GO VOTE!

[cosmolinguist]

People who can vote in the UK: you'd better all go and fucking vote tomorrow.*

I can't and it drives me crazy. Think of me and be glad you get the chance to vote in the country you live in.

#

Also, in case anybody's wondering why I'm so humorless on the subject of Ukip:

Andrew made a very good point that's left me wary of mocking Ukip ever since, that he summarized thus:

the sharing on social media of “memes” poking fun at their posters and taking as read that the people who see them are in agreement both that UKIP’s values are wrong and that anyone who supports them must be a bad and stupid person is *PRECISELY* the sort of thing that encourages people to turn to them. You’re doing their recruiting job for them.

Another reason, though, that I don't take any joy in sniggering at Ukip is that it's fucking scary to be a part of groups that they hate. I don't want to live in a country that's getting more homophobic, more sexist, more xenophobic...partly because it's not right and partly because I'm a queer immigrant woman.

So I don't really have the sense of humor about this that I see from a lot of friends and acquaintances who appear to regard Ukip and the like as a more distant, abstract entity that manages to blur the distinction between the Daily Mail and the Daily Mash.

I just think that finding them amusing trivializes the concerns of all the groups they blame for everything. I can't find them a mildly diverting internet entertainment when I'm busy finding them a threat to pretty much everything I am.


* Yes, yes, unless you've already postal-voted.

Comments

[rmc28]

I can't find them a mildly diverting internet entertainment when I'm busy finding them a threat to pretty much everything I am.

I think the sort of people who find them funny aren't in the categories they threaten.

Like people who want to have "theoretical" or "devils advocate" discussions with me about sexism in the workplace/science fiction/science or child vaccination programmes or abortion rights or basically anything which is not actually theoretical for me.

[magister]

Yeah, this is the problem with the whole "If you can laugh at something, it's not scary anymore" idea. In this case, Ukip are still there and you've been too busy laughing to do anything constructive about it.


I do live in hope that one day political debate might rise above the level of the eight year old child in the playground shouting "You like x, so you smell."

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, I can't stand that kind of "hypothetical" conversation with people who don't realize the great mental and emotional cost to me of it.

It's one reason I didn't do much for this election. I wouldn't have been a good door-knocker or canvasser because I'd have taken it all far too personally.

[rmc28]

I did phone-knocking, which I hate, but did-what-I-could i.e. stopping whenever my hands were shaking too much with adrenalin. I did way more sitting in the committee room and taking breaks than I would have by myself at home. My broken toe will probably be up to a full leaflet round in a week or two.

The ward I was phoning in was lost by 10 votes. The ward in which I live (and was Not Leafletting Thanks To Toe) was lost by 20 votes. I feel really gutted about not managing more phone calls yesterday, about not doing more locally in the last weeks and months, even while I feel that I was making the right calls for my long-term health and stability in not doing more. *wildly confused emotions*

[cosmolinguist]

I recognize that wildly-confused emotions thing. I wish I had something helpful to say but I know there isn't much just now.

But I will say that I think you were absolutely right to look after your health and to think more long-term; Andrew always ends up ill on or after polling day (he came home early yesterday thanks to a migraine and still isn't up to much today) and it drives me crazy to see him half-kill himself and still think he's not done enough. There's always going to be more to do, so that's not a good criterion to judge ourselves by (tempting as it is, I know!). I'm glad you can be confident you made the right calls; health and stability are way too important to squander, no matter how good the cause.

[andrewhickey.info]

I know that one *very* well :-/. I've not been at my normal health levels for two years, and didn't do nearly as much as I should in this campaign. But at least I wasn't in such a close ward (Zoe's one, right?)
But you did the right thing by looking after your health. There'll be other elections, but there aren't other yous.

[rmc28]

Yes, Zoe :(

The student who stood where I live did really well too. If he's still here and wants to stand again next year, I'd support him straight away.

[quirkytizzy]

If it helps, there's a huge buzz about the UK elections over on the LJ side of things. A lot of people very worried about the fringe loonies gaining more power.

Please update us on how the election turns out!!!

[cosmolinguist]

They won't have that much power, though: they'll get some local seats but they won't be running any councils or anything. We won't know the European election results until Sunday, but there the only power they have is keeping away someone useful as the UKIP MEPs we already have tend not to show up to committee meetings or votes. They're being reported on out of all proportion to what they deserve. It's one of the things that so irritates me.

[(Anonymous)]

you'd better all go and fucking vote tomorrow.

You know, I was dithering about whether to bother to vote or not, but you've just made up my mind: I will now not be voting.

As you go about your future life, it might help to know that telling people to 'go and fucking' do something is as likely as not to make them less inclined to do whatever that something is.

Thanks for helping me make up my mind.

[magister]

You must be so pleased to have found an excuse...

[(Anonymous)]

I was honestly on the fence. I don't think I've ever not voted before. Maybe once when it was just local elections.

I was feeling a bit guilty about the thought of not voting and that might have niggled at me until I went and voted late on, but now, I'm decided.

I really do not like being told what to do.

[magister]

Personally, I'd say that strangecharm's explained pretty clearly why this is something that she feels so stongly about. Your choice to take it personally, and your choice not to vote - seems to me to be a bit mean to make out that it's someone else's doing.

[cosmolinguist]

It's okay; I find it so impossible to believe that this anony mouse has so effectively avoided every other exhortation to get out the vote, at this or any previous election (I can only presume this to be the case, as they've said they've voted at all other elections and yet they won't if some random blog post says they should), that I can incapable of taking this personally.

I wonder if I told them not to vote now they'd end up walking around in circles singing showtunes because they'd been given contradictory orders that, apparently, are utterly compelling even though I don't know who they are.

[rmc28]

I suspect that your anonymouse is the same one who prompted this from me today: http://rmc28.dreamwidth.org/531392.html

That one left a very similarly-worded comment on my earlier election-day post within a minute or two of the one here. I sincerely hope you don't get them hassling you as much as they have me recently - if they do, let me know. If it's who I am (very certain) it is, they have basically been being obnoxious on the internet for over a decade and I've had enough of them doing it around me.

[(Anonymous)]

It's okay; I find it so impossible to believe that this anony mouse has so effectively avoided every other exhortation to get out the vote, at this or any previous election

No, actually I'd been getting steadily more and more annoyed about the election for ages and yours was just the straw that broke the camel's back (mainly because it was so rudely worded, most are along the lines of 'please vote, it's your duty, people died so you could' etc rather than 'you'd better go and fucking vote').

So, yeah, it wasn't just you.

[magister]

For some reason, I'm thinking I should rewatch the Manchurian Candidate now.

[andrewhickey.info]

I can't believe I got through the entire campaign without ever referring to myself as a Mancunian Candidate.

(I know I'm not fully Manc, not being born here, but I'm close enough by now I think).

[po8crg]

Well, I managed to stop violently throwing up long enough to stagger around the corner to vote about 9:30pm.

So glad my stomach has been much better today, so I went to the count. Shame about the result.

[cosmolinguist]

I'm glad you're better today (even if Manchester isn't; Andrew's already bemoaning that he lives in a one-party state).

[barakta]

Quite. I'm white, middle class, employed, well educated etc but I still find UKIP frightening as many of their policies would probably make it harder for me as they don't believe in things like disability and employment rights and I don't want any more racism than we already have thank you very much. I live in a multi cultural city with enough issues without gobshites stirring things up.

Sadly I think the rise of UKIP and smaller extremist rightwing parties is a reflection on class and disenfranchisement in this country. Labour is no longer representative of "working class" "working people" who aren't all suits ties and posh accents and private education...

[tdaschel.livejournal.com]

pleased to hear some on-the-scene commentary (U.S. media is largely ignoring the election / just as they did the recent results in India, a substantially larger country. go figure !).

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, funny that.

The best thing I've read on the subject of UKIP, one that actually talks about the systemic and long-term causes that have brought us to this point, is here.

They're getting tons of attention in the media but most of it's limited to the uncritical repetition of the stuff quoted in that blog post: we're full up, immigrants get all the welfare money/social housing/help in school. It's refreshing to read someone not just point out how factually-untrue that is, but to ask why these things are in such short supply in the first place.

[jojomojo.livejournal.com]

I will be voting this evening; it'll be the first time since I was about 22. I, too, am not particularly happy about the trivialisation of what is basically an incipient Fascist party (and about the absolute tonne of coverage they get in the media compared to for instance the Greens).

[mrs-leroy-brown.livejournal.com]

I voted so I HOPE that my anxiety dreams (forgetting/accidentally voting BNP/UKIP) will sod off now.

[cosmolinguist]

I hope so too. xx

[softfruit.livejournal.com]

Oh ok just for you and just this once I'll vote...

[cosmolinguist]

Well that makes up for the troll on the Dreamwidth version of this entry who told me that he was now not gonna vote just because I had made a blog post saying people should. He'd voted in every previous election but now he wouldn't because he doesn't like being told what to do.

From this I can only assume he must have managed to avoid all election and get-out-the-vote propaganda heretofore, and am envious at how he managed this!

[softfruit.livejournal.com]

Tsk. These Dreamwidth types...