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The argument about age is that you need to be of a certain age to make these decisions. Not because you shouldn't have the right, but rather because you don't h
by bayesian_horse 4y ago
The argument about age is that you need to be of a certain age to make these decisions. Not because you shouldn't have the right, but rather because you don't have the facilities yet to "rule yourself and others". And the cutoff point is arbitrary.
- skissane 4y agoBut an arbitrary cutoff point is arbitrarily denying the right to those who do have those faculties–maybe the average 15 year old lacks them (although where is the evidence to support that claim?), but even if that's true, certainly some 15 year olds are more intelligent/well-informed/mature than average, and likely some of those 15 year olds have greater "faculties to rule" than many people far older than them do. If, as you claim, democracy really means "all the people rule", then an arbitrary rule that no 15 year old can vote is incompatible with democracy, hence democracy nowhere actually exists at present.
- bayesian_horse 4y agoYou suffer from extreme black and white thinking. There can either be full democracy or no democracy, right? In reality there are blemishes, deficits in a democracy. Some are quite minor, like an extremely well educated 15 year old not being allowed to vote. More serious: foreign nationals who live in the same country aren't allowed to vote despite paying taxes and being subject to the laws. More serious still: Minorities and in general "Democratic" voters are kept from turning out by discriminative voter suppresion. That's a deficit on democracy. Or when you incarcerate a ton of people, especially with racial preference. Or when you take away bodily autonomy from women with a ban on abortion, when men cant get pregnant and have more ways to extricate themselves of those consequences. Black and white thinking is not the way