Microblog Memes

"If those people wanted food to eat they should have earned it, otherwise it's not my problem"

That makes about as much sense as shifting the conversation into terms of some politician having to "earn your vote" and otherwise it's not your problem what happens.

If Gavin Newsom is running against Hitler, it's kind of important to vote for Newsom, whether or not he has "earned your vote."

If you want to know the non-toxic way of executing this approach, Ralph Nader has written an excellent book about how to put pressure on people in power and what he believes is the way forward out of the horror we find in our current political system (even predating the current horror). Basically, you pressure them to adopt specific policies by forming up into a bloc with other voters and refusing to vote unless some specific policy change you want to see happens. The advantages this has over staying home and saying "they haven't earned it" include:

• It is visible to the politicians
• It is coordinated in a way that's credible
• It is productive of positive change instead of making things even worse

There are a lot of other things in addition obviously, but if you're going to "protest vote," that is the way I would recommend to do it.