julian francis park<p>I didn&#39;t mean to, but after the depicted exchange on the birdsite I ended up composing the following with respect to voting abstentionism. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/elections" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>elections</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/voting" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>voting</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nonvoting" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>nonvoting</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/abstentionism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>abstentionism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/anarchism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>anarchism</span></a> </p><p>&quot;As far as the similarity [between not voting and not going to work] goes, I don&#39;t think the best version of the argument is that individuals voting or not voting (or going to work) de/legitimizes the political (or economic) system. The compelling version of the argument, I think, needs to be that mass non/participation is what has a de/legitimizing effect. The element of mass is what marks the difference with respect to compulsion (it&#39;s harder to read non-voting as a deliberative action, e.g.). That&#39;s part of what makes the analogy you offered not so strong to me. Anyway, the issue with contemporary abstentionism is that it&#39;s individual &amp; largely passive, an ethical, rather than a strategic stance, a weakness of much apparent leftism (which it appears we agree about). The compelling theory of legitimation by participation would require actual abstentionist campaigning, which does not happen, here at least. I suspect part of the reason for this is that there&#39;s a recognition among anarchists that this is not our most persuasive practice. There is, nonetheless, an argument for individual non-voting—which is that, imo, the evidence isn&#39;t especially convincing that voting for the lesser evil, or even a favorable candidate, in the long term produces better outcomes particularly regarding the viability of revolution.&quot;</p>