‘Call your congressperson’

Are you AI? Were you born in the 19th century?

How many boomers are on reddit, really? There’s no possible way any young person thinks this could genuinely work.

  • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    22 days ago

    The people who tell you to call your reps are clearly too fucking lazy to do it themselves. When I was younger I wrote my representatives about a dozen times. The only thing you get out of it is a form letter explaining that you’re wrong and that the current policy will not be changed. The only reason you could believe this matters is if you’ve never fucking tried it and your whole conception of US government comes from Schoolhouse Rock.

  • Owl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    22 days ago

    I think telling people to call their reps is great. Either it works and hey that’s great, or they end up feeling personally slighted by the non-representational nature of bourgeoisie democracy, and that’s progress too.

  • Athena5898 [any]@hexbear.net
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    22 days ago

    Nothing makes me feel more depressed then “Law will make it legal to hunt minority for sport. Call your representative!”

    They do not live in reality.

  • Moomoo_Milk [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    22 days ago

    Call your reps? lmao. Gotta remind these people that representatives so very rarely vote along with the will of their constituents. They don’t give a fuck what you think about any issue.

  • KnilAdlez [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    22 days ago

    I’ve heard op eds and letters to the editor in local papers are effective at sending messages to elected officials, but I’ve never tried so idk. You also need the paper to actually publish it.

    • Inui [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      22 days ago

      I can’t prove it but my past apartment managers started trying to do a lot more nice community things like bringing donuts to the community room after I wrote a letter to the editor about threatening them with rent strikes. Not them specifically, but in response to a peak COVID article from a landlord saying “we’re struggling people who need to pay our mortgage too”. Maybe it works on politicians too.

  • Le_Wokisme [they/them, undecided]@hexbear.net
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    22 days ago

    it’s been a decade since i heard someone talk about it but they do (well, did?) actually care about calls and physical mail to some extent. email is cheap and worthless, each person taking the time to call statistically represents dozens or hundreds of other people who might be pissed off enough to not vote for you.

    pound for pound calling your senator’s office over a specific issue is probably more effective than an in-person nonviolent protest if there’s actually lib organizing around it.

    you won’t build socialism with it but you can tiebreak on things the bourgeoise aren’t unified on like the TPP or SOPA/PIPA