southsamurai

Definitely an unpopular opinion, but it's one that's catching on for sure. Great post, no sarcasm.

Well, we don't get a lot of easy to find news on Iraq here in the US. You have to go looking for it.

That being said, with the little that I have gone looking for, it really seems like the people of Iraq are busting their asses to recover, and have shown incredible resilience in the face of so much destruction that hit them in the last fifty years. It's impressive as hell tbh.

But mislabeled!

It's been a pleasant disagreement :)

That's the kind of disagreement that is best.

Edit: also, my apologies. When I saw this earlier, I was on my phone and fat-fingered the down vote. I corrected that. Not that votes matter, but this far down a thread it can seem like disrespect.

Dude. You know what I'm talking about, don't pretend otherwise

So, all I have to do is pump my semen into enough women, get them knocked up, and have thirty votes? Awesome! I'll be my own bloc!

No, no citizen whatsoever should be able to cast the votes of other citizens, period.

If the kid can't get in the voting booth by themselves, cast their own vote without assistance, then they aren't voting, someone else is.

Eh, when you scroll down to "steering members", it starts to look a lot less attractive.

In that regard, they already have representation by their parents' votes. All it would achieve is giving parents outsized voting power.

Man, it's a tough one.

In theory, nobody should be disenfranchised by age at all. But at what age would they be able to vote, as in understand what to do, how to do it, and do so without adult supervision?

Until they reach that point, it's essentially their parents or guardians getting an extra vote.

And then you have to look at other things we limit minors on by virtue of not being able to make informed decisions. So, would we go with driving age, since that's when we trust them with a ton of death machine? Drinking age? Age of consent for sex (which isn't always 18)?

If we change it away from 18 to lower, showing that they have the full rights of any citizen, why don't they get those other rights with enfranchisement? Why is someone able to vote like someone that has the ability to make an informed choice, but they can't drink? Hell, that's already a problem since 18 year olds can be sent to fight and die in the military, but can't have a beer legally.

I would be fine with 16 being the age of majority for everything if the individual wanted it. You wanna step into adult life, with all the rights and responsibilities, I don't have an objection to that at 16. I had too many patients that were married and working before 18 to pretend that it isn't realistic for someone that age to step into adulthood. I don't think it's the best choice, but I wouldn't fight it if the world decided that way.

I could definitely made an informed decision for voting at 16. I had access to alcohol, and was able to make the decision to not use it, same with tobacco. I had access to sex, and made the decision to make it safe sex. I was a decent driver, and didn't have even a fender bender until I was 19, and I wasn't the one that caused it then. All of the stuff that we limit to "adults", I know I would have been fully capable of making informed and conscientious decision about any of them.

But I also knew other teenagers that were absolute morons that couldn't be trusted not to jerk off in the school bathroom. I knew 16 yos that wrecked cars and put other people's lives at risk in the process. So I'm okay with the age of majority being 18 too; some of those morons would just flip a coin for their vote, and the mock votes we'd have in school were laughable across the board.

Not everyone can make an informed and conscientious decision at 30, much less 18.

So I don't really think it needs to change, but I agree with you that it sucks that it's so arbitrary.

Just wait until they find out what they did to the jockstraps Hezbollah ordered last month

I've heard similar a lot. Not necessarily the exact phrasing you used, but close enough when it wasn't essentially a difference in which term was used instead of "stupid"

But I agree. Pretty much any drama is stupid to at least a small degree, because drama is stupid. You handle a problem, or you don't; drama is just being loud for attention, be it from the people involved, or hangers on.

The scale doesn't even matter. Small scale family drama is just as stupid as drama around a singer, or some YouTube talking head.