I teach at a public high school for "profoundly gifted" kids, and work pretty much exclusively with 16+ students. They're all very smart, and range from libs to somewhat better than normal libs (we had one open ML, but he graduated a few years ago). They all think Trump is a fucking dumbass. As with every election, a big crop of our seniors is going to be eligible to vote for the first time this year.

For the first time in the decade or so that I've worked here, pretty much every single one of them has said they don't intend to vote. They hate Biden almost as much as Trump, either because they condemn the genocide in Israel or just because they (correctly) believe that he has done nothing to actually benefit them. This is a population of kids who are much more politically engaged than your average teenager, and vote turnout in previous years has been high. I was actually very surprised at how many of them expressed contempt for the whole process this year, and indicated that they were totally uninterested in supporting Biden (and of course would not support Trump). I'm guessing this is part of a big trend that we're going to see this year, and I'm preparing myself for libs blaming young people--for whom Biden has done little but make their future demonstrably worse--for Democrats' loss.

I'm trying to convince all of them to vote anyway, just for some third party that speaks to them. Yesterday, we talked about PSL, Cornel West, the Greens, and Afroman for a bit. It would be incredibly funny to see young people reject Biden/Trump, and yet turn out in record numbers anyway. The narrative that kids are just too addicted to their phones to vote would fall apart. I'll keep working on it.

No real point here, just im-doing-my-part

      • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        user from German instance

        asserts that Americans in America have no skin in the election

        stunning, flawless, perfect internet liberal doing projection

      • Rojo27 [he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        What is Biden doing to lessen the suffering of the people of Gaza? Leaking how "upset" he is with Netanyahu while publicly supporting him politically, materially, and militarily? You still haven't said how he's better than Trump on this. And that's the fucking point.

          • MattsAlt [comrade/them]
            ·
            9 months ago

            Oh boy, I made it to a live 100+ comment thread that's going to end up in a banned liberal! Go do something else with your time, debate pervert

          • Philosoraptor [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            9 months ago

            My school is probably 10% trans, at a ballpark guess. They're mad as hell at how much their safety has eroded under Biden. It's not surprising that they're unwilling to support someone who has barely even just given lip service to their safety and their friends' safety. They've also watched the economy get worse just as they're about to head off to college, housing get more unaffordable, and the climate smash new heat records. These things are all literally existential threats to their generation's ability to have a good life, and Biden has taken exactly 0 meaningful actions on any of it. Trump wouldn't either, of course, but that's why they aren't voting for him either. I think it's perfectly rational to look at someone who has done nothing to help you and is harming people like you and say "no, I don't think I'm going to show up to support this guy."

          • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
            ·
            9 months ago

            You have yet to articulate any way at all in which Biden is protecting whomever you consider to be on Trump's shit list. Biden ran against Trump's border policies and he's fuckin worse on the border than Trump was, by deporting way more people in his first year than Trump did in four. Biden waived a couple dozen conservation laws just to get the border wall construction going again, yet another thing Biden ran against. The child detention centers that Biden ran against are also doing better under Biden than Trump.

            You have constructed a fucking fantasy in your liberal brain of a Biden who is in opposition to Trump. That Biden does not exist.

          • Rojo27 [he/him]
            ·
            9 months ago

            I selectively choose what to respond tosmuglord <-This is you

            See the articles that I've posted in response to you. Family food insecurity was at a decade high in 2023. Biden has deported more people between May-December of last year than Trump did in the entire years of 2018 or 2019. Its not about one issue. Theyre both equally bad on several issues. But again, please continue making an ass of yourself on here.

          • Wakmrow [he/him]
            ·
            9 months ago

            You don't know anything about anyone in this thread. It's ridiculously asshole to assume that people who disagree with your shit political takes are just privileged white boys with no skin in the game or whatever you want to call it.

            Even us cis straight white guys have skin in the game, way more skin than you'll know.

      • kleeon [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        I live in a swing state and I'm voting for Trump. I also convinced all 30 of my uncles and nephews to vote for Trump as well. We are getting that dang cheeto back into the white house

      • the_post_of_tom_joad [any, any]
        ·
        9 months ago

        Oooh how did you wind upf in here? Did you mean to come here? Are you prepared?

        Are you the lib who prepares by collecting links and arguing or the more common type, with only snarky comments from reddit and a finger firmly in each ear?

        Won't you tell me?