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

politics

19097 readers
2926 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world -2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

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 18 points 3 months ago (4 children)

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.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 1 points 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.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 points 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.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 points 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.

[–] MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 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.

[–] Wirlocke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

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 1 points 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 2 points 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.