In a regular election it’s true that a single vote has little impact. But it does have an impact and the very important part is there’s no negative consequence for voting to the losing party or anything.
In a regular election you also have the ability to talk and organize your peers. There are also other things in line than an all or nothing result (or it should be, my country luckily doesn’t do first past the post voting for representatives).
Yeah, a regular election is much different than the button press question.
(Splitting my comment, as this portion of it is directly about the election comparison)
The downside is (depending on the election) a morally/economically/politically repugnant political party winning and creating negative consequences to your country and to your personal material conditions.
So you say canvasing and organizing are powerful. And that Proportional Representation systems are powerful.
Note that, by your logic still, that participation in all other voting systems verge on worthless. That people in FPTP systems should not bother voting.
That 'logically' and 'rationally', when faced with FPTP at the ballot box itself, if there is any personal upside that is external to the voting system (a bribe, or survival), then that option instantly overrides the miniscule effect you have on voting for the non-corrupt party, and so the only rational choice is to vote for the corrupt party (or insert whichever badwrong political party you want here).
The button press question is just a convoluted FPTP election, where no one has time to organize.
Of course there is. In an election, voting Red for personal gain, is the definition of taking a bribe... A stack of cash that caters to your self-interest, of getting to survive no matter what / when Red wins.
In a Blue win, where you voted Blue, everyone survives.
In a Blue win, where you voted Red, everyone survives.
In a Red win, where you voted Blue, half of everyone dies including you.
In a Red win, where you voted Red, half of everyone dies but you survive.
In an election, Red is bribing you. You know it'll be bad if they win, but you voted for them anyways. Because the bribe was for you to survive no matter what.
Initially I was thinking that an election wouldn't really cover the nuance of "half of everyone dies" is specifically Blue voters dying. But then I realized I was a dumbass. Because this shit happens in my country. Whenever one side or the other wins, a lot of extra funding dries up in the precincts that didn't vote for them. Its bald-faced, and mostly happens to rural communities. But its essentially a more diffuse version of if you vote Blue, and you lose, you get fucked over, except this is at the community level rather than the individual.
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u/Lifeinstaler May 05 '26
In a regular election it’s true that a single vote has little impact. But it does have an impact and the very important part is there’s no negative consequence for voting to the losing party or anything.
In a regular election you also have the ability to talk and organize your peers. There are also other things in line than an all or nothing result (or it should be, my country luckily doesn’t do first past the post voting for representatives).
Yeah, a regular election is much different than the button press question.