Shut Up And Listen 201

Fuck The Vote

A couple weeks back, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear a case involving two youths who were trying to get the right to vote in a municipal election in Alberta. They were 16 in 2001 when they started this case and now, it's over. The Supreme Court will not be hearing the case and thus making an official judgment on the voting age. The strange thing is that Canada is a country that has been very proactive in making sure anyone can vote: convicts and the mentally challenged being the most high profile cases where the right to vote was upheld. The fact that the case isn't going to be heard is strange, I think.

Of course, this leads to the question "should the voting age be lowered?" And my gut instinct is to say no. Yeah, we want young people to vote and maybe lowering the voting age would help, but that's bullshit. There are some teens who would vote, but let me ask you: when are people at their most apathetic? WHEN THEY ARE TEENAGERS! Lower the voting age and you'll see how many people young people vote: around twelve. It would just look pathetic. Or worse yet: they'd make the kids vote. Have little field trips to the voting booths or something. That's the last thing you want to do.

There's also the worry of parents manipulating their children even more than they already do. I mean, the younger kids get, the easier to manipulate and push around. The logical progression of challenging the voting age of 18 would lead to there being no voting age. That would be the true democracy and suddenly it would become one vote per person plus however many kids under twelve you have basically. It would be horrid.

I can understand the two former sixteen-year olds' point of view as I was the same way. Hell, I was fucking pissed off when there was a federal election literally two months before I turned eighteen. That annoyed the fuck out of me because I was more politically aware than ninety percent of the adults I knew. But it doesn't matter what you do, there will be negative aspects to it.

Also, fuck voting. That's sacrilege these days, I know, but fuck it. Voting sucks ass. I've done it a few times and it has made zero difference. I'm young, I vote idealistically, so obviously my people never win. Let's be honest, let younger people vote and they'll stop voting sooner when they see how little difference one vote makes. You're never going to get young people to vote in droves. I know young people and they don't care and voting is just stupid enough to not excite them. It's checking a box on a piece of paper. Who cares? Fuck it. Democracy sucks anyways.

That's all. Short one, I know, but that's it. Later.