If you don't vote you're an idiot (IMO)
mr_eddy
Posts: 830
OK so after chatting with some people in my office several mentioned that they are not voting. The main reason given was "it won't make a difference".
This angered me so thought I would put my reasons down why I think your an idiot for not voting. Again the below reasons are my opinions only:
1. Its f**king disrespectful - Lots of people around the world risk their lives just turning up to vote and lets not forget that not that long ago this country lost countless souls fighting for our democratic freedom so to not vote is imo un f**king acceptable. Do you have any idea how lucky you are to be allowed to openly vote who you want running the country
2. Its so simple - No one can say "I did not have time" , You can vote by post, have a proxy vote for your etc. The polling stations are open from very early until 10pm so unless you become suddenly very ill etc then its not ok to say "I have not got the time". I recently voted in a local election and the entire process took less than 30 seconds.
3. Even if you don't like any of the parties (and I get why you might) you can still make your voice heard by either voting no confidence or protest vote by voting for a complete outsider. Votes still get counted.
4. Voting DOES make a difference ! Just look at what happened in the last year or two so this shows the power of the vote - It may only be 1 voice but enough of those voices can make a difference.
5. Voting encourages people to research parties websites etc which in turn encourages people to subject themselves to intellectual debate and content which encourages a bit more of a open mind / bigger picture thought process.
I told certain people in my office (those who said they are not voting) to not speak to me about the election / politics because as far as I am concerned their opinion is now worthless.
Thoughts ?
This angered me so thought I would put my reasons down why I think your an idiot for not voting. Again the below reasons are my opinions only:
1. Its f**king disrespectful - Lots of people around the world risk their lives just turning up to vote and lets not forget that not that long ago this country lost countless souls fighting for our democratic freedom so to not vote is imo un f**king acceptable. Do you have any idea how lucky you are to be allowed to openly vote who you want running the country
2. Its so simple - No one can say "I did not have time" , You can vote by post, have a proxy vote for your etc. The polling stations are open from very early until 10pm so unless you become suddenly very ill etc then its not ok to say "I have not got the time". I recently voted in a local election and the entire process took less than 30 seconds.
3. Even if you don't like any of the parties (and I get why you might) you can still make your voice heard by either voting no confidence or protest vote by voting for a complete outsider. Votes still get counted.
4. Voting DOES make a difference ! Just look at what happened in the last year or two so this shows the power of the vote - It may only be 1 voice but enough of those voices can make a difference.
5. Voting encourages people to research parties websites etc which in turn encourages people to subject themselves to intellectual debate and content which encourages a bit more of a open mind / bigger picture thought process.
I told certain people in my office (those who said they are not voting) to not speak to me about the election / politics because as far as I am concerned their opinion is now worthless.
Thoughts ?
0
Posts
The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.
I agree with your sentiment but the(now corrected) spelling mistake lost the message
Agree on the sentiment on the whole, though.
I am not voting conservative and given a lot of the ukippers will switch to conservative my vote will make no difference.
So vote for who you want to be your MP even if you think they won't win. If enough others do the same either your party will notice and put more resources in next time to try and increase the vote share or one the bigger parties will notice and try to do something to gain your votes.
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition
I do normally vote - I can't this time as my postal vote ended up going somewhere I can't - but many of the arguments are the same as "Clear your plate - there are people starving in Africa"
Politicians don't care about those who dont't vote. Why should they? As you're no threat even if they screw you over.
Politicians only care about those undecided voters in marginal / target seats. As it's you who will decide their fate. Just ask Ed Balls and Vince Cable, but thankfully Esther McVey got sent packing too.
I was reading an interesting article about why vote in safe seats. But I suppose we need to vote tactically by voting against who you don't like, by voting for the other most likely to win favourite. People who say it's pointless voting need to remember that few seats are won with big numbers, many are won with a small percentage of the local population.
I agree the smaller parties have no chance of getting the seat and that does seem a wasted vote in our first past the post system, where the tories can be the Government with only 36% of the vote. While ukip only get 1 seat with a million votes. A poportional representation system would be better (for everyone except the tories, so it won't happen)
Who did you vote for Stevo? The Commies for Corybn
Vote for policies then. Think of the swing, even if the result is foregone.
But how many in your constituency voted. Yes the tories might have had 55% of the vote but a small number of the local population often turn out.
Where my constituency, has a population of 113,800.
Last time Labour won by a majority of 7000.
But only 41,500 turned out
Where I work has an electorate of 72,600
Last time the tories won by only 1443 votes (3.1%)
There was a turnout of only 63%
There's really only two parties who have a chance.Not voting is a vote to the party in power.In this case a vote for anyone but Labour is a vote to the Tories(assuming you didn't vote Tory).So if you don't want the Tories in power you have to vote Labour.
So every vote does count!
Not true. We have a Tory in where there has traditionally been a Liberal; Labour is always a very, very poor third, therefore, a Labour vote is a wasted vote. If I want Labour to win the election, I should vote Lib Dem, who have a very good chance of winning here.
But I'm sure whoever gets in, it will be 'business as usual' when parliament restarts. The business of politics that is. Standing in the 'house' bickering over who did what when they were last in power, how they can't do what they promised because of a legacy from x years ago and stupid jeering that would be better off in a playground.
The older I get, the better I was.
of course you can ..... likewise you can complain if you vote Labour, they get in and they screw everything up.
Likewise I believe in freedom of choice and if someone doesn't want to vote then so be it
it takes time to get the ball to roll, but if you don't get it started, you can be sure it will never change
It's just laziness, really
In very safe seats, I think it is legitimate to say that an individual not voting against the incumbent party really does make no difference. However, I strongly feel that unless you vote, you have no moral right to complain at the monumental f*ckup that the other side will undoubtedly make.
And as the OP rightly observes, lots of individual votes can all add up to a significant change.
Con 242 (331)
Lab 199 (232)
UKIP 82 (1)
LIB 51 (8)
SNP 31 (56)
Green 24 (1)
Labour nor Libs are for me either. Yes I did vote UKIP last time around, but that was in protest and they no longer stand here anyhow. Plus they are more amateurish than Lab or Libs in the area. Greens might just get from me. Will see which way the wind blows tomorrow.
well you ,live in the right country for that !!!!
Spoil your ballot with a large penis, but please, do vote!
Goo, as I've said before, a protest vote is better than no vote at all.
Marin Nail Trail
Cotic Solaris