Disobedience does far more for freedom than voting.

Code used to require human beings to run on, and was compiled into coups, assassinations and many forms of popular resistance.

Voting IS disobedience, if you do it right. Not a very effective form, but its cheap and accessible.

Voting alludes to a belief that THEIR VOTING MECHANISM is legitimate; that voting can turn wrongs into rights. Voting also alludes to the belief that you need to ask THEIR PERMISSION for your natural rights. Politicians are always telling you to vote… Please explain how on earth voting is *disobedience.* You seem intelligent, maybe there was a misunderstanding?

(I usually talk about morality; not all voting is immoral)

The regime does gain legitimacy in the eyes of part of the population by holding elections. Those people will happily vote without me, their ideology does not hinge on my actions, and thinking it might is magical thinking. By voting tactically, we can raise the costs of putting on that circus act, and/or discredit the process in the eyes of its ideological partisans. Communist Che Guevara believed in representative democracy no more than we do, yet he wrote (and I paraphrase) "so long as the regime continues to hold elections, however fraudulent, the revolutionary outbreak cannot be successful". Contra SEK3, refusing to vote is no more laudable than a refusal to use weapons, or a refusal to use the Internet.

I agree with the entire first half of what you say. You still lose me at how voting “discredits the process” or can be “disobedience.” …Now everything else below is a response to your comment, but is not relevant to the main question as stated again above (thank you for sharing your thoughts!) — Morally speaking, you can ask the massa to whip you less, but you dont need to ask for your right to not be whipped; you have the right already. You can hide, encourage mass disobedience, defend yourself, sabotage the plantation, etc. Voting makes the sheeple think their voice is heard by the wolf. They use their time and energy rallying around this mechanism that poses no threat to the ruling class. If the voters don’t get their way, they just dormantly wait until the next vote. (This is a partial agreement with Che that voting hinders real change). In reference to my attached note, refusing to vote is much more akin to ignoring the gang; choosing to not go to the nearest park and do the chicken dance View quoted note →

>for your natural rights The only "natural right" you have is kill or be killed, all other "rights" is just things you're ready to die for.

You have a natural right to self-ownership; no other human owns you. How you act and what you choose to defend is up to you. You are responsible for your own actions.

>no other human owns you Untill you wake up at brick factory somewhere in dagestan)

They still don’t own you. “Own” is the exclusive right to direct the thing in ownership. Maybe it’s best understood with a robbery scenario: if your wallet gets stolen, you still are the rightful owner. Your right of ownership was infringed. You can allow such infringement and you also have the right to defend yourself/your property & forcibly reclaim it.

>if your wallet gets stolen, you still are the rightful owner De jure, and only untill they call it "confiscated", instead of stolen - in that case your "rights" magically disappear, like when they say, for example, "conscription" instead of enslavement.

Rights never magically disappear. The reason it’s important to understand rights/morality is because it can direct our actions with strong conviction & it tears down the state’s illusion of legitimacy.

>Rights never magically disappear Because they never actually exist (like an "natural thing") - someone mighty said, what you can do, and what not, and only reason why he gave you any "rights" is if you have nothing to lose, you will fight with no doubt.

Might does not make right, friend

It does, lol

Behold the futility of trying to speak sense about voting:

Stacker News

Midterm Election Reminder \ stacker news

The Democratic Party, the bastard child of the Confederacy and the Soviet Union, is a foreign-backed IRGC/PRC Islamocommunist insurrection planning...

We agree 99%, I think. You lose me at "by performing this little ritual at all, are you not contributing to the illusion". No, I am not. This is magical thinking. The sheeple will never know.

I agree - it does seem we’re pretty much on the same page. If I worded that wrong, I meant to say participating in the ritual *may* or *can* contribute to the illusion. I am not against all voting per se. It isn’t immoral to ask a thug not to harm you or others.

"May or can contribute to the illusion" No. Not these days, anyway, the illusions need no connection to reality. Re "it isn't immoral to ask a thug not to harm" - true enough. Is it immoral to roll the dice for an entertainer the boss thugs will find it 1% more annoying to work with?

yeah. lounge chair moral purity larp.

• I say may contribute / can as in it possibly can …the one thing voting certainly doesn’t convey is that voting is illigitimate. • The ‘roll the dice’ is where we differ. It is immoral to ask someone to rule over your neighbors… friction or not. • Ultimately though, I still see no way voting is *disobedience.* It seems perhaps the conversation was intended to be on the subject of morality, which is where we differ & I do enjoy interacting with you, so I’m happy for this conversation.