• Christian@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Mathematician here, I can answer this. Equivalence relations are symmetric, so if staying home is a vote for Trump then showing up to vote for Trump is the same as staying home on election day.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Okay, but then isn’t staying home also a vote for Biden by the same logic?

      This isn’t a binary relation, there’s clearly three options (vote for Biden, vote for Trump, vote for neither).

      • Christian@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        That doesn’t make any sense. The idea that staying home could be a vote for Biden seems pretty silly on its face. If that were true, there wouldn’t be any point in going out to vote for him, because the majority (or at least a plurality) of the country stays home regardless. He’d win in a landslide.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          Why is it that staying home is a vote for Trump but it isn’t a vote for Biden. Doesn’t that seem strange to you?

          And you’re right, it doesn’t make any sense, and that applies to staying home being a vote for Trump. The plurality of the country stays home, so Trump should win in a landslide, right? Yet he lost once. This seems like a glaring error in the idea that a protest vote is a vote for Trump.

          • Christian@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            Doesn’t that seem strange to you?

            It doesn’t seem strange at all. I have never once heard someone suggest that staying home is a vote for Biden, but it’s pretty well agreed upon that not voting is a vote for Trump.

            …so Trump should win in a landslide, right? Yet he lost once. This seems like a glaring error in the idea that a protest vote is a vote for Trump.

            Only if you believe that election wasn’t stolen.

            • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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              8 months ago

              I have never once heard someone suggest that staying home is a vote for Biden, but it’s pretty well agreed upon that not voting is a vote for Trump.

              That’s the strange part! Why is staying home a vote for Trump but not a vote for Biden? What makes them different?

                • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                  8 months ago

                  I give people the benefit of the doubt until they get nasty, so it’s no trouble to waste some time arguing with a brick wall 🙃

                  • Christian@lemmy.ml
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                    8 months ago

                    I feel bad about this and I’d like to make it up to you.

                    If you tell me your favorite candidate I promise to stay home on election day to cast a vote for them.