cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16451158
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2026
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Oh is it the time of year for liberals to start telling us we can no longer complain?
Complaining is fine, butinaction or negative action, is not at all productive to fixing those complaints, ever. Life is very often about compromise.
And at the scales we are talking about, it barely qualifies as "the lesser of two evils," because one of the two meaningful choices is so much MORE evil it makes the other evil pretty much saintlike.
Liberals are the ones inactive and taking negative action.
They did nothing about trump, they did nothing about healthcare, they did nothing about climate, they did nothing about wages.
They supported Trump's immigration policies, they funded ICE to extreme levels, they voted to fund surveillance programs, they continue to support the genocide.
It's not the lesser of two evils it's the same evil: capitalism and imperialism.
Almost, and intelligent leftists too. Complain all you want for now, until primaries are over. This is the best time to do so actually.
Once the primary results are in, then yes complaining needs to stop until after the midterms. After the midterm results are in, you can go back to complaining.
The OP clearly doesn't like people complaining now, but also: "Dissent is evil 33% of the time" sounds very undemocratic.
The couple of months between the primary and general elections is far less than "33% of the time".
Do you think temporary water restrictions during a severe drought is tyranny?
"Suck it up and fall in line" seems like sound advice in the spaces that closely follow US politics. Except most americans don't, even now. Most americans want to feel like they're voting for something, not against this or that figure. Kinda the big lesson of the last decades of politics. Keep up this rhetoric, and it's gonna depress turnout more than it helps.
Given negative ads work extremely well, not sure that's true.
And honestly, voting is a civic duty and SOMEONE will win. If you don't vote you fucking suck, period.
You deserve Trump.
Buddy, we're the inheritors of the British Empire. We all deserve Trump.
Good thing that's not what I said.
Tone and perspective can make two statements that look different but essentially say the same thing. "Fall in line" or "stop complaining until after midterms".
Here's a third: "Only voice criticisms when its most convenient for the institution you're criticizing."
Here's one which actually says what I did: "Don't voice criticisms when it's counter-productive to achieving the goals you want to accomplish".
Voicing criticisms in the primary season? Excellent choice, helps to push people towards the primary candidates which best align with your goals.
Voicing criticisms after the general election? Not as productive, but still fine; helps inform people what the issues are.
Voicing criticisms after the candidates have been chosen, but before the general election? Absolutely moronic, the last thing you want to do. It accomplishes nothing except increasing the the possibility that the worst candidate wins. Totally garbage, toddler-brain decision.
After the primary, your best outcome is defeating whichever popular candidate most opposes your views. Drawing support away from the biggest threat to the worst outcome is counter-productive.
What if the criticism is "you're running a bad campaign and going to lose the election because of it"? I really don't think going easy on our representatives is helping them. A healthy party should be capable of digesting criticism at any point in time, not just in pristine conditions.
If that's your criticism, give their office a call or send them an email. This is not productive criticism to present to voters, it's literally the exact opposite.
The DNC doesn't sign my paycheck, I don't work for them. Expecting the general electorate to talk and post about politics like they're DNC employees following a style guide is frankly crazy. They're supposed to try and represent us, not the other way around.
Well you're behaving like the RNC signs your paycheck. Your criticisms don't make the DNC change their behavior, it just makes it more likely that the GOP will win more elections.
Expecting the general electorate to talk and post about politics like they have a basic grasp of cause and effect is the bare minimum.
I'm making a cause and effect argument here. If Democrats don't feel pressure, if they feel like all they need to stay in power is wait for Republicans to fuck up enough that the pendulum tips the other way and they win by default, then they don't really need to deliver anything to voters.
And historically, they haven't. It's how we got Trump. And Bush before him. And Regan. Nixon. This is a long story in US politics, and I don't really expect the script to change in the foreseeable future. So yeah I'm gonna complain about the constant right-ward shift. If that makes me sound like a Republican to you, then whatever. So be it.
I didn't say it makes you sound like a Republican. I said it sounds like your paycheck is signed by Republicans, because all you're doing by discouraging people from voting for the only present threat to Republicans is helping Republicans.
I'm all for making Democrats feel pressure, but this complaining online doesn't accomplish that. The DNC isn't scrolling the fediverse to see what online leftists think.
What's the game plan, they lose and decide to shift left next cycle? That was tried with Hillary, and then we got Biden. Even if it worked it's still punctuated by 4 years of even further right Republicans. And it doesn't work, so it's just 4 years of Republicans for literally no reason. At best you could argue accelerationism, but the people who argue accelerationism are selfish bastards who are never the ones suffering under the acceleration.
You know what works? Voting left in primaries. You want to know how to send a message to Democrats? Literally send them a message. They have email inboxes, they have phone numbers, tell them what they're doing wrong. Get all your friends to tell them what they're doing wrong. Get all your friends to vote for progressive candidates in the primaries. And then after the primaries, vote against the Republicans no matter who it is.
Because this? Discouraging voters from damage mitigation? It doesn't do anything except worsen the damage. It's exactly the sort of thing an undercover Republican shill would do to win more elections. If they were literally cutting you a check, you wouldn't be acting any differently.
Focus your complaints in a way that makes a difference, not this short-sighted ideological masturbation.