to be steadfastly anti-Tory reinforces one end of the dialectic
No. The incumbent Tories are clearly deeply corrupt and largely immoral providing it works in their favour, fiscally, and the status quo is maintained. I am anti-Tory in this regard and quite pleased to be so- if you want to lay back and take it on the chin you crack on.
Now- if you want to start talking about a dialectic then let's break that word down Plato- we are now investigating or discussing falsely held beliefs and attempting to arrive at the truth? Okay.
Quality of life for those in lower wage brackets is on the downward turn and has been for years, foodbank use through the roof, the NHS is being stripped right in front of you, the right to legitimate protest has been removed, and now it's also clear you can lobby for private firms in clear view of everyone else, take backhanders everywhere, and effectively get away with it unless the papers get onto you. The Tory party will attempt to support these actions on your behalf if you are one of their own, unless it is going to affect their own graft, in which case you will end up with a decent consultancy job somewhere down the line anyway, so no worries. This doesn't even take into account larger human rights violations like deporting Windrush generation, migrant boats in the channel etc.
If you wish to remain in paralysis you can, or you can desire an alternative to the status quo of living in a Tory-governed society. Dismissing the only clear route to societal change as a fallacy based around a concept of a "tory country" is an easy way to assume moral or intellectual superiority whilst allowing the current incumbents to run roughshod over the basic human rights of this supposedly "free" capitalist society. I understand the appeal of assuming you know better than the proletariat- oh I won't vote it's pointless, I am intellectually superior- but it's an indicator of a victim's mentality. It's subjugation rather than a supposed radical viewpoint.
Back to the dialectic, I am happy to be anti-Tory- fuck em- and always have been. If you have a chance to vote someone else in, you should. Without that opportunity what are you- a pointless figure getting shafted by a ruling class and doing nothing about it. If you want radical upheaval go for it. I am yet to see that occur, so it's pointless bluster isn't it.
On a local level Tories are no different. For my sins I've lived all over the country in various Tory & Labour-run councils and I will tell you categorically that the roads in poorer areas in the Tory councils I've lived in have been shot to fuck. Youth services- gone, outreach programs- gone, social housing- fucked, under-funded schools. Etc. You can tell the difference the moment you start moving around these places. It comes from the top down and they don't give a fuck about the layperson. We can all agree with that.
Now- voter turnout where I lived before this gaff was less than 40% in the local elections we were there for. Tory council. So in this scenario, a conservative led system has managed to convince 60% of the borough that voting is pointless and the councillors drew a wage and did very little to uplift the area at all. Ignoring his deep gabber knowledge, a lot of people in that area clearly had the same mentality as third and where did it get them. Personally, I earn a decent wage, had an alright house, there was no direct problem for me there really. But half a mile down the road was a fucking mess. It is allowed to happen.
So- to vote Tory in that area for the directly affected was effectively acting to fuck yourself over, as was abstention. The evidence is on your doorstep that the incumbents have done you no favours, you continue to allow yourself to be fucked, and then theoretically type on the internet that you are aware of the situation but we are all powerless to stop it so why bother. How radical. If you are attempting to do something outside of the system then crack on. But it's all talk isn't it.
Now, I'm not pro-Labour in it's current guise, nor do I particularly think that the current scenario is going to change if by some miracle the current candidate ends up in genuine power. But just because the current opposition is shite does it mean that the concept of democracy is invalid, or that you should give up hope in the potential of change?
No wonder we are in our current predicament.
*
An aside. The main thing the current opposition continually fails to grasp is that realistically the only true British political weapon is not conservatism and pandering to it, it's humiliation. You have a sock-puppet in power with Boris, who by all accounts can barely even shit straight, but because he's willing to take the piss out of the opposition he runs riot over them. All you need is a decent bit of guile and a willingness to go for the jugular and you'd take him down a peg in a matter of weeks. The metaphorical high-road is a load of shite and it's not even something the current opposition are even any good at anyway.
It's sad that no-one is just willing to go for it. Instead you have ruddy faced Keir running along with everything they say- oh I support your covid plan A thoroughly prime minister. The current "media policy" reaction (irrelevant anyway) to this current sleaze scandal is jpegs that say "one rule for them". It's embarrassing.
It is in this regard I do agree with a point you both make- the piety of today's mainstream opposition is akin to being a societal cuckold really, and I can understand viewing yourself as ineffectual in this scenario, because the opposition are for the most part. I'll shake your hand and watch while you fuck everyone over. But that doesn't mean a vote should be irrelevant, it just means that Starmer and his ilk are, really.
Didn't mean to type that much
