Alright, so… I did originally mean your post, but I had not properly watched the video (skimmed cause didn’t have 30 mins). So now that I’ve seen more, I’d like to correct myself.

First of all, I agree with your take on political organizing outside of mainstream elections. I think this is the best (perhaps only) tool of truly improving our democracies and lives. I actually think some level of organization and self-education is my democratic duty.

And yes, I also think the regular buzz around elections is a thinly veiled disguise for a distraction from relevant politics. However, only because my vote won’t fix much, doesn’t mean it can’t make things worse.

Voting may not work to improve a democracy, but it sure works to damage it. Depending on how deteriorated your voting system is (bad representation, easily gerrymandered,…) an election may only be a choice between bad and worse. So I vote for the least bad option and use the opportunity as a painful reminder of how messed up my democracy already is. And then I do actual politics outside of the booth to try and fix it.

The reason I alleged astroturfing is because there are antidemocratic interest groups, very intent on getting leftists to not vote. Your title (I know, it’s just the video title) doesn’t make a clear distinction between “voting isn’t enough” and “voting is useless/don’t do it”.

I think we might agree on a great many things and just had a bad start (next time I’ll watch the vid first, but in my defense your title is misleading too). I’d rather work together with a fellow leftists towards improvement, then be needlessly divided.