news
Welcome to c/news! Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember... we're all comrades here.
Rules:
-- PLEASE KEEP POST TITLES INFORMATIVE --
-- Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed. --
-- All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. --
-- If you are citing a twitter post as news please include not just the twitter.com in your links but also nitter.net (or another Nitter instance). There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/ or archive them as you would any other reactionary source using e.g. https://archive.today/ . Twitter screenshots still need to be sourced or they will be removed --
-- Mass tagging comm moderators across multiple posts like a broken markov chain bot will result in a comm ban--
-- Repeated consecutive posting of reactionary sources, fake news, misleading / outdated news, false alarms over ghoul deaths, and/or shitposts will result in a comm ban.--
-- Neglecting to use content warnings or NSFW when dealing with disturbing content will be removed until in compliance. Users who are consecutively reported due to failing to use content warnings or NSFW tags when commenting on or posting disturbing content will result in the user being banned. --
-- Using April 1st as an excuse to post fake headlines, like the resurrection of Kissinger while he is still fortunately dead, will result in the poster being thrown in the gamer gulag and be sentenced to play and beat trashy mobile games like 'Raid: Shadow Legends' in order to be rehabilitated back into general society. --
view the rest of the comments
High schoolers are very much aware of the state of politics and also seriously impacted by it. Shouldn’t the people most impacted by school boards, who absolutely have the capacity to understand what school board members are doing, have a say in who those members are?
I think you’re really underestimating the capacity and life experience of teenagers. They’re people. Especially if you’re not just looking at upper middle class white teenagers. A lot of 14 year olds have jobs. Like not even just under the table stuff, like W2 employment. If you’re having taxes taken out of your paychecks that you earn you should 100% be allowed to vote.
I don’t think 14 is an unreasonable line to set, and I think anything above 16 is deeply unjust. Many countries have 16 as the voting age, including Cuba, Brazil, Austria, Argentina, and most of the UK’s weird territories like Jersey and the Isle of Man.
Ultimately I don’t even really think there’s a serious downside to letting any and every resident of the country vote. Regardless of citizenship status, regardless of age, regardless of felony status. Prisoners currently in prison should be able to vote. 5 year olds should be able to vote. Why not? It hardly matters, and it’s not like the 5 year olds demographic is gonna be making serious swings in polling.
Yeah sure, but you can take that argument further, why not a 13 year old, why not a 12 year old etc.. at some point you have to make a call on the maturity of a child in their ability to be decision makers who can make a sensible decision. As an alternative, I think youth councils who can feed into decision making in a real way (not a patronising toothless way) are a very good thing to feedback into the decision making system.
To turn your argument the other way though, should 85 year olds who are the most likely to be in receipt of social care and health care not have a say in how society provisions it? Additionally many old people are in work and paying taxes, surely they should get a say?
I don’t think 16 is a stupid age at all. Definitely a good argument to be made for that. Same with anyone paying taxes from their pay. In the uk that would be 16 - I can’t speak for the USA.