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Honeybee's avatar

I'm living through an awkward period.

I'm 76 and have voted in every national election since I gained the privilege to vote at 21. I turned 21, the legal voting age at the time, the same year they lowered the voting age to 18.

So...that's a lot of votes. A lot of growth in how I look at the world.

It all began a little over a week ago. I rarely watch or listen to Mike Adams, but I saw a podcast entitled something along the lines "I'm going to lose many friends and opportunities for this stance." He decided not to vote for Trump until he had some reassurance that Trump would not support the ongoing genocide in Gaza and now Lebanon.

I, too, had been struggling with this same point although Trump's positions on many issues coincide with mine.

I've come to realize that, for me, the most pressing issue in the world today is the genocide in Gaza. Nothing else really matters. If we can't speak against this action, then we're not fully human.

This conflict isn't about "pro Israel" or "pro Hamas or Hezbollah." This conflict is about the literal extinction of a people, heritage, and tradition.

Today, I listened briefly to a clip of former President Clinton justifying the actions in Gaza by quizzing "When is enough enough?" If someone came to your house and murdered your family, when would "enough be enough?" He felt no number of exterminations could ever be realized to justify the 1,200 Israelis purportedly killed on Oct. 7. In other words, he couldn't recognize genocide. He doesn't understand genocide.

Genocide has nothing to do with the heart. Certainly people's suffering moves us. Our hearts are touched or broken. Yet, the drive against genocide arises from a deep sense of justice that such current egregious killing, in which everyone is designated a combatant (even babies), can ever be called "war."

There's a war in Ukraine fought by two opposing military forces. There's a slaughter in Gaza. Where's the opposing force? Where's the battle? A bomb is delivered onto a tent hospital with patients hooked up to IVs. This is a battle?

The merest definition of fairness and appropriate conduct excludes these scenes as war. They are harm inflicted upon a population which has little to no equivalence in force.

So, I decided not to vote...period. Then, I reconsidered. I'd always voted. Perhaps a vote for Trump could lift the J6 imprisonments which I consider an egregious miscarriage of justice.

Then, I began to notice that everyone...Left, Right, In-Between...seemed to be manipulating me with their symbols and inflamed language. While doing so, they urged me to vote. No matter their position...they urge you to vote.

People with vast depths of experience. People highly regarded in their fields. They used inflamed rhetoric to try and influence me. Their projected image--the emotion of their language--burned into my mind. Ah! The manipulation is so subtle and rarified.

I began to ask myself why was the only consensus all these people held in common a call to vote? Too many seemingly disparate people all saying the same thing.

I liked very much words Thomas Guitarman wrote about health on someone's comments. "...we must all make these truths known for ourselves. OTHERWISE we won't apply the consciousness part and human bio-field strengthening necessary, we can't just spend the rest of our lives detoxing....

IOW, he reminded us that our consciousness helps develop how we approach any health protocols and how we become protected.

I'm wondering what kind of bio-field and consciousness I'll form by not voting because I'm not voting simply as a protest...because I think the system is rigged. I'm not voting to invoke a high moral ground. I've voted even realizing the system is rigged on many, many occasions or the candidate violated one or more of my moral principles.

I'm not voting because something doesn't feel right. Something feels off. I'm being pressured to vote. Why? What's the deal? The pressure is...oh...so subtle. I feel uneasy, and I'm not going to vote. I can't shake the feeling that something's wrong...fundamentally wrong.

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Rat's avatar

I've come to believe all political systems are essentially three-party systems. There are:

- accelerationists ('progressives', 'greens' etc.) who want to run the ship into ground in a quicker and more vigorous manner;

- conservationists ('conservatives', 'nationalists' etc.) who pretend to run the ship into ground in a more cautious manner;

- the Leviathan that quietly chugs along while the former two distract observers.

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