coin, vessel, branch

It is there in the voices who want Israel to burn more than they want Palestinians to have their freedom. Who want to attack public figures for using politically incorrect words more than they want to help people that those words describe. Who want Biden to lose the presidency more than they want safety and freedom for Americans (or Palestinians).

It is not, ultimately, an effective perspective. Punishments are far less of a deterrent than people think they are. Protesters know they may be arrested, maybe even beaten or shot, but they protest anyway. Criminals are well aware of the justice system, and yet crime persists. If someone genuinely believes that they must do something, then the threat of punishment does very little.

But more importantly, punishment is not justice. Sometimes punishment can help to bring about justice, but that does not make them the same thing.

Voting out Biden will not create justice. At its absolute best, it would punish Biden. But it would also punish millions of other people who are vulnerable and in need of our assistance.

Rather than taking the action that best punishes the perpetrators, we must try to find the paths that best support the victims. Sometimes, if we're lucky, the same action will do both.

So they voted third party for Ralph Nader and the Green Party.

They cost the Democrats the election. So instead of noted environmentalist and climate change activist Al Gore, we got George W. Bush.

But they sent a message right? They made a stand for their cause right? Surely it helped their cause, right?

It ENDED the Green party single-handedly as well as Ralph Nadar's career, because they were blamed for splitting the vote and getting a moron nepo-baby oilman into power.

Bush was able to stall for eight years on even admitting climate change existed, while making tons of money for his friends in the oil industry. AND he started two decades of wars that are still ongoing to this day. Literally millions died.

Next time it might be birth control rights. It might be nuclear war.

The genocide? Will escalate. More will happen in other parts of the world. Maybe here, who fucking knows.

I voted for Nader in 2000. It was my first Presidential election vote. It was my friends who went into warzones at the order of the man who took office as a result.

Trivialising the torture and live immolation of real actual people by implying they somehow weren't strong or clever enough to avoid being burned at the stake? ✅️