My contributions to this thread have upheld a single liberal value and that's voting
Au contraire.
Lesser evil arguments against GOP:
"It's just that one party also wants to use those structures to surveil women's bodies, ban books, delegitimize science, push religion, and extract capital from natural resources and workers without restriction."
Both sidesing genocide with a bonus suggestion that you have no idea how to oppise it (even while you left punch people actually fighting against it):
"We have a choice between one person publicly calling for a ceasefire and another who says Israel needs to finish the job.
I'm not sure what you want us to do here."
You then kept asking what else you're supposed to do and I answered you in good faith. You don't seem to like the answer, though. You clung to the rhetoric of bourgeous electoralism and ignored most of what I said while trying to tell me I was agitating incorrectly.
You declaring that you're going to vote for a pro-genocide candidate with more lesser evil genocide (listen to yourself) logic:
"edit: Like idk who's out here praising Kamala Harris and the rest of the Democratic party for their soft-as-shit stance on Israel, but I still gonna vote for her [...]"
Here's you pretending you can lecture others about what American leftists respond to, trying to push back against those calling out support for genocide:
"No offense dude, but I think you are pretty ignorant about American leftists."
You've been a busy little beaver for reaction.
which I don't even think has that much value when you look at the opinions of the majority of Americans on core domestic and international issues vs the actual policies that are implemented by those they vote in
If it doesn't have much value why are you arguing with me and why are you telegraphing who you will vote for (genocide supporter)? Why do you act as if nothing else is posdible? This is just the typical liberal position that treats myopic lesser evil voting as the beginning and end of politics.
Not once have I defended Democrats complicity in the genocide
When people call it out you push back and declare your unconditional support for Kamala.
[rambling lesser evil claims]
Yes those are some if the claims that actually defend Democrats and try to make people feel okay with support for genocide.
at least I can do that and try things outside the political system.
If you're doing something against empire you're doing something political. And earlier you were acting like nothing else was possible, jncredulously asking what else you're supposed to do aside from pretend to hand wring and then be the same pro-genocide lever pull as any imperialist. Make up your mind.
Whereas not voting is not only symbolically useless, as they'll just see me as another person on the couch, at least voting has a small amount of practicality.
I cannot tell you how much I don't care about your vote. Why are you still talking about it?
And regarding methods of converting liberals to leftists, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.
You will learn that I am right when you actually try to build a left organization IRL and need to both recruit and maintain political lines against liberal tendencies.
Again, I'll refer to the meaning associated with the terms socialism, communism, and anarchism in the US -- they are demonized to the point where people simply dismiss you if you mention them, and then you've lost your opportunity.
This is completely at odds with the experience of anyone doing IRL agitation and recruitment. Younger people in particular are open to socialist positions if you aren't trying to trick them into it or triangulate in the genocide they oppose. Your strategy is very old and always fails. It's called opportunism.
Edit: Also, I appreciate your genuine response, but at the same time the gatekeeping of "well, what have you organized?" is pretty lame. The truth is, nothing. I've organized nothing.
Yes, that was obvious. This is why you have wrong ideas of how to agitate. You've never had to do it and see what works and what doesn't.
You asked what else to do aside from voting and I tried to nudge you towards organizing and self-education. You should go join an org.
But I still believe that unjustified hierarchy is harmful and that at the end of the day what a state is is the ability to use force to uphold that hierarchy.
Of course unjust hierarchy is harmful. Otherwise it wouldn't be unjust. But the question, inevitably, is how we will concretely do necessary work to defeat our enemies, and to identify who those enemies are and prioritize. To do that you need to be politically educated and you need to be organizing IRL so that you can see what fails and why it fails.
I don't do it every day. But I do it often enough to be reliable and have good capacity.
But it's not just me nor has it ever been. People from all nations have done this. People in far worse conditions. It is necessary and, historically, feasible so long as you can break false consciousness.
To begin building the necessary project you have to reject the political election myopia that our masters impose on us. Politics does not restart every 2-4 years. Only long-term engagement and the development and wielding of leverage will ever liberate us.
No, but why do they need to? Our task requires work and time. You keep acting like this makes it impossible. I suggest that this is a learned helplessness, of internalizing the false idea that there is no alternative. In fact, there has always been an alternative and others have blazed trails.
It is already a defense in that it is a form of apologetics for the genocidal status quo. It defends and entrenches the idea that your job, politically, is to decide who to cheerlead with a vote. It normalizes accepting and tolerating the genocide of Gaza, as even that us not enough for you to take sufficient pause. You are lost in propaganda, but you can free yourself through education.
A common dedicated organizing commitment is 1-2 meetings per week (often online) and around one action per month. Though there are often opportunities to do what works around anyone's schedule.
There is a tendency in bourgeois electoralism to dramatically exaggerate the impact of a given activity. Usually, but not always, voting. The purpose is to make the target audience feel like what they were told to do matters, was worthwhile, and to keep them doing it. This is what I am referring to by credit - of an exaggerated assignment of value to the activity I was responding to.
Why would that matter? My question to you does matter: if you don't live in a swing state your presidential vote is as worthless as it gets.
What would your point be if I were or were not American? Please don't be xenophobic.