In Waldo/Wally books there’s a character called Odlaw/Yllaw that is identical but in black and yellow (which usually ends up looking black and white.

Offer to trim her armor, girls like trimmed armor, Zezima told me.

‘Nother day, ‘nother dollar…

Sometimes things aren’t your fault but are your problem. And men making excuses like “just locker room talk” and not confronting other men in their lives who do or say toxic things or espouse ideas or personalities that generally make women uncomfortable are our problems, whether or not they are our fault.

Alternatively, instant Bear Calvary.

There’s a bunch of these huge warehouse-like caves in Missouri, some are more natural, but many have been developed. They are super valuable because of the natural climate consistency.

An example near Kansas City: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubTropolis

Not everyone can do that and those who do function in that system dont have that much incentive to improve it.

Aside from those who are incarcerated, not documented/housed citizens, or too young to be able to knowledgeably participate, can you help me understand why someone can’t otherwise participate via volunteering time/money, organizing, or voting for those who do support changing the system in positive ways?

You’re not wrong, the problem is that the binary division was created when the initial constitution was written. And we have to function within the structure of the system as it exists now in order to improve it.

The system today suffers from a bunch of ideological debt over decades and centuries and there is a significant faction that likes that debt just the way it is because it benefits them.

One party is trying to do that and replace it with an authoritarian oligarchy, the other is trying to maintain a democracy and often improve how representative it is.

Because our first-past-the-post presidential system makes it so that it is exceptionally unlikely that any one not affiliated with the 2 largest parties can get any level of support at the federal level.

If we had a semi-parliamentary system where power was vested in the group that had the most votes in the assembly, you could see more jockeying for third parties at lower levels that still caucuses with one of the two primary parties. But as long as we have separate branches and a system where you have to get 50%+1 vote, we will only ever have 2 parties.

So instead of providing one example, your response is “do your own research”?

Ok.

What about if George Carlin didn’t vote in this election…

I’m pretty confident he won’t be. And to make an assumption about his hypothetical practice in a situation he never encountered is simply ascribing your views to his with a false veneer of authority.

Not meaningfully in a first past the post vote. Ranked choice or some other alternative, then sure…

Ah, you’re privileged enough to think you’re insulated from any actual consequences of the election and fuck those other people, right?

Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool…

I was confused about how a network cable was going to kill people for a hot second there.

Democracy is a terrible form of government, but it’s worlds better than every other alternative.

When has withholding your vote brought about a positive change? It’s not like a boycott because there no financial incentive.

The only metric that matters when voting is what percentage of active voters chose you, inactive voters have chosen to silence themselves.

If the intention of withholding your vote like a boycott is to get a political operative to make a change, the change must be on purpose.

Also, work to get more seats filled with democratic butts in other states so we don’t have to prevent all defections. Florida democrats and others seem incompetent right now, seems like it’s prime for a takeover by talented organizers. Do what Harry Reed did with Nevada.