Sure, that’s a fair take. And again, I feel bad belaboring this point, recognizing its triviality in the face of the actual horrors being wrought in our name.

But you and I are viewed as guilty as the belligerent Trump supporter by many. The trans kid who was kicked out of their home and protested this shit every day is being told they’re as responsible as the MAGA hat-wearing fanatic just for where they were born. The lifelong supporter of human rights will be counted amongst the rest for not taking up arms against the largest military in history.

And while I know this is an unpopular take on Lemmy, I even don’t believe the uninformed third who couldn’t be bothered to vote should be lumped in with Trump supporters. We have a tendency to view them as uncaring. And sure, a small percentage pushed asinine “both sides” arguments. But the reality is that for many, they had their hands full just surviving day to day in a society designed to barely leave them with enough energy and information to plan for their next meal.

The reality, at least from what I can see, is that most Americans are victims of a system designed to make them focus so hard on a false dichotomy that an alternative option feels like a pipe dream. This system has become so broken that the worst of humanity has been able to take control simply by virtue of their ability to demean their opposition. This dysfunction was an inevitable outcome of the system as it was designed. Not by any intent, but rather a flaw inherent to our First Past the Post voting.

Anyway, I’m rambling, and I know it’s not solving anything. But my point, or TL;DR, or whatever, is this: I lament that the people fighting oppression, that those just struggling to survive, and even those who were ignorant or misled enough to believe propaganda were all required by history to address problems beyond their power. And that when this day came, for all the aforementioned reasons, and those I can’t comprehend, we were not up to the task. And a part of me will always lament that our failure to stop evil will make us part of that evil in the eyes of history. Maybe we deserve it, I don’t know. But I know that many of us, in a better place, and a better time, would have had been forgotten by history as normal and decent people often are.

A lot of those people are simply racists that are irredeemable.

But there is still a large number of people who are just a product of their environment. Be it not having the time or resources to be able to vote (especially as disenfranchising voters has been a core of the Republican agenda), lacking the education the make informed decisions (dismantling and defending education has also been a goal), being inundated by billionaire propaganda machines in every aspect of their life (news, TV and film, social media and paid actors or bots astroturfing)…

It’s easier to understand how someone can be swindled into not being involved in the political process. And these aren’t exclusively US issues, they are global problems. Other nations have had some better infrastructure to deter them, or strong leaders to fight them. But this isn’t exclusively on the individual.

You say some are apathetic and lazy, you’re demoralized and hold that against them. That’s exactly what the ghouls in power want. They stole something from those people. Be it the time, the money, the knowledge, to stand up against evil. But you’re blaming the individual.

I’m not saying everyone is good. There’s a lot of terrible people. But falling for the trap set in front of you is just as bad.

It wasn’t laziness or apathy. It was opposition to Biden/Harris. It was opposition to what’s happening in Gaza.

The anti-genocide candidates, Jill Stein and Cornel West, didn’t get any media coverage, so voters didn’t know that they were an option.

Not only that, the remaining 1/3 see all the shit that he does now and all they can manage to do is have a few people protest every now and then. Maybe take a Friday off every month or so as a “strike” to show they are super serious now.