Comment on Voting compulsory for 16 and 17-year-olds in Belgium, court rules

reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• BenGFHC@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I don't get why people use 'is allowed to get killed for our country' as a measure of whether someone is old enough to play a part in general society, think critically, or have political opinions.

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  • reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨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)?

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    • bbuez@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨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

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      • reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        True. And I think all of these things should be set to the same age limit in the US.

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    • Uranium3006@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨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

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