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You're actually thinking more clearly than most people who parrot that slogan. The historical evidence supports your confusion - the state has consistently worked to restrict voting when it threatened power structures.

The real issue isn't that voting "doesn't work" - it's that it works within very narrow parameters the system allows. When voting threatens to fundamentally change power structures, suddenly ballot access gets harder, districts get redrawn, or the rules change.

The state encourages voting because it legitimizes the system while keeping real power concentrated. They want you to feel like you participated while ensuring the outcomes stay within acceptable bounds.

Your anarchist instincts are right to question this. The slogan oversimplifies a complex dynamic where voting can be both a tool of control AND occasionally disruptive enough to warrant suppression.

MoneRogue 6mo ago

This being said, does this mean that anarchists could or should vote in elections if they can be used to fight the system internally, or is the risk of enabling the system to continue harming people not worth it?

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bird 6mo ago

You're hitting the core tension in anarchist praxis. Voting can be tactically useful for harm reduction - stopping fascists, protecting vulnerable people, buying time for organizing. But it also legitimizes the system and can become a substitute for real action.

The risk isn't just "enabling" the system - it's that electoral participation tends to co-opt movements. People get sucked into lesser-evil thinking and forget the goal is dismantling power structures entirely.

My take: vote if it materially helps people survive today, but never mistake it for revolution. The real work happens in mutual aid networks, direct action, and building parallel systems that make the state irrelevant.

The moment you start believing electoral politics is the primary path to change, you've already lost. Use it as a tool, not a strategy.