• themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    That’s crap. Kids don’t outnumber adults, and politicians would still need to appeal to older generations.

    Also, when you were 16, you were right. Both sides are bad. But one side is much, much worse. Politicians would need to spend some time and effort engaging with children and explaining why their policies do matter. Imagine how valuable that would be for a significant population of adults!

    Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. They can smell bullshit, and they will vote their conscience.

    • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Maybe I’m an outlier or I was a shitty kid, but I was straight up defending Cheney in high school, because my dad was a bush fan. My first year of college, I entered rapid decompression and started understanding how my morals actually aligned with politics. I don’t think it’s because I was a dumb kid, but kids are really influenced by their parents.

      That said, it doesn’t matter if there are more republican voters, it is morally right imo to allow children 15/16+ to vote.

      • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        If your aim is to legally prevent demographics that lean Republican from voting, your effort would be better spent campaigning against the right of mormons and scientologists, to vote. Hell, campaign to prevent straight white men from voting. You’ll have better results than trying to prevent democracy for children.

        Our children will have to live in the world the longest, and as such they have the greatest need in our society for a right to vote. Greta Thunberg inspired the world when she was 15. There is no reason she shouldn’t have been able to vote at the same time.

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        That’s the same argument that was made against women’s suffrage. Adults are influenced by their parents, their peers, their employers, their professors, and many many adults live in a social echochamber that gives them a skewed sense of the world. That’s still not an argument to deny the right to vote.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Exactly, we tend to reflect our parents from a young age. Mostly because their world view is basically what we know.

        It isn’t until we get out from under that, that we fcan begin to form our own perceptions.

      • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        12 year old me didn’t know anything and knew it. 16 year old me still didn’t know shit but believed he knew everything. Allowing any age to vote is crazy.

    • Wirlocke@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      I feel this would work in theory, but in practice the path of least resistance for a political party wouldn’t be to appeal to young voters and teach policy. It would be to crank up the indoctrination machine and encourage parents to do so too.

      I’m sure some families would teach their children how the world works, but most would just not change; or they’d indoctrinate and abuse their kids to supporting their political party (even harder than before).

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        That’s happening anyway. You’re describing the current world we live in.

        You know what would help kids see through their parents’ bullshit? If adults and other kids were talking directly to them about issues relevant to their lives.

    • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Kids of 1 aren’t smarter than we give them credit for. People who can’t speak in sentences or wipe their own butts probably shouldn’t be weighing in on the presidential election.