Voting and Me.

[Scribbly]

It's been a while since I ranted. But. There has been a particular mentality that I've run across time and time again that has really been getting underneath my skin. So. Here it goes, one, two, three...

'If you don't vote, you've got no right to complain.'

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

What? WHAT? What GOD DAMN sense does that make? Are you actually sitting there, telling me that in order to complain about the system that DOESN'T FUCKING WORK, I need to actively participate in the system? Now. I can see where this deluded, warped bit of logic comes in. Because, in theory, what they are saying is that, if you didn't even try to get yourself represented, then heck, what are you bitching about! Surely, Your Vote could have tipped the balance!

No, wait. It couldn't. Lets just look at my home constituency, shall we?

The same woman has held the position since 1992. In the last year, she has gotten up and spoken in parliament 12 times. And she has only bothered to vote in (just under) 3/5 debates. Amusingly, of one of the (remarkably few) issues she has bothered to turn against the party line on, she voted against equal gay rights! Way to go.

My home constituency is a 'safe' seat. For decades, it has only ever been Conservative. Because an EXTREMELY large proportion of the local population considers themselves staunch Conservative supporters, the damned woman could get up in the House of Commons, and eat a live baby, and I would wager that, if put up for reelection, she'd get it.

Oh, and because of the way the system works, if your vote, in your constituency, isn't for the majority, it is entirely ignored. Worthless. A waste of good paper.

So what the fuck is the point in my going along to vote? On the occassions where the Labour party BOTHERS to put up an opposition candidate, they aren't going to get in. And even if they did, what the hell does that mean to me? I don't like EITHER party, I don't support the vast majority of their decisions, and both current leaders disgust me. Admittedly, they disgust me for different, exciting reasons, but I don't want to throw my support at either. And since the other 'alternatives' are all even MORE useless, or fascists, what am I supposed to do? Grin, bear it, put a tick-box next to a name I hate, so that I have the RIGHT to say, 'HEY. HEY! There is a problem here, why isn't anyone DOING anything about it?'

And the worse thing here, is that these same people who say, 'Oh, but you need to vote if you are gonna complain about it!' Are the SAME fuckers who sit there going, 'Yeah... there isn't much difference between them, really.'

So... so what? It doesn't matter who I vote for, but I better vote for someone? What? Has the system crammed that fucking line down your throat so much you aren't even listening to what you are saying any more? Even if this system worked the way it was god-damned supposed to, which it doesn't, then surely the vote should only be given to someone who actually represents my position. Since there IS nobody who fills that role, what I did instead, at the last opportunity to 'express myself as a voting adult', was go along and write a single sentence across each name explaining why they won't be getting MY vote. Because, I believe, the candidates need to check the spoiled votes, and I cling to the somewhat naive hope that they might read it. In reality, I suspect they just passed it along and said 'Yeah, spoiled.' But whatever.

You better believe, either way, that I'm still going to bitch about pretty much anything under the sun. Just because the system in place has essentially rendered my ability to influence it negligable through the standard practice, I'm not just going to sit down like a good little disenfranchised slave to the machine, and keep my mouth shut. What sense does that even make? Surely, if politicians, in some magical world, actually cared enough to WANT my vote, they need to know what it is they need to do to GET it, which involves, yup, complaining at them!

So why the fuck should we be encouraging those people who DON'T vote, mostly out of a sense that it won't make a jot of difference anyway, to shut up? Screw that. I don't care if you voted or not. I want to get people up, screaming blue murder in the face of the criminals that are squeezing the last drops of blood out of the population. And anyone who can stand there and demand that they participate in a system that doesn't WANT them to be recognized, BEFORE they get the coveted 'Right' to speak their own mind? They can go to hell.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

You might enjoy this thread: http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=18160.0

It gets interesting about halfway through.

There's another one floating around somewhere too.

[Scribbly]

Thanks! I hadn't found that one, time to work my way through it. If you find the other one, if you could PM me or whatever, that'd be cool.

Although I might just come across it myself, I'm going through the older stuff at the moment.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

If you find it, can you bump it? I know I ranted in it but I can't remember what I said.