocide. And I hate that I'm forced to vote for the liberal Democratic genocide machine that doesn't WANT my family in the middle east dead but will kill em all as nicely as they can if they HAVE to

Darius Kazemi

@bixfrankonis @fraying and the part that I'm currently upset about is the part where I am scolded for feeling bad for voting for these utter ghouls

Derek Powazek 🐐

@darius You felt scolded by my post?

Darius Kazemi

@fraying yes. Or perhaps patronized or condescended to. Certainly deeply upsetting to read a message along the lines of: the choice is between evil and not-evil, how hard can it be. Feels like I'm being called dumb for even pausing to consider any course of action that does not involve voting for the moderate Democrat with a nice smile.

Your follow up to me about demanding more makes a lot more sense and seems more honest. Even though I disagree with much of it, it doesn't feel scolding

Derek Powazek 🐐

@darius Well, it wasn’t directed at you, and honestly, this feels like a hit dog hollering.

I don’t think the Democrats are evil. And I don’t blame Harris for actions of the administration because I know the VP’s only job is to have a heartbeat. If Gaza is the issue, she is still clearly the better choice as she’s not Bibi’s buddy who has told him to “finish the job.”

I will be side by side with you in calling for the US to do everything it can to end the war, as Harris has already called for.

Darius Kazemi

@fraying I think you are right on the specifics (which is why I'm voting the way I'm voting) but we clearly diverge on the whole evil thing.

And your message wasn't literally directed at me but if I said "people who raise goats need to ___" I would expect you to take that personally even if I wasn't thinking of you.

For whatever it's worth I've avoided talking about the election on social media the whole cycle; something about your post really got to me. Maybe just a last straw

Derek Powazek 🐐

@darius I’m honored and/or sorry for providing the last straw. It genuinely wasn’t intended.

FWIW, the post came from seeing yet another awful thing Trump did (calling for shooting journalists outright) and once again wondering if it, or anything, matters anymore.

Derek Powazek 🐐

@darius And, personally, I see things like “all men do this” every day and have learned that they’re not talking about me, unless they are, and then I need to have a talk with myself about that.

If you made a generalization about people with goats, I’d probably just be excited to learn that you’d gotten goats.

Anyway. Not the point. But if you do wanna visit some goats, you know you’re invited.

Darius Kazemi

@fraying I started writing other stuff here but I'm tired too.