• Wirlocke
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    1 month ago

    People like Mr.Beast gain their massive success from producing overstimulating content that attracts a forever young audience that doesn’t recognize the basic manipulation and scams that he employs.

    This is what politics would turn into if we earnestly let kids vote. Manipulating child audiences is practically a science now.

    Even discounting that, in 2016 when I was 16 I was a “both sides are bad” centrist type. I simply didn’t have the roots to consider how things like basic public policies would affect me personally. You need some grounded experience in order to realize that the things on screen will affect you and your community directly.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      1 month 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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        1 month 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.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          1 month 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
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          1 month 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.

        • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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          1 month 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
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        1 month 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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          1 month 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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        1 month 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.