Here's a suggestion, for you and everyone suggesting you don't vote: Get over it.
(Content intended for voters in a US-style FPTP system. Mileage in IRV and other systems may vary.)
No one will see your vote. The structure of elections is not such that you can state your ideals. The question is about your preference for the actual outcome of the contest.
In programming terms, you're not being asked to return the largest integer; you're given a choice of two integers, and asked to return the larger. It doesn't matter if neither one looks objectively "large"-- refusing to return anything will not help this algorithm generate larger numbers.
Maybe it's a stupid algorithm, but that's not relevant, either.
To stay HN-neutral I'll leave this generic, though it really isn't: Regardless of your feelings about the candidates in this election in an objective sense, you should have a strong dispreference for one candidate under the other. In a proper decision theory, that should translate into a strong relative preference for the other candidate to be the actual winner of the contest.
That doesn't mean you support them absolutely, or morally. It just means you're voting in line with rather than against your true preference for outcome.
And that should translate into strong support in the voting booth, though of course that doesn't and shouldn't have to translate into strong support in public opinion.
If you don't vote for the candidate you strongly relatively prefer because your absolute preference for them is low -- you don't want to send a message that "this candidate is objectively good" -- you are using a different protocol than the election, and what will be received is "the relative preference for this candidate is fairly low". What you should expect is for the election to perceive that you support your dispreferred candidate significantly more than you actually do.
(Content intended for voters in a US-style FPTP system. Mileage in IRV and other systems may vary.)
No one will see your vote. The structure of elections is not such that you can state your ideals. The question is about your preference for the actual outcome of the contest.
In programming terms, you're not being asked to return the largest integer; you're given a choice of two integers, and asked to return the larger. It doesn't matter if neither one looks objectively "large"-- refusing to return anything will not help this algorithm generate larger numbers.
Maybe it's a stupid algorithm, but that's not relevant, either.
To stay HN-neutral I'll leave this generic, though it really isn't: Regardless of your feelings about the candidates in this election in an objective sense, you should have a strong dispreference for one candidate under the other. In a proper decision theory, that should translate into a strong relative preference for the other candidate to be the actual winner of the contest.
That doesn't mean you support them absolutely, or morally. It just means you're voting in line with rather than against your true preference for outcome.
And that should translate into strong support in the voting booth, though of course that doesn't and shouldn't have to translate into strong support in public opinion.
If you don't vote for the candidate you strongly relatively prefer because your absolute preference for them is low -- you don't want to send a message that "this candidate is objectively good" -- you are using a different protocol than the election, and what will be received is "the relative preference for this candidate is fairly low". What you should expect is for the election to perceive that you support your dispreferred candidate significantly more than you actually do.
And that's what should make you sick.