• chaogomu@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    30 days ago

    What background do I need to have in order to be allowed to recognize that the mathematics of lesser evils don’t make any sense?

    A mathematically illiterate one.

    See, we live under a system of First Past the Post, otherwise known as Plurality.

    It’s a system that forces a two party system. Not as a conscious choice, but as a consequence of the very system itself.

    Here’s the kicker. Plurality voting actively punishes you for supporting a third party.

    If you siphon votes away from the lesser of two evils, the greater evil wins.

    It’s a pretty simple concept. And since we are just weeks away from the election, anyone who is actively pushing for third parties is automatically suspect.

    Because the problems with Plurality are not some newly discovered quirk. They’ve been studied for centuries, but most extensively by Kenneth Arrow in the 70s.

    What I’m saying is that most of the money given to support Third Parties, comes from people who are on the opposite side of the spectrum from those Third Parties.

    Simply put, Trump and company throw money at the Greens and Socialists to siphon support away from the Dems, so that Trump and company can win with fewer votes.

    So you, advocating for a third party, are mathematically indistinguishable from a Trump supporter.

    • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      30 days ago

      Wow if third parties are so powerful then how come you’re not voting for one too?

      It seems like a great way to force the major party of your choice to pay attention to your politics.

      • chaogomu@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        30 days ago

        I’m not voting Third party because I’m not a Trump Supporter.

        But you may be one. Mathematically speaking.

        • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          30 days ago

          My vote isn’t going to be counted for trump, and is for a party in opposition to his program.

          You have a funny way of figuring out if someone is a trump supporter. Is it perhaps based on the old “with us or against us” chestnut?

          You should know before you keep pushing that line, I will not vote Harris. If there was no party for socialism and liberation, I’d vote a different third party. If there were no third parties, I’d write a candidate in.

          If you want to pick up a Harris vote, look elsewhere.

          • chaogomu@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            30 days ago

            But you’re publicly advocating for others to drop their support of Harris in favor of a third party.

            Which is mathematically identical to telling people to vote for Trump. So I name thee a Trump supporter, because that’s the only person who benefits from your actions.

            • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              30 days ago

              Where?

              My top level reply is an attempt to get Green Party voters who are starting to not feel so good to switch over to psl.

              Also it’s not mathematically identical because my third party vote isn’t counted for trump.

              I’m kinda surprised you care. Your party has written us off, do you not agree with their decision?

            • TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              30 days ago

              Man. Its really sad seeing people out here pretending they’ve got a math degree. Out here saying shit like not 7 equals 6. Get the fuck out of here with that dumb shit. Being a part of the subset does not make you the whole fucking set. If a vote for PSL or Green or fucking whatever, means more left leaning politicians elected locally and nationally, then great. It absolutely does not support Trump. It supports making the DNC maybe fucking listen to the left for once. Stop fucking going further and further right into pushing back against immigration. Stop supporting committing literal genocide in the hopes israel takes over iran for its lithium deposits and the rest of the middle east for the oil. Instead y’all would rather shill for genocide & becoming more and more evil as long as the other party gets evil fastererer.

              But since you love math so much: The Libertarian/Constitution party has 3x the vote of green/PSL. Green/PSL was 0.31% of the total vote last presidential election. Which was 0.1% of the total number of possible votes. Stop focusing on shaming the few who absolutely won’t vote DNC but still likely will vote down ballot and instead maybe focus on making your party actually have policies people would give a shit about, or focus on the DNC doing something to actually energize voters outside of making sure Trump runs against them so they can point to big scary. Or like, literally anything that might help you. Shaming 3rd party voters is just going to lose you more elections. Like, holy fuck do y’all learning nothing from 2016? Y’all look at Michigan and freak out about green party, ignoring that even fucking the constitution party had more votes than the tiny gap. and the libertarian party had 3x the amount. Even if the DNC successfully made it illegal to vote 3rd party like they seem to want to, they would’ve lost Michigan in 2012. They know that too. They just want to scapegoat someone instead of themselves. Stop blaming people other than the DNC. They’re the ones who actively fought as hard as they could against any progressive policies. Letting Clinton using the “victory fund” well before securing the nomination in order to campaign against Bernie. literally just shooting itself in the face. Not a surprise they lost while doing that.

              Anyways, sorry, people being shills for stupid DNC talking points made to alienate leftists and lose more elections annoys the fuck out of me.

              • chaogomu@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                30 days ago

                For some fucked up reason, this election is close enough to make every vote matter. So, yes, pulling support from Harris is mathematically indistinguishable from supporting Trump.

                Also, I always look down on idiots who think they can accomplish anything by separating themselves from the system. No, we work to fix it from within, or we don’t get to fix it at all.