With voting being the hot button issue due to the upcoming "election", I thought i'd throw my two cents into the arena and put my opinions on it down in writing. Voting is either the illusion of choice or the antithesis of freedom.
Either voting is a lie and it doesn't matter.
In which case all it does is waste some time and money. It would mean the process is a facade meant to maintain the illusion of choice. It would mean the Republic and Constitution are failures. It would mean that the vast majority of this countries history as you know it, what you learned about government in school, and that "the government representatives us" is all a lie. It would mean that we have for generations played into the hands of the global elitist. It would mean that we're little more than puppets and they control our strings. It would mean that this county is truly an Oligarchy and we peasants are at their whim. It would mean that "government" is nothing more than the wizards hologram.
Or, voting does matter and we really do elect our leaders.
In which case by casting a vote one is saying that others should be subjected to the voters will and what the voter doesn't like should be oppressed. Thus making the voter no less than than a tyrant by proxy. The voter is saying that their beliefs should be forced on others via the threat of incarceration and/or imprisonment, even death if one resist, by people will guns being paid with stolen funds. The voter is saying that they feel they have the right to tell others how to live and what they can or cannot do. It would mean that others and not ourselves dictate our lives. It would mean that the "will of the people" is greater than individual rights and that we willingly oppress ourselves by continually supporting the government interceding on our behalf.
It would also mean that voting people are responsible for Big Government, Corporatism, militarized police, imprisonment for victimless crimes, gun control, throwing people in jail for collecting rainwater, shutting down little girls lemonade stands, and the never-ending militarized foreign intervention policies.
My Two Cents
Voting accomplishes nothing. There's not such thing as voting in "self defense" (voting "against" a candidate). Doing so is still saying you want to force your views on others. Either you support freedom or you support the oppression of others. Either you support self ownership or you support slavery. Either you support peace or you support violence; and voting is supporting violence.
If you've read this far then you deserve to read the words of someone who can articulate this line of thinking way better than I can:
"Though “democracy” is often praised as the height of civilization, cooperation, and “getting along,” it is the exact opposite. Voting is an act of aggression, and loving “democracy” amounts to loving widespread violence and constant conflict. Political elections are not about togetherness, unity or tolerance; they are about arguing over how everyone should be forced to behave and what everyone should be forced to financially support, via the control machine called “government.” The abundance of campaign signs littering lawns prior to every election are not the sign of an enlightened, free society; they are the sign of a mentally and physically enslaved society, bickering over which slave master they want holding the whip. Every single person who votes (Democrat, Republican, or third party) is attempting to put people into power who will carry out large-scale extortion (”taxation”) to fund various “government” programs. Any candidate who suggested doing away with all such robbery entirely – repealing all “taxes” – would be ridiculed as an extremist kook. All voters attempt to empower a gang that they know will commit mass robbery, yet none of those voters accept any responsibility for doing so. They know what their candidates will do if put into power, they know what the consequences will be to any who then disobey the commands of those politicians, but the belief in authority” makes the voters psychologically incapable of recognizing that what they are doing is advocating widespread violence." - Larken Rose, "The Most Dangerous Superstition" (2011) (available free in .pdf for here )
Author
I'm a Truth Speaker, Agorist, Anarchist/Voluntaryist, born and raised California, and father. I give zero fucks what you do as long as you're not harming anyone else. I can be found at on Facebook at A Wolf in A Sheeple's World or at Positive Anarchism, or on my personal page here.
"There is nothing the government claims to do that we, through individual or communal voluntary action, cannot do for ourselves"
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