Lose that would imply no one knew where it went , sure as fk it went in someone ' s pocket <| sep |> But claiming she ' s supporting Trump if she ' s not supporting Clinton is disingenuous . I explained why that is so . She supported Trump through the results of her actions , namely by taking some percentage of votes that might otherwise have been allocated to Clinton . And , since an election is zero sum , any vote taken away from Clinton is one less vote Trump has to win . Thus any action intended to criticize Clinton , right or not , results in a benefit for Trump . That ' s the simple reality of how first past the post voting works , and wishing it weren ' t that way doesn ' t make it not that way . I ' m arguing that Stein has the right to argue her case Of course she has that right . No one said otherwise add far as I can tell . But expressing that right doesn ' t absolve you of the obvious consequence of using that right in a given way . She can if course criticize Clinton all day long , but to act like criticising Clinton doesn ' t contribute to a Clinton loss in an election is just blatantly ridiculous . Those two things are not mutually exclusive propositions as your argument is trying to suggest . Her criticisms can even be right and justified , but it is still true that boxing said criticisms damages a Clinton presidency . The reality is we always have to weigh those considerations and not pretend like a moral stance happens in a political vacuum . Thats the chief failing if idealists insisting that they can criticize everything that isn ' t perfect while wanting to distance themselves from the way this undermines preferable outcomes . By treating perfection as if it is politically achievable , the actual best realistic outcome often ends up getting overlooked by these people who most align with that outcome . Thus you have people worried about global warming protesting energy sources that would help prevent it , you have people that want gender equality attacking the moderate candidate that supports reform because they don ' t go far enough , resulting in the conservative retrograde winning an election , etc etc . It ' s eliminating any opinion outside two tracks . If you delegitimize any 3 rd opinion you ' re polarizing by definition . It ' s not eliminating an opinion to try and persuade people to use their words wisely . Burning books is eliminating opinions . Arresting people for speaking out is eliminating an opinion . Using reason and argument to try and change a person ' s mind isn ' t eliminating an opinion . It ' s trying to convince someone that an opinion simply isn ' t very good and should be changed . That ' s what debate looks like . The notion that all opinions are equally and ought to be shared equally no matter what in any context simply because more opinions are better is simply not a persuasive argument . She repeatedly called Clinton the least of two evils . Does that sound like supporting Trump ? Again you are confusing intention and result . Of course she would say that because she never intended to help Trump , something I already agreed was the case . Her actions still helped Trump in actual fact . Even that very statement , implying Clinton is evil , is part of what I mean . That discourages the people that listen to Stein from voting for Clinton by telling them she is evil , and lets face it , no one that listens to Stein was ever going to vote for Trump . But they might have voted for Clinton had people like Stein not hammered home the Clinton is Evil narrative and instead realized defeating Trump was the only choice that mattered given the actual situation we were in . , That helped Trump in actual practice . It ignored the pressing reality and the imminent danger in favor of appealing to idealism . Stein had every right to make that choice , I and many others just think it was a terrible choice under the circumstances To be clear , many other people made bad , often much worse choices this election . That includes Clinton and the DNC . They also bear tons of responsibility here . But this is the reality the left wing faces today A fractured left is easily beaten by a motivated right , and the right today is more powerful than at any time in the past 80 years , arguably more . All left wing people need to take responsibility for any way they contributed to this loss and figure out how progressived and centrists can start winning elections again , because if that doesn ' t get figured out very soon the left wing of this country will be in a very precarious spot indeed .