It can either go terribly wrong or terribly right.
This either makes the far-right radicalize teens at an earlier age, or finally schools no longer will be for 50+ year old bitter people who want the younger generation suffer.
If the young crowd in the US is any indicator, the influence of right-wing propaganda could be very worrying.
For all twelve 16 year olds who actually care about voting
Edit: Not to say they shouldn’t be, this comment was not meant as gatekeeping, more so that the youth typically have little interest in voting, which is a huge problem.
I would make a counterargument and raise the age of being legally an adult to 21, or at least do not allow anyone to drink alcohol and do not allow anyone to drive a car before turning 21. There is a lot of tragedy that could be avoided just by doing that.
Not gonna lie, I don’t think that I was mature enough at sixteen for my opinion to have mattered on a macro scale.
When my son turned 16 and my daughter was 18 I had that discussion with them, as I’m a supporter of being allowed to vote with 16.
My 16y old son was against it “Look at all my friends, they don’t inform themselves and everyone would been voting for some shit party that promises something”
My answer to that is, most people do. “Being qualified” is not a condition for being able to vote. Yes, there’s a line you cross when you grow up, a toddler obviously can’t vote yet, an adult can.
But in the end it’s arbitrary where you put that line and by moving it down to 16 you can “a bit” influence the relative large weight of older generations in elections.
When I vote, I’ll have to live with the consequences for 30y in the best case before I’m worm food. For my kids the number is over 60y.
So regardless of “how qualified to vote” you are, moving down the election age changes the decision making to be of longer term and less of short term.
Most people aren’t mature enough their entire lives, but we don’t filter them out.
I know I wasn’t mature enough, but if being well informed, politically conscious and sensible were a prerequisite for voting, we’d be living in a very different world. As far as I’m concerned, this is most likely to change things for the better.
I was the weird kid who was more politically informed than the average adult, but I’d read the newspaper daily since about 12 or so. Maturity IDK but there are many adults that are less mature than I was.
Well good news, because the opinion of the electorate counts for shit in any case, whether they can vote or not.
At best we can choose the colour of the tie of the conservatives in charge.
In any case, a quick look at any town’s “Spotted” Facebook page should be enough to convince you that most adults aren’t really a lot more functional than teenagers. They’re just better at hiding their insecurity. People on mine went crazy for Reform. Reform got in (Derbyshire County Council). Reform closed a local community centre. The response: Why have Labour done this?
As a normal person, all I can do is run to one side to try and balance the Titanic, but if it’s going to sink, it’s going to sink.
Im 60 this year and feel the same now. I don’t know shit, so not sure i should be asked to vote.
I think being granted the right to vote at that age would have made me care enough to educate myself on some of the nuance. But I would also not describe myself as a typical meatbag.
“The government said it was a reform to bring in more fairness for 16- and 17-year-olds, many of whom already work and are able to serve in the military. It brings the whole of the UK voting age to 16. Scotland and Wales have already made the change for Holyrood and Senedd elections, as well as local council elections.”
Great logical reform.
Until they decide to troll vote.
You know that impulse control doesn’t fully develop till ones twenties
Like Brexit? Damn all those 16 and 17 voters.
Oh wait, they weren’t part of that.
Mm hmmm. So where did I say any of that? and your argument is poor. 16 and 17 year olds were not legally able to vote so you have no data to back up your outburst
You’ve missed their point.
No. They made no point. What they did was blame the poor showing in that vote on older people. That isn’t what I said at all.
Said nothing about brexit, nor does the reply to me address anything I posted.
So no. You and they have missed the point.
They didn’t even say that! As they said: you missed their point. Congrats on doing so openly :)
Removed by mod
Would Reform undo it I wonder? This does smell a bit of gerrymandering as young people split leftwards
“I oppose democracy unless it aligns with me”
— this chudd
Lol, not at all. I’m worried Reform (who are looking possible to take the government next) would reverse this decision. A very regressive move imo. But not unlikely
As a young person that vividly remembers what I and people around me were like at that age, I really don’t think that we should have been allowed to vote. Optimal age for maturity would probably be around 20.
Great. Let the red pill kids vote.
That is beyond stupid. Hell our brains aren’t fully developed at 18 , at 16?
oh don’t tell me you believe in that debunked your-brain-is-fully-developed-at-25 pseudoscience.
No you rude shit. I believe in the science involved in brain formation, maturity and it’s response to nature and nurture
You?
I also believe in the science. That’s why I don’t believe in the developed-at-25 myth. If you look it up online you can see it’s been widely rebuked. Here’s an article from the BBC for instance.
Apologies for the rudeness.
The brain development at that age does allow for far more nuanced decision making, but I agree. The brain developed and decays constantly and differing rates, from my limited understanding , but I do believe that PEAK decision making capabilities don’t occur until an average age that probably is between 25 and 35. But again that’s not basing it solely on ,“brain development”. I should have been more precise.
And, water under the bridge
I’m still not convinced about this. I have known many teenagers who are more adept than me at making mature decisions (late 20s). So I think we all mature at different rates. I don’t especially believe that there’s a magic time in ones 20s where one becomes especially mature. And if there is, it is likely only a couple % higher in maturity points than at other times in one’s life.
Still, this magic 25 number appears a lot when people are trying to advocate for removing rights from young adults. Like for instance, saying trans people have to be at least 25 to transition. I’m always skeptical of it.
It’s always the far right that’s trying to lower the age. I think that says enough.
The right are trying to disenfranchise voters. Lowering the voting age is s classic leftist move
I’ve never heard of this before. Where else is this the case?
I’ll believe it when I see it
