Do you vote in elections?
Voting is an interesting topic as it's regarded as something everyone should do, and those that don't are often criticized ( If you didn't vote you should not complain ).
Looking from machiavellian point of view though, voting doesn't matter in the least. From your singular perspective, among millions of votes, it makes no difference if you do it, or if you don't. Even if you were somehow to affect other people, and make them more likely to vote if you vote, let's say 2 people, it still means nothing.
So I wonder, how much people from this forum vote regularly and if so, why? It seems like voting is a waste of time ( maybe an exception is if you want to look good to others ) and you should rather spend this time on yourself and doing whatever else to push your goals forward.
The successful people should not waste time on something they have no effect on after all.
That's how I see it, feel free to post your perspective.
Good question.
We had already spoken about it in the past, by the way.
This could a challenging one to honestly answer in public without anonymity.
But basically, you said it already:
From a Machiavellian point of view it doesn't make sense and it has a terrible negative ROI for the individual.
What would make sense from a Mach point of view is to tell and convince others to go vote (for what he wants), and then defect himself.
Except, you don't want to say it publicly too much since the game being played is that it's prosocial to vote, and it's selfish not to.
That's not the same of saying "don't go vote", of course, since even in the absence of any real influencing power, one can still personally derive joy from simply knowing "I did the right thing" or "I contributed to helping the better leader get power".
However, I'd personally still advise stopping short of going to the extreme of bragging about voting, shaming others for non-voting, or wearing the "I vote pins".
Those are like the company's branded clothes: the owners and top echelons will never say it, but they know that it's for the sheep.
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