• wpb@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    In their moral justification, the argument of the lesser evil has played a prominent role. If you are confronted with two evils, the argument runs, it is your duty to opt for the lesser one, whereas it is irresponsible to refuse to choose altogether. Its weakness has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget quickly that they chose evil.

    -Hannah Arendt

    • TBi@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      I think everyone should pick the best person for the position. But if the only two realistic options are evil and lesser evil. Then I think it’s better if the lesser evil wins than the more evil one.

      As seen in last US election, voting for the ideal candidate meant the worse candidate won.

      • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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        4 hours ago

        Stop acting like only having two political parties is the only way we can do things. I invite you to step outside the box you are trapped thinking in.

        • TBi@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          I don’t think we should only have two parties. But with FPTP voting that’s what happens. You need to change to ranked voting system.

          Also I think everyone should vote for who they want. Unless it means the worse candidate wins… in FPTP that’s what happens. You need to vote strategically.

      • wolfinthewoods@lemmy.ml
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        8 hours ago

        It’s amazing to me that you could read that quote, and your take, unironically, is exactly the sentiment that Arendt was warning about.

      • The Menemen@lemmy.ml
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        10 hours ago

        You could easily argue that the guys constantly chosing the lesser evil brought that catastrophic discourse shift over us, that made the lesser evil of this election worse than the worse evil of former elections.

        I am not from the US, so my insight there might be limited. But here in Germany I started to hate the lesser evil fraction so much. The lesser evil here is now openly representing far right ideologies, activley supporting genocide, made it borderline illegal to critizise genocid, killing refugees at the borders, deporting people into regions were they face immediate lethal threats, initiating harsh social cuts while demonizing the poor and are discussing cooperation with open fascists. They are constantly normalizing open fascism, everday a little more. If Germany slights into fascism again, it will be mostly the lesser evils fault.

        Fuck the lesser evil. They became more dangerous than the fascist themselves in many respects.

        It was also Hindenburg and von Papen back in the 1930s, the lesser evil, who was paving Hitler the way to power.

        edit: Lol, I startet this meaning to write 2-3 sentences, seems the lesser evil caused a writing frenzy in me.

          • anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 hours ago

            We got to where we are because we’ve been choosing the lesser evil, for far longer than 20 years

            If liberals hadn’t been so content with choosing evil, we’d have avoided the last 50 years of backsliding.

          • The Menemen@lemmy.ml
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            10 hours ago

            This whole theory has been 100% proven by the current shitshow here in Germany. Everything I wrote has already happened and fascists much, much worse than Trump are currently the first among polls in Germany as a result.

              • The Menemen@lemmy.ml
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                10 hours ago

                Oh my, if you had stopped voting the lesser evil 20 years ago, you’d not have Trump now. Also, asshole move to derail the discussion by getting impertinent “brain dead” and starting to downvote, simply because you disagree (blocking you for that, as it annoys me).

                • supernight52@lemmy.world
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                  10 hours ago

                  Factually wrong. We would have had Al Gore instead of Bush, if people voted for lesser evils. We wouldn’t have had Nixon or Regan if people voted for lesser evils. Don’t comment on our politics when you know nothing of them.