AIBU: The Green Party

[LegoToast]

So, tomorrow is the local elections. There are five candidates in my ward: Labour, Conservatives, an independent, UKIP, and the Greens.

I will be spoiling my ballot.

Ten years ago, I would have voted for the Greens. Their views were the closest to my own. But now, I’d rather vote UKIP as a protest vote than give the Greens anything at all.

Out of all the parties, I feel that they have been hit the hardest by the Kool Aid. A tiny party that was unknowingly dominated with a challenging ideology. They didn’t stop and think. They saw new people with new ideas and accepted them gladly. The lost good genuine people over this issue as well as tons of voters.

The Greens were the party of science and logic. But now they’re nothing more than meaningless “woke” statements hidden behind a veneer of environmental activism.

I couldn’t join even if I wanted to. I’d only be expelled for having the wrong facts.

Yes, other parties rushed into the woke cookies too, but they’re slowly edging backwards. The Greens can’t come back from this. It will haunt them.

Lol at 'just hating women'
How low can you go?

Not low at all, other issues are important to me as well, and right now as I am about to vote, moreso.

But just 'hating women' cannot be the basis on which to base a decision

That's a pretty fundamental reason for me not to give someone my vote tbh.

Sometimes though the alternatives are worse, sometimes it needs to not be a vote 'for' but a vote 'against'

I held my nose and voted Lib Dem. Would have gone with Labour but their Brexit stance combined with the cult of Corbyn means that I just couldn't bring myself to do it. My local Labour council are actually pretty good, but regardless of that fact the party can and will look at local elections as a barometer of wider support.

The Lib Dems aren't much better (thinking specifically of the 'woke' twitter feed). But I didn't want to spoil my ballot.

If hating 50% of the population is considered a 'side issue', I'm not sure the human race should survive climate change. What's the point? Another few millenia of rape, murder and male supremacy? Thanks, I'll pass.

To those who have experience - the number of spoilt ballot papers are recorded aren't they? Would a dramatic number of spoilt papers send a message, not with comments I understand, to the main parties and how so many voters are so dissatisfied with them?

You didn't.

It is certainly meaningful for those spoiling their ballots. And apart from a very low turn-out I predict a lot of spoiled ballot papers. It will be interesting to see if that is the case. Spoiled ballots are counted at least.

Locally I want my bins collected and roads not being built and children to have school places, today that is what I will be voting for.

My local councillors all, unanimously, voted for gender neutral toilets going forward without even consulting women first. Representation at the local level was completely missing on this occasion. Far too important for me, personally, to ignore.

That’s the problem Justathought, there’s no one to vote for, as they all march ahead with decisions that affect women and don’t even consult us. They’re all the same here too. It’s dire.

So hating minorities seems a justifiable reason to not vote UKIP, but when it’s women then it’s all this ‘oh, you never agree 100% with any party’ bullshit.
No. Fuck the Green part

So those who have experience - the number of spoilt ballot papers are recorded aren't they?

Yes because the number of ballot papers issued is known and the contents of the ballot box when counted should match the number of papers which should be in that box. There is some leeway as it is possible obviously to take a slip and not use it and also the tellers will miscount- they are human, but on the whole the 2 figures should match.

Would a dramatic number of spoilt papers send a message, not with comments I understand, to the main parties and how so many voters are so dissatisfied with them?

It might if it ever happened but it hasn't and it won't.

Honestly except in a very close contest no one is interested in spoilt papers , and even then it's only to make sure they really are spoilt in case a candidate can get the benefit of a vote.

To those who have experience - the number of spoilt ballot papers are recorded aren't they? Would a dramatic number of spoilt papers send a message, not with comments I understand, to the main parties and how so many voters are so dissatisfied with them?

The one time I did it, none of them seemed interested in anything other than the winner and the number of votes for each party tbh. They didn't comment on how the spoiled votes were spoiled.

I’m concerned about climate change but if the only alternative is the Greens I’d rather just slather myself in suntan lotion and learn to swim.

So hating minorities seems a justifiable reason to not vote UKIP, but when it’s women then it’s all this ‘oh, you never agree 100% with any party’ bullshit.

Yeah, I noticed that too.

I'm voting for the 1st and 3rd green MEPs in the north east as they're both extremely gender critical women. And one has been treated badly for querying some issues with Challenor before it came to a head.

Lib Dem's have got Aimee now and are anti Brexit (but I can't forgive Cable for failings over key Brexit votes)
Labour has got Lilly and are sort for for Brexit (not standing against it)
Tories have got Penny and May and May wants May's Brexit

All awful, all throwing women under the bus.

Greens are anti Brexit, for fixing climate change and have also thrown women under the bus.

I would never vote UKIP.

It's really not a great list to chose from, so no I never 100% agree, I only 100% disagree with UKIP. I'd vote for Women's Equality party if they were standing in my ward and if they were actually for women but they're not either.

I didn't have an independent candidate to vote for but I had I done so I would have liked to have voted for one if I broadly agreed with their aims.

Women are screwed by all of the above, who are we the least screwed by?

I think that's the wrong question to be asking, really. The Master's tools will never dismantle the master's house, as Audre Lord once wrote.

I imagine the Greens will have a lot of their votes from the young and woke. If they can be arsed to vote after all the brexit bollocks. It might have put many off voting for the first or second time. Or it might have encouraged then to vote to try and effect change. Any candidate who believes TWAW will never get my vote. My local Green candidate believes TWAW although she states you can't change sex so maybe she's confused as to what a woman is? It's all about the feelz apparently.

The results should be interesting and I'll be interested to see how they compare to last year.

I voted Green today and I'm fairly comfortable with that, for the following reasons: this is the local elections and I voted for a candidate who is well known to me, committed to his local community and a person who can get things done; the Greens in our ward will probably (again) come second (a distant second) to the Tories, and my habitual Labour vote would get nowhere; I cannot vote Labour for the foreseeable future; climate change is going to fuck everything up; Greens are offering a strong Remain stance.

I'm not endorsing Green Party HQ wokeness, I'm supporting groundroots people and local policies.

However, I've been fairly vocal (to sounds of tumbleweed...) on FB about my support of Greens DESPITE their wokeness and sheeplike belief that TWAW. No one party is going to be perfect but I'd rather, far rather, vote than not vote at all.

Locally I want my bins collected and roads not being built and children to have school places, today that is what I will be voting for.

Well thats what I thought I was voting for last time, but it turns out what I got was the Women's Centre and the independent DV shelter turning mixed sex.

An interesting thread. I may Tweet it to Caroline Lucas tomorrow.

You should. If Caroline reads this, she should note that I'm not likely to repeat my Green vote at national level if the attitude to my sex based rights doesn't improve.

Yes, Caroline if you do read this, know that I am concerned about climate change.

But I am even more concerned about the immediate erosion of women's rights. The fact that your party is so determined to be ultra-woke and rush to endorse the latest SJW cause without applying any type of critical thinking, means that I will never vote for you. And I'm pretty disappointed about that, because I would really quite like to support you.

ControversialFerret (an adult, human, female).

caroline's number one priority is her own career - for which she largely depends on the Woke (Brighton). If you can stir up substantial discontent there (or within the party) you may be in with a chance of her giving a monkeys. Otherwise, forget it.