Folks, it’s not about how smart/easy to manipulate they are. Your average adult voter is a pretty dumb shit too. We very specifically do not test for intelligence, education, critical thinking, knowledge, or anything else when people get the right to vote. Because none of that is the point. The point is that people have a say in how their government is formed and who runs it, regardless of their status. French peasants were pretty dumb too; were they wrong to seize the government from hereditary aristocrats? Ultimately, when classes of people don’t have a say in how their government runs, they end up oppressed, and/or they find a different (usually violent) way to affect things. Give the damn teenagers a vote. It’s not like they’re worse than your average right-winger.
Folks, it’s not about how smart/easy to manipulate they are. Your average adult voter is a pretty dumb shit too. We very specifically do not test for intelligence, education, critical thinking, knowledge, or anything else when people get the right to vote. Because none of that is the point. The point is that people have a say in how their government is formed and who runs it, regardless of their status. French peasants were pretty dumb too; were they wrong to seize the government from hereditary aristocrats? Ultimately, when classes of people don’t have a say in how their government runs, they end up oppressed, and/or they find a different (usually violent) way to affect things. Give the damn teenagers a vote. It’s not like they’re worse than your average right-winger.