Teenagers in Belgium must vote in upcoming European elections, the country’s constitutional court has ruled - ten days before the deadline to register to vote.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/J7L6B

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    My feeling is if you’re judged old enough to vote, you’re old enough to drink, and you’re old enough to join the armed services, and be tried as an adult. If you’re not adult enough to do one of these things, why are you old enough to do the other(s)?

    You’re welcome to have all the political opinions you want at any age, but voting is something that should be taken with as much seriousness as the other items on that list.

    • bbuez@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      And yet the US’s (typical) drinking age is 21, opposed to voting at 18, and driving at 16. Driving likely because its necessary for any sort of mobility, and drinking because we’ve deemed that some adults are too young to drink, but are old enough to own a firearm and be recruited to the military. Its arbitrary

    • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      It’s because we used to draft 18 year olds to fight in the Vietnam war and they couldn’t vote until 21 in many States at the time

    • peg@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      If voting needs to be taken so seriously surely you should need a certain level of education before you can vote. For instance, only people with a humanities degree.