Asklemmy

43968 readers

793 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

What do you think the voting age should be? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago by hellabryanstyle@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

125 comments fedilink hide all child comments

About two years ago now, I was sitting on a bench in Central Park writing my initial thoughts on what I didn't know then but would come to know as Youth Rights.

I don't think I'll ever remember why she did, but about halfway through the day Greta Thunberg came to mind, and I looked up the voting age in Sweden. And my blood boiled in a way I've never experienced in my entire life.

16 years old and one of the most famous and recognizable political activists in the world. 16 years old giving a confident, impassioned, admonishing speech to the fucking UN. 16 years old with no legal right to a voice in her country. No voice to vote for the policies she believed in or the people who might enact them.

My writing, already vitriolic to a fault, managed to become even moreso but with the topic abruptly switched to voting. For the first time in my life, I considered where I'd place the voting age if I could do so unilaterally. Not long into considering it I had a thought that I wrote down immediately, a question I've asked well over 100 times at this point with no substantial answer:

When is it reasonable to say to a person, 'If you're not at least this old, then I don't give a fuck what you think'?

And from the moment I had that thought, I have been unable to place the voting age.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz -4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Parents should be allowed a vote on behalf of their children until their children reach whatever age the jurisdiction allows independent voting.

[–] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Hmm, I'd be wary to parents taking advantage of this.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

As opposed to billionaires just buying politicians?

Parents somehow "taking advantage" isn't the problem.

It's not like someone can just pop out 100 children to skew votes.

[–] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It's not like someone can just pop out 100 children to skew votes

On an individual basis sure, but this still poses two problems:

Is there a group of people that typically vote a certain who are prone to having more children than other groups. Due to different cultures, this is likely true.
Why should parents of children get an extra vote over those who can't have children? Personally I feel that having had children should bear no influence on the power of your voice.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I agree that it's unfair that it underrepresents childless people, and over represents large families.

What annoys me is that a very large portion of the population is disenfranchised (but still taxed in my country). Children have the most to lose, they're voting with an 80-year view, the oldies are voting with a 5 year view.