RandomPancake

I'm a moderate. I tend to take a lot of what I read online with a grain of salt (as everyone should, but you know how that goes).

A few months ago I decided to try X again and see for myself. I thought "what if this is just exaggerated hysterics, and the site really isn't that bad."

No. It's not exaggerated. It's not hysterics. X / Twitter really is that bad of a dumpster fire. You can say "I don't like Nazis" and a billion bots will accuse you of being a woke radical leftist.

Sold my well-aged account to a scammer, haven't looked back.

Which will remove yet another barrier to Trump becoming president.

I'm all for breaking the two-party stranglehold but do it in a local election where it will make a difference. This year is the absolute worst year to try a failed presidential run.

That’s nice. They’ll lose, and the momentum put to that independent candidate is momentum that could have been used against Trump. Voting for either of them is a vote for "I am not interested in what happens in this country, and sincerely hope Trump wins. Because instead of voting against him, instead I choose to throw away my vote by making some kind of 'statement' that will never be heard by anyone."

It absolutely is. You're removing a vote that could have been used to stop Trump and throwing it into a candidate who will not win. You are, quite literally saying, "I am completely fine with another Trump presidency".

I remember way back in the late 90s or early 2000s, when Opera was commercial, I bought a lifetime license. I don't remember the specifics but it was basically a way to support them and it was good for all future versions, forever and ever.

I lost the key long ago and the browser is free now anyway. Still wouldn't use it.

That's nice. They'll lose, and the momentum put to that independent candidate is momentum that could have been used against Trump.

Voting for an independent candidate for president is standing on your rooftop and screaming "I LOVE TRUMP AND HOPE HE BECOMES PRESIDENT IN 2024".

The election is a tug of war. Trump and his supporters are pulling on the right. Biden and his supporters are pulling on the left.

When you vote for an independent candidate, you are removing force that could have been used to pull against Trump and redirecting that force towards a candidate who has zero chance of winning. A vote for an independent candidate is a vote for Trump.

The only valid retort to this is "well I wasn't going to vote anyway" and anyone who feels that way can shut the fuck up about everything.

I'm rocking an ancient i7 Elitebook from 2011 or so that I maxed out to 32 GB of RAM. I bought it from a business surplus place on eBay for like $100 7-8 years ago. The screen resolution sucks and it has no biometric features but I slapped an SSD in there, removed the battery, and now it's my Linux staging desktop.

Here's a complete list of all the times someone else's hair had any impact of any nature whatsoever on my life:

You misspelled "Trump".

This is honestly the best take on the issue I've seen so far.

I am the first person to say we need to break the two-party stranglehold on politics. We need independent candidates in office yesterday. But this election is the abso-fucking-lutely worst time to make a run at that, because that third party vote WILL be a vote for Trump. And if you firmly believe that third party or independent politicians have a place, elect them to your local city council or school board or state legislature. That is where they will make a real, actionable difference.

A vote against Biden, no matter who for, is a vote for Trump. No amount of TikTok "well ackshually" will change that reality.

By all means, elect Trump and see if he does any better with human rights.