Young people are people and deserving of rights, including but not limited to the vote. There is no stupid thing a young person could do with their vote that old people don’t already do and we don’t require them not to in order to keep their vote.
Hell yeah! People say that kids and teens don’t have enough life experience to make decisions, but also it’s really difficult to gain life experience when you’re constantly shielded from everything.
I agree. I wish the voting age was 16. (Or even younger, but 16 would be a big step in the right direction.)
At 16, students could take half the day off to go vote. Hell, it should be a grade-level field trip. Research shows that those who vote in their first eligible election are likely to continue voting, and democracies are dying from a lack of political engagement.
When I was mid 20s I thought young kids were too naive. I got older and saw how fucking stupid most adults are and think young kids are much smarter than their predecessors. They should absolutely have a voice in elections. 16 seems like a good age to me
Young people will typically just vote how their parents tell them to. They typically just repeat what their parents say without critically thinking about things. They typically haven’t fully developed the mental capacity for things like empathy. They haven’t experienced what it’s like to work or struggle to survive.
Plenty of people vote how their parents did; that’s just how values work.
Plenty of people vote against how their parents did; that’s just how having your own identity works.
Plenty of people vote who think critically about nothing despite their so-vaunted capacity to; those people are idiots, but we don’t require them not to be. And really, most of our politicians could use some lessons in empathy, technically capable or not.
None is a reason for denying suffrage.
And nobody should have to struggle to survive; that’s a failure of modern society. And again, it’s not something we require old people to be tested for; silver spoon trust fund kids who will never know what “struggle” means aren’t kept from voting.
We don’t require old people to justify their votes. They don’t have to be rational enough, empathetic enough, or anything else enough. Old people can vote by rolling dice and nobody will stop them.
Young people are people and deserving of rights, including but not limited to the vote. There is no stupid thing a young person could do with their vote that old people don’t already do and we don’t require them not to in order to keep their vote.
No taxation without representation. Either teens get to vote, or they don’t pay taxes. Anything less is un-American.
Hell yeah! People say that kids and teens don’t have enough life experience to make decisions, but also it’s really difficult to gain life experience when you’re constantly shielded from everything.
I agree. I wish the voting age was 16. (Or even younger, but 16 would be a big step in the right direction.)
At 16, students could take half the day off to go vote. Hell, it should be a grade-level field trip. Research shows that those who vote in their first eligible election are likely to continue voting, and democracies are dying from a lack of political engagement.
When I was mid 20s I thought young kids were too naive. I got older and saw how fucking stupid most adults are and think young kids are much smarter than their predecessors. They should absolutely have a voice in elections. 16 seems like a good age to me
Young people will typically just vote how their parents tell them to. They typically just repeat what their parents say without critically thinking about things. They typically haven’t fully developed the mental capacity for things like empathy. They haven’t experienced what it’s like to work or struggle to survive.
Plenty of people vote how their parents did; that’s just how values work.
Plenty of people vote against how their parents did; that’s just how having your own identity works.
Plenty of people vote who think critically about nothing despite their so-vaunted capacity to; those people are idiots, but we don’t require them not to be. And really, most of our politicians could use some lessons in empathy, technically capable or not.
None is a reason for denying suffrage.
And nobody should have to struggle to survive; that’s a failure of modern society. And again, it’s not something we require old people to be tested for; silver spoon trust fund kids who will never know what “struggle” means aren’t kept from voting.
We don’t require old people to justify their votes. They don’t have to be rational enough, empathetic enough, or anything else enough. Old people can vote by rolling dice and nobody will stop them.
The West Wing had a segment with some kids arguing for suffrage, and it convinced me. Everyone else I’ve talked to, however…
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