r/worldnews • u/Significant-Colour • 1d ago

China strikes back at Trump with 34 percent tariff — bans rare earth exports to the U.S.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/china-strikes-back-on-trump-tariffs-bans-rare-earth-exports-to-the-u-s
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u/Muzzlehatch 1d ago

The third that didn’t show up essentially voted for fascism.

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u/squirrelyfoxx 1d ago

honestly depends where you live, i dont' blame california voters for being disenfranchised and feeling like no matter what CA is blue (which is great), but i have a bunch of friends who said "why bother, our vote won't change CA results"

i really wish we would change the electoral college already, because this is becoming so much more common

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u/the_snoogs 1d ago

Why bother and why vote is always such a shitty statement. People gave their lives so that we have the opportunity to vote.

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u/Helpful_guy 1d ago

Not to mention

A.) California will automatically mail any registered voter their ballot and you have a whole fucking month to fill it out and mail it back FOR FREE

B.) There's more on the ballot than JUST the presidency - judges, local elected officials, school funding, and other local measures that will affect your taxes

C.) COASTAL California is firmly blue, but go an hour inland most places and you might as well be in Trumpland

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u/Queltis6000 19h ago

People gave their lives so that we have the opportunity to vote.

To play Devil's advocate, this isn't quite true. People gave their lives for our freedom, which can include the freedom to choose not to vote.

But fuck those people in this case. They indirectly let this dumb sack of shit into office and now the rest of the world has to pay for it.

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u/the_snoogs 13h ago

It's ironic that using your freedom not to vote takes away a big chunk of freedom in this case.

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u/squirrelyfoxx 1d ago

then make it feel like it has an impact

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u/External-Praline-451 1d ago

Surely they are feeling the impact of not voting? A tanked economy, a recession incoming and betraying your allies, with WW3 looking ever closer. They'll have plenty of years ahead to feel the impact of not voting against facism. 

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u/KaffeeKiffer 21h ago

Surely they are feeling the impact of not voting?

It is a simple fact of the American Winner-takes-all voting system, that lots of votes don't count, after the tally is done.

Of course you can't be sure who the winner is beforehand and should go vote, just because of that (and my general opinion is "If you did not vote, then you can't complain".) But if 100% of people in Blue States voted Harris, Trump would still be president with the exact same amount of electoral college votes... So, I don't really get why the person insinuating "change your voting system" gets lots of down-votes/disagreement.

Today, American elections are decided by the people in ~10 swing states. The rest are extras in the scene to make it look more lively...
And unless there is a major change in what people do/who they vote for, demographic change will make that even worse over time, because Blue States are shrinking and consequently losing votes in the Electoral College.

I would love to get constructive criticism and explanation what is wrong with these statements.

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u/External-Praline-451 20h ago

I understand the feeling that your vote doesn't count, because we have the first past the post system in the UK, so you get very Tory or Labour seats.  BUT not voting means you're relying on others to act for you which is lazy and entitled, you're also not contributing to the popular vote score which are used to gauge overall support nationally for the President. 

Also, there are plenty of areas with low turnout because of this attitude that it's pointless, you are just perpetuating apathy which can be picked up by others in more vital seats where it could make all the difference. Millions of eligible voters didn't bother and now it's not clear if there will be another chance for free elections. 

I agree voting systems need to be reformed to make people feel like their vote counts, but you're never going to do that under Trump. You need to prioritise.

I also take my right to vote very seriously - people died for my right to vote and I want to honour that. If you told non-voters they weren't allowed to vote, they'd suddenly get all upset. Well that could happen now.

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u/squirrelyfoxx 1d ago

They don't, because they also live in California, and we pretty much always go blue 💙

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u/External-Praline-451 1d ago

And if everyone thought the same way, it wouldn't, and if everyone voted nationally, the world would be feeling so much better right now.

Screw apathetic people, they're happy to let others do the work for them and now across the globe we are feeling the consequences of their laziness and privileged entitlement. 

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u/the_snoogs 1d ago

It has. Facists go and vote. Their overall percentage is higher if other people don't vote against it.

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u/Monochronos 1d ago

An easy way to show that the electoral college is bullshit is to turn out crazy popular vote numbers though. So it definitely still counts.

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u/squirrelyfoxx 1d ago

Didn't trump lose the popular vote his first time? Nothing changed back then

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u/Monochronos 1d ago

Sure but margins were slimmer. If people show up and vote en masse, it would make the argument that much easier to make.

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u/Warin_of_Nylan 1d ago

"If we just do exactly what the system wants us to do, it will actually help us defeat the system's goals! It even works better if you tell yourself that there's nothing more you can do, because fighting against oppression is actually the worst way to fight against oppression."

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u/ThrowRAColdManWinter 1d ago

and suffered reputational loss as a result. there is soft power in national politics just as much as international politics. a president who wins on a quirk of the electoral system rather than on their own merits sticks out and retains less political capital for negotiations with legislators.

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u/Stockholm-Syndrom 1d ago

If Ca was completely blue Trump wouldn’t have the House.

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u/theholybikini 1d ago

No it doesn't. If you don't vote, you vote for the winner. 70% of your countrymen voted for this, the rest of the world don't give a shit about you both-sidesing it.

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u/Muzzlehatch 1d ago

Even if you think that’s an excuse not to vote for president, every election has other races in it, some of them local. Might as well vote for president while you’re doing your civic duty.

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u/AHans 1d ago

i have a bunch of friends who said "why bother, our vote won't change CA results"

I know a bunch of people in Wisconsin who said the same. They are not my friends anymore.

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u/TheNorthComesWithMe 1d ago

We don't need to change the electoral college, we need to get rid of the presidency. A single elected position shouldn't be responsible for the amount of power the president wields.

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u/spw1215 1d ago

You should tell your friends to drop the shit attitudes and to just vote in every election... It's really simple.

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u/sw00pr 1d ago edited 1d ago

No, the people voted for fascism voted for fascism

Peddling blame like this is very authoritarian, ironically

E: lol they blocked me for this! Talk about authoritarian, now I can't comment in any comment chain they're in.

We should be careful we don't run from one authoritarian society straight into the arms of another.