It seems like every time I turn around it’s election season again. Primary seasons has just come and gone for some states, which means a bunch of statists just finished up trying to make people feel guilty for not suffering the same bullshit they just suffered:
Some Pennsylvania voters have received letters publicising whether they had voted in previous elections before they head to the polls on Tuesday.
The letters appeared to be intended to “embarrass” people into voting by revealing their voting record compared to that of friends and neighbours.
[…]
The information used in the letters comes from a public registry that costs $20 (£15) to access. This data is typically used by political parties for voter outreach.
“What if your friends, your neighbours, and your community knew whether you vote?” the letter asks.
What if my friends, neighbors, and community members knew whether I voted? They already do because I’m quite loud about the fact that I don’t vote.
Blackmail, which is what these letters are threatening, only works if the person being threatened wants a secret kept secret. As soon as the person being threatened ceases to care about whatever secret somebody is threatening to reveal, blackmail no longer works. If, for example, somebody is threatening to reveal that you didn’t vote in the last election, the best thing you can do to take their power away is publicly advertise the fact that you didn’t vote in the last election.