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submitted 3 months ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world
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[-] MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 months ago

Utter nonsense. I already feel like I'm surrounded by children in this conversation.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Utter nonsense. I already feel like I’m surrounded by children in this conversation.

Naw. What's 'utter nonsense' is that you're unwilling to consider complications and criticism.

Children voting poses a lot of problems. you (more or less) espoused 2 qualifications. the first being that they express a desire to vote. Children- especially very young children- are super easy to manipulate into wanting to do things. Tom Sawyer's fence comes to mind. "gee isn't painting this fence fun? Pay me 2 bucks and I'll let you paint!"

It's why most religious circles will have children's programs. children are way more easily manipulated into forming beliefs that are then assimilated into a world view without any conscious consent on the child's part. They become so ingrained that as adults, childhood beliefs are incredibly hard to kick; even when you come to the belief that they were wrong. those beliefs are largely adopted from the parents.

In terms of children voting, what that means is that the parents are vastly more likely to be the ones to decide who the child votes for.

the second qualification, is an apparent ability to actually vote. taking your statement literally... it should be noted that infants have a grasping reflex that causes them to hold whatever is placed in their hand.

It's utterly nonsensical that you would expect strangers to be able to adequately assess whether a child has the capacity to understand the implications of their vote, as well as ascertaining whether an expressed desire to vote is genuinely from the child, or from undue influence from those around them. And pushing this point a bit further, to also ascertain whether or not that child is truly voting for how they see things- or if their parents are some how coercing that choice.

All of this leads, then to questions about if that child is being coerced to vote outside their best interests by their parents or some other adult.

Further, to your assertion that children don't have representation. again: they do. and that representation is (presumably) elected. What they do not have is the ability to participate in the deciding who that representation will be. unless you live in some authoritarian hellhole, it's unlikely that those representatives would refuse to hear the concerns of children (or indeed, teens), where they would not refuse an adult.

Nice ad hominem, though.

this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2024
146 points (98.0% liked)

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