Monday, April 25, 2011

How to vote if you're a pessimistic disillusioned cynic

Some people feel like all the parties and politicians are idiots, so it doesn't matter who they vote for or they can't imagined voting for anyone.

Here's what you do if you feel that way: rather than voting either for the best party or against the worst party, vote either for the party whose fuck-ups will hurt the least, or against the party whose fuck-ups will hurt the most (depending on your personal preferences and the prevailing situation in your riding.)

This idea was inspired by this post by Galloping Beaver. Galloping Beaver's post is partisanish, in that it focuses on the fuck-ups of one specific party and points out that another specific wouldn't make those kinds of fuck-ups, even if they do make other fuck-ups.

But this can easily be extended to a non-partisan approach towards all parties. Look at each party, look at their policies and their records and their many many flaws and how they generally spin themselves, and figure out what kind of fuck-ups each specific party would make if they don't end up giving anyone a pleasant surprise and just end up being their usual incompetent and/or malicious selves. Decide which set of fuck-ups is the worst and which is the least damaging, and then vote either against the worst or for the least worst. You're using your vote for disaster mitigation. No idealism necessary.

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